Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast.
Speaker 2: Center, jack Armstrong and Joe, Katty Armstrong and Jackie and
Speaker 2: he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 3: The Ladies Only Blue Origin rocket launch, Katy Perry, Gail King,
Speaker 3: and Jeff Bezos's fiance Lawrence Sanchez became the first group
Speaker 3: of women ever to visit outer space. So then they
Speaker 3: came out of the capsule and Katy Perry, this must
Speaker 3: have been some ten minutes.
Speaker 2: You never know how much love is inside of you
Speaker 2: until the day you launched.
Speaker 3: Is it possible that Katie popped the mushroom ushers up there?
Speaker 2: That is just so stupid. I was just thinking.
Speaker 1: So this ended space explari exploration in the United States.
Speaker 1: We were the leaders in space exploration, were the only
Speaker 1: country they ever got to the Moon. And it ended
Speaker 1: because of these stupid stunts, because NASA got so caught
Speaker 1: up in the first woman, the first black person, the
Speaker 1: first transperson of whatever.
Speaker 2: And nobody cares about that crap.
Speaker 1: They think people care about that crap, But nobody cares
Speaker 1: about that crap. That doesn't inspire people. The actual, you know,
Speaker 1: accomplishing something is what inspired. So that killed the space program.
Speaker 1: Elon comes along and is all about actually doing things,
Speaker 1: and people get jazzed up again.
Speaker 2: You got Bezos, the other guy he's following in NASA's footsteps.
Speaker 2: Has Elon ever done a stunt launch of any kind?
Speaker 1: I don't think he has. I don't remember he gives
Speaker 1: his rocket it's funny names. But other than that, no, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember any of his launches being it
Speaker 1: looks like there's no purpose for this other than the
Speaker 1: first celebrity all female podcast or whatever thing.
Speaker 2: Get off.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are taking this seriously. Give us
Speaker 1: clip number twenty, Michael, Come on, This is David Muir
Speaker 1: on ABC News. Many people watch this show.
Speaker 4: Jack the star studded all female Blue Origin flight grew,
Speaker 4: including Katie Perry and Gail King, lasting off headed to
Speaker 4: the edge of space.
Speaker 2: Oh for crying it, lift off. It's amazing to me.
Speaker 2: Ohprah cried it, Lift off, you bully.
Speaker 1: It's amazing to me that mainstream media all these years
Speaker 1: has acted like these stunt space things matter to people.
Speaker 1: People don't care. They yawn at them. Big deal that
Speaker 1: nobody's interested in. That drives me nuts. That clip that
Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel had there. From Katie Perry.
Speaker 2: You never know how much love there is on earth
Speaker 2: until you lift off. What the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 1: You gotta play this clip twenty two Michael, listen to
Speaker 1: this hogwash? Would you you are officially an astronaut?
Speaker 2: How do you feel? I still can't accept that word.
Speaker 2: I just feel a renewed connection to everything in life
Speaker 2: and where we are, and I can't wait to go
Speaker 2: back out there.
Speaker 3: It is the highest high, and it is surrender to
Speaker 3: the unknown.
Speaker 2: Trust.
Speaker 1: Yes, I want somebody to come back and speak the truth.
Speaker 1: Sometime we went pretty high. We actually weren't in space.
Speaker 1: It was a lot like an amusement park ride.
Speaker 2: It was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: But no, I feel exactly the same as when I
Speaker 1: took off. I have no epiphanies or new view of
Speaker 1: humanity or anything like that, because that view is astounding.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's crazy. I knew the Earth was round,
Speaker 1: but you can see it from up there. The views
Speaker 1: are just gorgeous. No, you have to surrender to the unknown.
Speaker 1: It's the highest high. It's trust. Okay. I love this
Speaker 1: from Curtis Rotis and email. Uh, look, Kitty Perry is
Speaker 1: no more astronaut than Ham the chimp we launched and
Speaker 1: brought back live in nineteen sixty one. Just like riding
Speaker 1: in seat thirteen A on a Southwest flight to Albuquerque
Speaker 1: doesn't make an airline pilot.
