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Thread: richest 1% got 82% of the wealth

  1. #31
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    I just want a good list of all the clever "loopholes" the rich use, as non of the fancy-schmancy tax lawyers I've ever hired seemed to be able to show me the Secret Sauce.

  2. #32
    Williamsmith
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    With all due respect Bae, you should be hiring lawyers from the firm of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.

  3. #33
    Senior Member Rogar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Williamsmith View Post
    Rather than focus on redistributing wealth I am in favor of Abolishing the IRS and replacing it with a simplified tax system which in part would eliminate tax shelters, loopholes, and all manner of taxable “income” manipulations that wealthier taxpayers who can afford to hire accountants and lawyers take advantage of. I would like to file my federal income tax on a postcard someday.
    I have liked that idea. It would be interesting for the bean counters to run the numbers and see how much revenue would be raised or what sort of deficits would occur. I suspect there might be rioting in the streets.

    Income manipulations and loopholes they may be, but it's pretty much semantics and they are not reserved for just the rich. They are just the tax laws we have been given. I have been below what ever the median income level is for my area and probably the country for the last several years, but I take advantage of the tax laws and don't consider it income manipulation. During my working years I contributed to a "tax deferred" IRA. Much of which I've rolled over into a Roth IRA, which has further tax advantages. I own mutual funds which will be taxed at the going rate of capital gains when I sell. I try to take further advantage of my tax deferred accounts by keeping fixed income interest that would be taxed at a higher rate than capital gains in tax deferred accounts. No lawyer, it's just my money and I want to maximize my income and have tried to educate myself. Although a lawyer might do better.

    I give money away to people who are doing good things and prefer that to giving to the government and the wasteful part of their spending and unnecessary military expenses. I live frugally and what ever is left after I'm gone will go to a good cause since my relatives are decently provided for. I know that my philosophy is probably different that people bent on large wealth accumulation, but there is also a common ground of wanting more control over where my money goes.

  4. #34
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    I just want a good list of all the clever "loopholes" the rich use, as non of the fancy-schmancy tax lawyers I've ever hired seemed to be able to show me the Secret Sauce.
    I suspect that if your finances were as complicated as trump’s and you obtained tax advice from his tax advisors you would learn of plenty of clever loopholes.

  5. #35
    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    I just want a good list of all the clever "loopholes" the rich use, as non of the fancy-schmancy tax lawyers I've ever hired seemed to be able to show me the Secret Sauce.
    Paul Manafort and Martha Stewart can probably give you some names, as well as Donald. And there is always Saul Goodman. He had great ideas for Walter White to launder money from illegal drug money.

    Years ago DH and I both had jobs that required uniforms and work only shoes. We had a tax preparer tell us we should buy these items by the case, sell to our coworkers in cash, and deduct the working expenses. He was full of ridiculous suggestions. We were amazed at how stupid Someone must be to risk so much for so little. We knew someone years ago who bragged he had increased the number of dependents on his tax returns and no one ever checked. Is it out of the realm of possibility that many small businesses who get paid in cash don’t report every cent? And Swiss bank accounts and offshore accounts? All totally legal?

    as Jesse Pinkman said, you don’t need a criminal lawyer you need a “criminal” lawyer.

  6. #36
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    You are describing not "loopholes", but "criminal activity". Probably why my tax attorneys didn't come up with that.

  7. #37
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    😄

  8. #38
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by flowerseverywhere View Post
    We knew someone years ago who bragged he had increased the number of dependents on his tax returns and no one ever checked.
    I remember reading somewhere that when the IRS started requiring people to put social security numbers of their dependents on their tax returns (back in the '80's I think) that the number of dependents claimed dropped by a noteworthy amount the following year. Makes one wonder how many cats and dogs had been listed as dependents previously.

  9. #39
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Since I have steadfastly used a buy and hold strategy with my etrade account the vast majority of my income is from my job. Most of my investment income is unrealized at this point (I do own a few dividend and royalty paying investments that I inherited from my father but the income is only a few thousand per year). As such there's not much I can do to minimize my taxes. All my earnings get reported to the IRS so there's no wiggle room really.

    A quick google search turned up this article: https://www.accounting-degree.org/accounting-tricks/ I personally would only use tax avoidance strategies that were considered to be absolutely above board, but I assume there are plenty of people willing to take advantage of ones that are in more of a gray area or even a downright black area if they determined that the likelihood of getting caught was low enough.

  10. #40
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Let’s see, a subtext of this thread is that we are pure but others are dastardly.

    in that vein, our tax preparer of 30+ years is pretty conservative because nothing has never been suggested to us that is weird although he did say some years ago man you guys need to find a way to reduce your tax liability. Since he is the guy who is supposed to suggest that stuff to us I didn’t really know where to turn and I pretty much ignored it. All that said, we were only in the, what is it, 25th Bracket. I think. I never really remember that but it wasn’t a high tax bracket we were in.


    DH worked out of our house but we never claimed home office exemption because it just wasn’t worth it, we didnt have a mortgage so there wouldn’t have been much to claim and honestly we didn’t meet the rule anyway which is to have space in your house that is used solely for that business purpose. We saw one of our friends get clobbered with a tax obligation when she sold her giant house because she had been using three rooms on the second floor as her business. It was legitimately used by her because she saw patients in her therapy practice, and she had to have a treatment room, a waiting room, and then she and her husband shared an office. But man that was a lot of taxes she paid out when she sold it, tied to her tax claims of that space as business use.

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