Questioning Your Cents

Welcome to Questioning Your Cents where you can get real-world, pragmatic tax & financial advice for business owners, entrepreneurs and independent contractors.

We are your hosts, Kevin Molen and Charles Steinmetz. Our job is to help people with education on how to manage your money and save on taxes. In this episode, we talk about how to avoid paying taxes and get the most out of your money.

Relevant points:

• Tax Deductions
• Tax Shelters
• 401(k)
• Real Estate
• Taxation of Rental Properties
• LLCs

[email protected]

www.molentax.com

Welcome to Questioning Your Cents where you can get real-world, pragmatic tax & financial advice for business owners, entrepreneurs and independent contractors.

We are your hosts, Kevin Molen and Charles Steinmetz. Our job is to help people with education on how to manage your money and save on taxes. In this episode, we talk about some tax and financial tips and how you should plan your financials over big life decisions.

Relevant points:

• Planning your income for the next few years is important so that you don't burn out your money
• Affording something does not mean being able to make the payments each month, rather it should include how that new expense fits within your budget to achieve your financial goals.
• Set up goals for the money you want to make and then work on how to achieve them
• Plan on how to get your children from the state of constant worrying to the state of self-independence
• You can push yourself to make small life changes that are not so bad for you and then from there you can push yourself and prove.
• Set achievable goals and planning appropriately
• Learn and apply the law based on your unique circumstances
• QBI (qualified business income) is 20% deduction on your business profits

Time Stamps:

00:01:00 - Introduction

00:04:00 - Changing the system

00:08:00 - Emotional vs Factual decisions

00:10:00 - The question of can I afford it?

00:13:00 - Know your numbers

00:15:00 - Knowing your numbers

00:18:15 - Continuous improvement

00:20:50 - Setting a goal

00:24:00 - getting rid of the asset

00:28:30 - Look at your numbers to make better decisions

00: 31:00 - Comfort zone (Q&A)

00:37:30 - QBI - what it is?

00:41:00 - Outro

Relevant links:

[email protected]

molentax.com

Welcome to Questioning Your Cents where you can get real-world, pragmatic tax & financial advice for business owners, entrepreneurs and independent contractors.

We are your hosts, Kevin Molen and Charles Steinmetz. Our job is to help people with education on how to manage your money and save on taxes. We hope you will use the knowledge from this episode on traditional IRA's, Roth IRA's and retirement accounts. We will discuss how they are different for each other and the factors to look out for when investing.

• The main idea of using these vehicles is when you retire you have a lower tax bracket and hence you save your tax money and get a high return
• The retirement vehicles do not matter as much how much money is invested or how it will perform, they are based on how you can enter and exit the system, which then changes your taxes.

Comparing the Vehicles:

Traditional IRA

1. You can always add money to the IRA but depending on how much you make determines if it can be considered as tax deductible or not
2. If you plan on making less money in after retirement (and a lower tax bracket) this can be a useful strategy
3. Traditional IRA's mean tax savings initially, but then the tax hits you again on a higher amount later on due to investment increases. If you are strategic and take out the money slowly, this could be advantageous
4. After inheriting a Traditional IRA money needs to come out over 10 years and will be taxed.
5. After you turn 72 you need to take out the money from the Traditional IRA, not all of it, but a required minimum distribution (RMD). This amount depends on many factors. If you own multiple Traditional IRA accounts, you can take money out of the poor performing account and write it out without touching the better performing accounts. Generally, the RMD amount is 3-5% of the total value of the account. If you don't take it out then there will be a penalty of 50% of RMD, which is a very high penalty.

Roth IRA

1. No tax write off can be done for money invested in a Roth IRA.
2. In order to withdraw money from  a Roth IRA, there is a minimum of 5 years that the account must be held and if you take the money out after you turn 59 then no penalty is applicable on that money taken out.
3. Money invested in a Roth IRA is taxed initially so no tax is taken after investment growth. This could mean huge tax savings if you plan on retiring at a higher tax bracket.
4. If you make more than $139k/year in adjusted gross income you cannot invest in a Roth IRA. If you are married filing joint, then the limit is $260k of adjusted gross income.
5. It is easy to transfer a Roth IRA to a child or spouse since the income has already been taxed, it will not be taxed again upon transfer.