Speaker 2: She was just a passenger. That's good. Yeah, when I'm
Speaker 2: on a Southwest flight, I am not a pilot now.
Speaker 1: And then, as you heard yesterday, it only seems right
Speaker 1: that as they reached the peak of their space journey
Speaker 1: and Earth was a beautiful marble in the distance, she
Speaker 1: sang Katy Perry saying, what a wonderful world. Just like
Speaker 1: ms King that brought me to tears. I guess I
Speaker 1: kissed a girl and I liked it didn't quite fit
Speaker 1: the moment. What a freaking clown show, writes Michael.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Katy Perry. Let's go to space.
Speaker 1: When Elon had that rocket come back down and he
Speaker 1: caught it with the big giant hands, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's freaking amazing and inspiring and wow. Sending Katy Perry
Speaker 1: and Gail King up isn't a nothing. And why does
Speaker 1: the media go along with it and act like it's
Speaker 1: a big deal.
Speaker 2: Embarrassing culture.
Speaker 1: Michael writes, I'm no longer pushing my two daughters to
Speaker 1: worry about the hard sciences. I told them just to
Speaker 1: have a best friend who's the queen of media. Write
Speaker 1: horrible pop songs are steal a millionaire from his wife,
Speaker 1: and they too can get to the edge of space.
Speaker 1: That's beautifully said. That's pretty snarky, beautifully said. Go ahead
Speaker 1: play twenty three Michael.
Speaker 2: Complete and utter joy and gratefulness. You can hear no
Speaker 2: dream is too wild.
Speaker 4: The moon was so beautiful, and that was like, I
Speaker 4: felt like that was a special gift just for me.
Speaker 1: You can't go through what we went through to look
Speaker 1: out for each other, to help each other and.
Speaker 2: Not be changed by that. Oh, I will never be
Speaker 2: the same. This experience is right, is second to being a.
Speaker 1: Mom, other than the reference to being a mom. They
Speaker 1: sound like high school girls. You can't go what we
Speaker 1: went through together, helping each other, being there for each
Speaker 1: other and not be changed by that.
Speaker 2: You two were.
Speaker 1: Strapped into a seat, then you floated around for like
Speaker 1: a minute, then you're get back in your seat. You're
Speaker 1: too old to say that sort of stupid crap. If
Speaker 1: you're a you know, a pop singer who's young. Okay,
Speaker 1: Hen stoned. Oh geez, I'm embarrassed for y'all. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: embarrassed for my kun.
Speaker 2: You can't all the love in the world you can
Speaker 2: feel at once when you play Oh.
Speaker 1: Shut up, it's the highest high. It's surrendered to the unknown. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right?
Speaker 2: Can I get back to work now? Speaking of which,
Speaker 2: Trump v.
Speaker 1: Harvard the latest battle the US is freezed, billions of
Speaker 1: dollars frozen, freezed, frozen.
Speaker 2: Why isn't it freezed? What a crazy language English is?
Speaker 1: Anyway, We the United States, froze billions of dollars in
Speaker 1: funding after Harvard says no, we are going to fight
Speaker 1: Trump's demands, and it's being portrayed on the left as
Speaker 1: a battle in favor of academic freedom, even though in
Speaker 1: our universities there is no academic freedom unless you're progressive.
Speaker 1: We will outline the battle as it stands right now
Speaker 1: for you in the next second. I think there were
Speaker 1: five news articles or opinion pieces in the New York
Speaker 1: Times today about what a horror this is that the
Speaker 1: Trump administration is out too to kill higher education. Stop research,
Speaker 1: is anti science's anti the free exchange of ideas. How
Speaker 1: dare they I uphold our faculty, and ninety eight percent
Speaker 1: of them, who're all progressives, agreed. We have the free
Speaker 1: exchange of ideas. I've got a great example to fit
Speaker 1: in with that that it just occurred to me yesterday too.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: What do you get for a forty thousand dollars a
Speaker 1: year gym membership? Not new thing is these very expensive
Speaker 1: gym memberships that you get a lot for Now, none
Speaker 1: of us are going to do a forty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: gym membership, but there are other more affordable examples and
Speaker 1: everything that comes with it.
