US Income tax breaks for higher incomes - Are there any?
 

The other thread about being over $150 canadian prompted this. What are the best things to do in the US? I have a LLC which does almost nothing for me. Once you get over $125k, they start phasing out everything. Real estate, mtge deduction, health care etc. So what am I missing. Yes I have a tax accountant and tax attourney. So far they say pay up.

:(

ya that is what I keep hearing. pay pay pay. I want to put my money into some sort of asset that I can deduct rather then pay taxes on it.

Move? :)

maybe consider breaking a biz into few smaller parts to stay below that 125k thingy?

well the 125k thingy is where it hits my 1044. I own real estate and it makes money so part of it is tax free but not like the old days where your regular income got sheltered.

You lose the Roth IRA which is pretty fucking unsexy anyways as I am not looking to retire. I just want to pay less tax. Anything beside alpacca farming that looks good?

Get paid in cash

well then consider offshore.

Nope but would like to know more.

:winkwink:

Just a heads up but those looking offshore. Be careful if it is a tax dodge.

I am not in the mega bucks here but people always say the rich do not pay taxes. Well what the fuck do they do?

Most of the tax benefits for the high income range in the US come only with passive income streams not money you go out and work for day to day. The only real tax benefit for actively working for a high income is that payroll taxes are phased out at 90k. That is you pay no payroll taxes on income over 90k. That is a real sweet deal if you have a high income (over 250k). To get other big tax breaks in this country you basically have to have been born rich (inherited your money) or you have to have a high enough income for a long enough time to stash away a significant pot of money which will allow you at some point to live off your savings and not your work. For example if you were able to save $2,000,000 you could put that money in some sort of tax exempt investment fund (like government bonds) and live off the $120,000 in interest (assuming 6% average return) it generated per-year and owe no Federal Income taxes or Payroll taxes on the $120k.

Offshore is useless unless you plan to leave the U.S., renounce your U.S. citizenship and plan to never return. Read your last tax return and note the question about do you own any shares or any interest whatsoever in a foreign corporation. If you want the savings for offshore you are going to have to be willing to commit perjury on every U.S. tax return you file.

Get married and have at least 6 kids. That should help tremendously.

Yeah the payroll tax break is a big one.
If you're an LLC you can pay yourself a salary of say 50K, on which you have to pay the 15.3% payroll tax (social security and medicare) and the rest of your money you can take as a "dividend" which is subject to income tax but not the payroll tax.

I save 9-10K a year in taxes being set up this way.

Also if you're an LLC you can set up a single person 401K and fund it with up to 40K per year tax free. (Check with your accountant for the exact number..I'm pretty sure it's in the 40K range)

All of the tax benefits out there these days are meant to encourage savings, so if you're looking for a way to make a bunch of cash to spend you're S.O.L. But if you're willing to save for the long term you can avoid a lot of taxes.

I do this but I was told 15% of my earnings is the cap on keogh/ira/401 like thing). So $7500 in your example.

The other thing that was suggested is a annuity. Fund it now and at least it grows tax free until I need it.

And for the person above. I have passive income. It is not any easier to shelter.

On a single person 401(k) you're allowed to put the first 14K of your salary into it, and then you're allowed to do a company contribution of up to 25% of your company's profits, for a total of up to 40K.

Now the 14K may be the deal with 15% of your salary up to 14K per year...but then you have the company match also.
Check with a tax advisor for details....this is something I heard recently on the "Start Late Finish Rich" audio book. I still have to ask my accountant about it.

http://www.401khelpcenter.com/mpower...re_070502.html

http://www.smartmoney.com/fp/index.cfm?story=0904401k

A little more info there.

There are some catches, it's kind of tricky if you have any employees, but if you don't it's a sweet deal.
Also, according to the smart money site you can put 40K a year into a SEP-IRA as well.

Under these guidelines, an individual under age 50 with earned income of $100,000 who is the sole employee of an incorporated business could contribute a maximum of $25,000 to a SEP-IRA, $12,000 to a SIMPLE IRA, and $38,000 to a solo 401(k) (consisting of a $13,000 salary deferral plus an employer contribution of $25,000). Someone with $150,000 in W-2 income could contribute as much as $37,500 to the SEP-IRA, $13,500 to the SIMPLE IRA, and $41,000 to the solo 401(k).

I'm no authority in this, so this might be coming straight from my ass. Take it with a big ol' grain of salt. :thumbsup

I was given to understand that dividend income was no longer going to be taxed federally, or at least it'd be taxed at a far lower rate than it was. Is this true?

If so, then perhaps you can issue dividends to yourself. I know that an LLC has certain limitations compared to that of a full corporation, but if you have the ability to issue share families, it might be worth it to issue yourself shares and pay dividends on those shares. It certainly pays off biiiiiiiiiig up here. :winkwink:

Yep, it is taxed much lower. I would need to change to a normal corporation to take advantage of it. Thinking of doing that.

And guys thanks for that other stuff. I need to get my act together on this.

Ok, I know so little about taxes and corporate taxes its ridiculous, but I will say that I am very pleased with what my tax guy does for me. I have a "regular" corporation, I believe its a C class but honestly I don't remember without double checking. You may want to talk it over with your accountant and see what he thinks.