401(k) Plan

1. This type of account is normally provided by your employer and automatically deducts from your payroll
2. The maximum that can be added is $24k annually
3. Compared to IRA, a401(k) can have a lot more money contributed
4. No income limitations
5. You can't take the money out until you retire
6. Need to be careful in how the 401k is investing as some 401(k) providers don't offer the best investment options

Contact us:

[email protected]

281-440-6279

Find us on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/molentax

https://www.instagram.com/molen.tax/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHFFst-BRli8M_aTyXhAuw

https://www.linkedin.com/company/molen-&-associates

https://twitter.com/molentax

https://www.molentax.com

http://questioningyourcents.com

Time stamps:

00:03:00 - Introduction

00:05:00 - What to look for in a retirement account

00:06:45 - Traditional IRA

00:15:55 - Roth IRA

00:22:15 - Roth vs Traditional IRA scenarios

00:26:00 - Inheritance of IRA's

00:31:40 - Required Minimum Distributions

00:39:15 - How 401(k) works

00:47:45 – Comfort Zone - Questions round

00:48:02 - Benefits of filing taxes early

00:52:00 - Paying taxes after the deadline

00:56:00 - Difference between Exemption, credit and deduction

01:00:00 - Outro

Welcome to Questioning Your Cents where you can get real-world, pragmatic tax & financial advice for business owners, entrepreneurs and independent contractors.

We are your hosts, Kevin Molen and Charles Steinmetz. Our job is to help people with education on how to manage your money and save on taxes. In this episode, we question the cents of the Federal Government.

Important Points:

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

New W4 form in 2020

Secure Act

CARES Act

Stimulus Checks

PPP – Paycheck Protection Program

EIDL – Economic Injury Disaster Loan

Unemployment

"Comfort Zone"

Best Budgeting Tips

Most commonly overlooked credits & deductions

Contact us:

[email protected]

281-440-6279

Find us on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/molentax

https://www.instagram.com/molen.tax/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHFFst-BRli8M_aTyXhAuw

https://www.linkedin.com/company/molen-&-associates

https://twitter.com/molentax

https://www.molentax.com

http://questioningyourcents.com

Welcome to Questioning Your Cents where you can get real-world, pragmatic tax & financial advice for business owners, entrepreneurs and independent contractors.

We are your hosts, Kevin Molen and Charles Steinmetz. Our job is to help people with education on how to manage your money and save on taxes. In this episode, we talk about why we have taxes and how our tax laws have changed over time.

Important Points:

Intro

Al Capone and taxes

Formation of the IRS

1986 – major tax reform

Bandaids in tax reform with every president

Simplification of the tax code

Taxes in an election year, tie between politics and taxes

Implementation of eFile

Tax bracket changes

2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Changes in Corporate tax rates

Changes in Child tax credits

Changes in standard deduction, itemized vs standard deduction

Loss of employee deductions

Tax rules while selling a home

"Comfort Zone"

When Should I form an S-Corp

Roth or Traditional IRA?

Outro

Important links in order of appearance:

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/al-capone

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/irs-history-timeline_march-2019.pdf

https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/house-bill/3838

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/tax/10/concise-history-tax-changes.asp

https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+vs+biden+tax+plan+comparison&rlz=1C1NHXL_enUS915US915&oq=trump+vs+biden+tax+plan+comparison&aqs=chrome..69i57.5438j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/election-2020-trump-vs-biden-on-tax-policy

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-news/fs-11-10.pdf

https://taxfoundation.org/the-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-simplified-the-tax-filing-process-for-millions-of-americans/

https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr1/BILLS-115hr1enr.pdf

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-provides-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teGrGCWpEMQ&t=72s

https://taxfoundation.org/why-corporations-pay-no-income-tax/

https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-child-tax-credit

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayers-should-know-the-difference-between-standard-and-itemized-deductions

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/selling-home-capital-gains-tax

https://molentax.com/llc-vs-s-corp-the-tax-implications-of-having-a-business/

https://molentax.com/to-roth-or-not-to-roth-that-is-the-question/

Contact us:

[email protected]

281-440-6279

Find us on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/molentax

https://www.instagram.com/molen.tax/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHFFst-BRli8M_aTyXhAuw

https://www.linkedin.com/company/molen-&-associates

https://twitter.com/molentax

https://www.molentax.com

http://questioningyourcents.com

Does the thought of a financial podcast summon images of your college accounting professor droning on and on in a too-warm lecture hall?

Well, it is time to ditch the flashback. Because this podcast is anything but boring. Questioning Your Cents takes the real-world experience of tax advisors of Molen & Associates who have taken a deep dive into more than 10,000 financial situations to help you stop and think about your finances.