Speaker 2: It might be the new thing. So stay tuned for.
Speaker 1: That interesting plus our favorite tax expert next segment to
Speaker 1: talk to us about what's new, what common mistakes happen.
Speaker 2: That sort of thing gets you learned up on your taxes.
Speaker 1: So Abraham Lincoln warn us that the United States will
Speaker 1: never be destroyed by an outside force, or at least
Speaker 1: not in the foreseeable future. And I agree with them
Speaker 1: there if we crumble, it will be of our own doing.
Speaker 1: And around here we believe quite sincerely that while various
Speaker 1: wars and negotiations are incredibly important, people are dying, it's
Speaker 1: not going to end the United States the trade war thing,
Speaker 1: the tariff thing.
Speaker 2: It might screw up the economy, It might.
Speaker 1: Be brilliant, might be a disaster, But either way, we
Speaker 1: will muddle on, straighten things out, and go forward in
Speaker 1: the future. I believe the rot in our institutions of
Speaker 1: learning K through PhD, where it's become a progressive factory
Speaker 1: to indoctrinate young people into hating their country and Western civilization.
Speaker 2: I think that could undo us.
Speaker 1: If we have generation after a generation of Americans who
Speaker 1: do not buy into the principles of this country and
Speaker 1: do not love it, we will fall apart as a country. Anyway,
Speaker 1: It's just a setting the scene headline. US phreezes billions
Speaker 1: in funding after Harvard says it will fight Trump's demands.
Speaker 1: You remember how Trump threatened Columbia and pen and a
Speaker 1: couple of other places and said, look, you got to
Speaker 1: follow federal law on hiring. You can't have these loyalty oaths,
Speaker 1: these dei statements, et cetera, or we're not going to
Speaker 1: fund your research anymore. And a lot of them came
Speaker 1: around and said, yeah, yeah, we see your point. Okay,
Speaker 1: we'll switch this around. We won't do this anymore, and
Speaker 1: we won't admit people based on race, because that's the law.
Speaker 1: Harvard has said, yeah, look at my well funded middle
Speaker 1: finger and said absolutely no to the Trump Administration's interesting
Speaker 1: that Columbia caved so quickly and Harvard is gonna fight it.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: Part of what happened was, and I should have included this,
Speaker 1: is that the Trump administration was horrified by the overt
Speaker 1: anti semitism of the Up with Hamas crowd and how
Speaker 1: they have been violating federal law over and over again
Speaker 1: with impunity at these universities because Up with the Palestinians,
Speaker 1: Up with Hamas is seen as a progressive cause and
Speaker 1: so actually I think as a door to get into
Speaker 1: the universities to force them to do what they ought
Speaker 1: to be doing.
Speaker 4: It.
Speaker 1: It's kind of handy, but so Harvard said money it
Speaker 1: would resist the Trump's administrations demands to change its governance
Speaker 1: structure over campus anti semitism concerns. Seeing the governments it's
Speaker 1: overstepping its authority. Hours later, the government announced a two
Speaker 1: point twenty six billion dollar freeze of Harvard's multi year
Speaker 1: grants and contracts, said Harvard President Alan Garber, one of
Speaker 1: two out of ten ivy leaved schools, that's led by
Speaker 1: a dude, because it's much more progressive to be led
Speaker 1: by a woman, a gay woman, if you can a
Speaker 1: gay black woman, if you can a black woman named gay.
Speaker 2: In the case of Harvard until.
Speaker 1: Fairly recently, back to the text anyway, Harvard President Alan
Speaker 1: Garber said, quote, the university will not surrender its independence
Speaker 1: or relinquish its constitutione utional rights.