My dad recently setup a corporation for his properties and he went with the same corporation type.

Sly does it file it own taxes? Very few people go C on Real Estate. The bad news on the C is I would pay taxes on its income then spit out dividends and pay taxes on that income. My salary would not be taxed twice so using some of the stuff above would solve some of the bite there and live on the dividends.

The shitter is the state i live in is stupid as hell. Pretty much stuck here but we have a 8% state tax just to give a kick when you solve the fed side of things.

Hmm... ok, maybe I shouldn't have posted afterall, haha. I could be wrong about my dad.

Anyway! I have a C instead of a LLC and I have been happy with it so far.

When will losing your money gambling be a right off?

the tax brackets on a c corp on not that much better then a regular person. crazy deal or I got the wrong schedule.

When this thread applies to me, I'll let you know.
:(

I have an S-Corp.... saves a bit on the payroll taxes over an LLC.

And yeah on the Sep IRA thing...but in my case it all comes off on the corp side.. it was $41K for 2004 and was $40K in many of the years before that.

With an S-corp you pay yourself a set salary which comes off the bottom line (including ss and medicare taxes), file an informational return with no tax payment on the corp. Net income passes over to the individual through a Schedule E. The net income is not subject to self-employment taxes.


(was going to edit the above post but my 3 minutes ran out)

I can do the same thing with a LLC. Take a salary and pass the rest around the SE tax. Pretty big savings right there.

Was looking at a c corp but wow they nail you on the corp taxes. Then a dividend tax ouch. But the corp could invest in real estate or other things and not pass on the cash. Company car etc. So there is some stuff I could do. Trying to restructure in a tax efficient manner.

I usually post plan taxes in that i work 364 days to make cash and then spend one day trying to avoid giving it all away.

well the laws around LLCs are being changed in fact, while S-Corp are safe so far

You can write off your losses up to the amount of wins you are claiming...

:winkwink:

Actually you can be an LLC and elect to be taxed as an S-Corp.

That's what I do.

On the SEP IRA thing, don't the contributions have to come from your salary and are only allowed to be a certain % of your salary?
I thought of doing the SEP thing, but in order to max the contributions I'd have to turn all of my income to salary and lose the break I get on payroll taxes by taking a small salary and the rest of the $$ as a dividend.

Epassporte :thumbsup

people that make over 100k a year shouldnt get any tax breaks, because those people can afford to pay them and still be comfortable.

Not sure I understand. LLC and s-corp both do not pay federal income tax. It passes through to the individual.
The SEP is capped as a percent per what i read too. But it is 15% and you can do a matching contribution. I am not a big fan of putting away money for retirement anyways so it might be a place to start.

The other stuff I have encountered. I am not being agressive enough in moving my expenses to the business. There is no reason not to have a company car, cell phone and health ins. I am chicken shit when it comes the IRS so i will check further but these are pretty easily done.

If I am just a regular webmaste working from home in front of the pc all day and
don't go on business trips/meetings ever, can I really get away "leasing" a company car if I'm not incorporated? I am curious how to justify that to the IRS, since I'm not a sales person driving around or whatever, how would I justify something like that? Can a webmaster who just works from home and stays home all the time really lease a car and write it off for business? I don't see how I could but it would be very nice though.

The whole principle of leasing stuff like cars is little less than loan sharking. It's just another scam to enable car manufacturers to move stock from the lot where the purchaser pays thru the nose for a product he/she will never own. Tho another "sales pitch" is the alleged tax advantages where real life is often way different.

Sure, leasing if fine if a company wants a bit of income-generating equipment (ie where the income exceeds the leasing cost), and they can dump it and get a replacement after X years.

Just read the tax codes.

If you have a corp, and are looking to put more than $40k/yr into a 401k or SEP, you might look into solo defined benefit plans. Upsides are higher caps for deductible contributions ($100k+) and ability to roll it into other retirement accounts after a set period (5 yrs?), downsides are it has to be in low-risk, low-yield investments until you roll it out, and higher admin/paperwork costs (this isn't a do-it-yourself retirement account). If you're nearing retirement (50+) and/or you actually want that much money invested conservatively, so much the better...if you're younger, I think you'd want to terminate the plan early and move the assets to other retirement accounts in a few years. This is just one approach. There are so many options and factors to consider that if you're earning a lot, you should seek professional advice.

You live in a country that gives u the ability to make a great living you should say I will gladly pay my share to be able to live a country that has given me so much. Thats why I say when I write the big fucking check.

Setup off shore, bill your US company from the off shore company, transfer the off shore money to gold, then move the gold (not traceable) to your own foundation, transfer the gold back to cash, have the foundations pay you.. Tax free money.

So with an SEP-IRA or single-person 401k, do you still have to pay taxes on the money it earns?

Thinking of going with this fund:
Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Fund
http://flagship5.vanguard.com/VGApp/...FundIntExt=INT

It automatically becomes more conservative (bonds) as you get older.

Yes, contributions reduce your current year's income tax, but you pay money on the earnings at the time of withdrawal. Still a very big net benefit.