Speaker 2: Trump administration said the school's response.
Speaker 1: Quote reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in
Speaker 1: our nation's most prestigious universities and colleges. That federal investment
Speaker 1: does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting, isn't it that? And that is absolutely
Speaker 1: undeniably true. We're talking about civil rights laws. You cannot
Speaker 1: beat a black man to prevent him from attending class.
Speaker 1: You cannot threaten a Jewish girl to terrify her out
Speaker 1: of the library. That is a civil rights enforcement issue,
Speaker 1: and Progressive America is standing staunchly in favor of keeping
Speaker 1: the Jews out in effect and conservatives out.
Speaker 2: Did you see uh?
Speaker 1: I don't want to get too bogged down on this,
Speaker 1: but did you see that a ven diagram thing that
Speaker 1: was making the floating around on social media over the weekend,
Speaker 1: where you had the far right is a circle, the
Speaker 1: far left is a circle, and fundamentalist Islam is a circle.
Speaker 1: And the one thing all three circles converge on is
Speaker 1: we hate Jews right in America, far right, far left,
Speaker 1: unlike the Jews and fundamentalist Islam.
Speaker 2: That's a problem, yeah, if you're Jewish.
Speaker 1: So the Trump Administration Task Force on Anti Semitism wrote
Speaker 1: to school earlier asking it to take nine actions quote
Speaker 1: that we regard as necessary for Harvard University's continued financial
Speaker 1: relationship with the United States government. Most of the demands
Speaker 1: concerned how the university operates. The government is asking for
Speaker 1: a comprehensive mask ban, as well as changes to governance, leadership,
Speaker 1: and admissions, and an end to DEI programs. Notably, the
Speaker 1: government is also seeking to reach into the classroom.
Speaker 2: Gets a little controversial.
Speaker 1: Here, demanding quote necessary changes be made to address bias,
Speaker 1: improve viewpoint diversity, and end ideological capture which fuel anti
Speaker 1: Semitic harassment.
Speaker 2: To task forces, letter said.
Speaker 1: I would like that stuff to happen, but I don't
Speaker 1: see how you can force that to happen without getting
Speaker 1: into a real dangerous territory.
Speaker 2: That is such an interesting question.
Speaker 1: If you have a ninety four percent progressive faculty in
Speaker 1: a school that gets any government funding whatsoever, conservative is
Speaker 1: not a protected class, right, It's difficult to make that
Speaker 1: into a civil rights issue with the teeth of the
Speaker 1: law behind you. Well, and it's an interesting conundrum. And
Speaker 1: you can see where if you allowed this, how out
Speaker 1: of control it could get. Who's going to define, you know,
Speaker 1: what the politics ought to be of the college at
Speaker 1: what percentage?
Speaker 2: And how do you enforce it?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Right, how do you define who's a conservative, who's a
Speaker 1: moderate conservative, who's a far right person? Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: it's opening a Pandora's box. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: something like that has to happen or it will tear
Speaker 1: the country apartment. Don't you feel like market forces are
Speaker 1: working at this right now? Where Yes, you know, a
Speaker 1: degree from Columbia and Harvard. I think there's lots of
Speaker 1: people in the country. They see that on a resume
Speaker 1: and they think, oh no, they don't think, yes, Harvard
Speaker 1: grad wants to work there. Do you think danger danger?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, I do think that and other
Speaker 1: schools are opening up and proudly proclaiming themselves to be
Speaker 1: actual centers of the free exchange of ideas, whether it's
Speaker 1: a University of Austin, North Carolina has got established a
Speaker 1: brand new college within the university. That's all about free inquiry,
Speaker 1: which is what the whole gd thing is.
Speaker 2: Supposed to be doing. Anyway.
Speaker 1: The headline in the New York Times, as Jack mentioned,
Speaker 1: Harvard's decision to resist Trump is ament is of moments
Speaker 1: momentous significance. Sorry, but a fight with the nation's oldest, richest,
Speaker 1: and most elite university is a battle to President Trump
Speaker 1: and is powerful. Ad Stephen Miller want to have I
Speaker 1: think that's actually true.
Speaker 2: Yep. But Elizabeth bum Miller.
Speaker 1: From Washington is talking about how the Trump administration is
Speaker 1: demanding all sorts of unreasonable things and controlling the university
Speaker 1: and how significant this is and wonderful blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that she also mentions, just
Speaker 1: point of interest, Harvard University is one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: years older than the United States. Yeah, has an endowment
Speaker 1: greater than the GDP of nearly one hundred countries. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's amazing and then finally, the Wall Street Journal was
Speaker 1: describing how this battle is being waged, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting. It has to do with a Health and
Speaker 1: Human Services official who's part of a little known government
Speaker 1: task force that's shaken elite universities, targeted billions of dollars
Speaker 1: in federal funding, taken on to Columbia and Harvard, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera. It's called the Task Force to Combat Anti Semitism,
Speaker 1: and the group's stated goal is to root out anti
Speaker 1: Semitic harassment at schools and on college campuses. But along
Speaker 1: the way, the task Force is taking on university culture
Speaker 1: more broadly in ways that echo the MAGA dreams for
Speaker 1: remaking higher education, including racial ending, racial preferences, and hiring
Speaker 1: and admission. But it's a very small part of the
Speaker 1: HHS that is kind of the tip of the spear
Speaker 1: doing this stuff. And I can't wait to watch this unfold.
Speaker 1: As I've probably over emphasized, I think it's one of
Speaker 1: the most important things going on in America today, even
Speaker 1: though it's under most people's radar.
Speaker 2: It' tosay, April fifteenth, It's tax Day.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk to our friend Steven Moskowitz tax
Speaker 1: attorney about the kind of state of taxes today and
Speaker 1: make common mistakes and things you should keep your eye on.
Speaker 1: Oof death and taxes, man, only two things you can
Speaker 1: count on on this planet. Can practically guarantee you'll get
Speaker 1: some good advice out of it, something you'll want to
Speaker 1: look into in your own finance. Maybe later we'll get
Speaker 1: to that dude who set fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion.
Speaker 2: That's an interesting story. Total Toildren, Armstrong and Getty Pappy
Speaker 2: tax today.
Speaker 1: Everybody, good news is whatever money you're given the government
Speaker 1: that you worked hard for, it's going to be spent
Speaker 1: wisely and in a way better than you could have
Speaker 1: spent it. Oh yeah, absolutely, you and your children and
Speaker 1: your needs.
Speaker 2: So I didn't hear the latest update. Do we have
Speaker 2: our guest or No?
Speaker 1: Not as yet? Okay, still efforting that. So here's something
Speaker 1: I don't know if we'll ever figure out.
Speaker 2: So we have.
Speaker 1: A higher tolerance right now in the country for political
Speaker 1: violence than we've had since the early seventies, I feel like,
Speaker 1: and we're getting more of it. But every example of
Speaker 1: it that happens, the person is crazy. So how does
Speaker 1: that fit together? Because crazy people are crazy. So I
Speaker 1: don't know how you fit that in with the zeitgeist
Speaker 1: or whatever. Does the zeitgeist reach crazy people? But anyway,
Speaker 1: the guy that set the Pennsylvania governor mansion on fire.
Speaker 2: Was completely nuts.
Speaker 1: Yet it fits into a pattern of more political violence,
Speaker 1: and we can talk more about that later. We'll get
Speaker 1: into the details of this guy's background.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a nut.
Speaker 1: Job, but first let's talk taxes with Steven Moscowitz, the
Speaker 1: founder and tax attorney at moscow at'z LLP. Long time
Speaker 1: a friend of The Armstrong and Giddy Show and advisor
Speaker 1: on matters tax as well.
Speaker 2: Steven, how are you doing great?
Speaker 4: My favorite day of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not mine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're the only one, but sore. You're always brimming
Speaker 1: with interesting tax talk. You love your job as much
Speaker 1: as anybody in America. So what's the top of mind
Speaker 1: for you today to communicate to the good folks?
Speaker 4: You know, there's so much haven't done your tax return
Speaker 4: by now? Don't be like in the movies, work until midnight,
Speaker 4: they get it out. Go on extension now, the extension
Speaker 4: and extension of time to file, not an extension of
Speaker 4: time to pay. But if you can't pay your taxes,
Speaker 4: don't make the mistake of not final return file it.
Speaker 4: Pay what you can and then you can do a
Speaker 4: monthly payment plan. And you know, I know in the
Speaker 4: movies the irs is portrayed as monsters, they're not. You know,
Speaker 4: like any large group, there's always a bad apple and
Speaker 4: there's always somebody great. But most of them are just
Speaker 4: doing their job. If you're reasonable with them, they'll be
Speaker 4: reasonable for you. You can work something out. You don't
Speaker 4: have to be afraid of it. You can work something out.
Speaker 4: That's what we do for people. But the bottom line
Speaker 4: is these problems are fixable. And I've seen over the
Speaker 4: years so many people. They go into hiding. They do
Speaker 4: these horrible things. They punish themselves, way worse than the
Speaker 4: government ever would, and there's no need for that. On
Speaker 4: the other hand, there's so many tax benefits. If you're
Speaker 4: a do it yourself or there's a lot of good
Speaker 4: things to read, you might also want to consider talking
Speaker 4: to somebody. There's so many advantages, especially if you're in business.
Speaker 4: You take a look at the fortune five hundred and
Speaker 4: that's one of the things that originally motivated me to
Speaker 4: become a tax attorney because you know, I was a
Speaker 4: CPA first, and then I watched these giant corporations making
Speaker 4: billions of dollars and legally paying little or no taxes,
Speaker 4: And how can that be? Our tax law is based
Speaker 4: on two things. One getting money from us. We all
Speaker 4: know about that one, but the other one. In a democracy,
Speaker 4: the government can't order us to do things, but they
Speaker 4: want us to do things because it's good for the economy.
Speaker 4: So how they get to do it They pay us.
Speaker 4: And that's the secret of all these tax deductions. There's
Speaker 4: all kinds of tax incentives. We see some ones like
Speaker 4: buying a house you get a tax deduction for mortgage
Speaker 4: interest in real estate taxes. You set up a pension
Speaker 4: for yourself, you get a tax deduction for that. There's
Speaker 4: so many benefits where if you have depreciation on machinery
Speaker 4: or buildings, there's ways to accelerate that and get way
Speaker 4: more if these huge deductions. Another thing, to me, the
Speaker 4: most beautiful words in the English language are a positive
Speaker 4: cash flow with a tax loss. Isn't it in your life?
Speaker 4: I mean, it brings it dear to the eye. It's
Speaker 4: so emotional to me. And the bottom line is there's
Speaker 4: so much there where you can you can benefit. And
Speaker 4: I mean there's benefits for everything. It's not just for
Speaker 4: its people, it's for everything. If you're on the lower
Speaker 4: into the income scale, the government gives you all kinds
Speaker 4: of benefits for you, for your kids, family members. If
Speaker 4: you're on the other end, there's ways that you can
Speaker 4: go up to your yachts and everything in between. The
Speaker 4: tax law has something for everybody in it. It's worth
Speaker 4: it knowing it's studying or going as somebody does. There's
Speaker 4: just so much there, and yet so many people treat
Speaker 4: it with despair and it's horrible. It's not you have
Speaker 4: to take a look at all the good things they're there.
Speaker 4: You just have to know about it.
Speaker 1: So we talk a lot about You've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about how the complexity of the tax code. I mean,
Speaker 1: if we're starting the tax code today, nobody would want
Speaker 1: to end up with what we currently have, even though
Speaker 1: it's so hard to change. But like when you started
Speaker 1: many years ago, how many pages or rules were there
Speaker 1: compared to today?
Speaker 4: All you know, I remember when I was in grad school,
Speaker 4: the professor actually went over that and he took it
Speaker 4: even back further where he basically showed us with his hands.
Speaker 4: He said, when he started in tax basically the tax
Speaker 4: law was and he opened his fingers to show us.
Speaker 4: Now he said today this is back when I was
Speaker 4: in school. He opened his arms. He said, that's not
Speaker 4: wide enough. And what happens is it's not just the law,
Speaker 4: it's the interpretations. A lot of what we do is
Speaker 4: we argue over what did the legislators and their infinite
Speaker 4: wisdom provide for us? And oftentimes the judges can't agree,
Speaker 4: and so many times will do a settlement because both
Speaker 4: sides say, well, we don't really know what they meant.
Speaker 4: So rather than have the judges aside, let's make a deal.
Speaker 4: And again you see judges disagreeing. You say, appeals judges
Speaker 4: disagreeing with trial judges. It's almost like nobody knows. It's
Speaker 4: a grand mystery, one of the mysteries of life. And
Speaker 4: going through this a cent that really is. I know
Speaker 4: how excited I get about tax law, but it really
Speaker 4: is that the mysteries of life, and in real life,
Speaker 4: it's not a black and white mathematical one plus one
Speaker 4: equals too, that's the right answers. It's like going into
Speaker 4: the museum and looking at the paintings and say, what's
Speaker 4: the most beautiful full painting here. It's a matter of interpretation,
Speaker 4: and there's so much of a tax fall like that.
Speaker 4: What the legislators mean. And when you argue TAXLW that's
Speaker 4: one of other things too. You try to thro what
Speaker 4: did they mean and you negotiate about it to try
Speaker 4: and figure out what they mean. That's something people don't
Speaker 4: realize about tax law. But that's part of the beauty
Speaker 4: of it, or at least the way the system works.
Speaker 2: So Stephen.
Speaker 1: In real life, the topic I've probably heard the most
Speaker 1: from people being confused about is if they're working remotely,
Speaker 1: part time or full time. They've got a home office.
Speaker 1: I've got a home studio. Can you deduct the equipment
Speaker 1: you buy? The chair you're sitting on? What are the
Speaker 1: pros and cons of the your Wi Fi because you're
Speaker 1: using it at home?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you may be able to, and what you have
Speaker 4: to watch out for. The most common is the home office.
Speaker 4: People say, can I deduct the home office now? In
Speaker 4: order to deduct it? The way you do it is
Speaker 4: you say, okay, if you use a portion of your
Speaker 4: home exclusively for business, you can deduct it. And even
Speaker 4: if you're at a studio apartment that's one room. Company you
Speaker 4: do that. The Taxkport has ruled is we use a
Speaker 4: portion of that room exclusively for business. You can do it,
Speaker 4: but you have to watch out. There's a downside to
Speaker 4: doing it. And the downside to doing is it converts
Speaker 4: that portion of your home from your principal residence, which
Speaker 4: has all kinds of tax benefits, into business property, which doesn't.
Speaker 4: So if you sell the house, then all of a
Speaker 4: sudden you learn about things you have to give back,
Speaker 4: like appreciation, recapture and other things. So if you're thinking
Speaker 4: about deducting home office, you can do it if you qualify,
Speaker 4: but you may not want to do that.
Speaker 1: Then we've never thought about the end when you go
Speaker 1: to sell your house and that that that's not a house,
Speaker 1: that's an officer selling, and here's the everything that goes.
Speaker 5: With that exactly. So the bottom line is it's kind
Speaker 5: of like medicine. This is a good medicine book as
Speaker 5: a side of which may or may not affect you.
Speaker 5: So we talk about that, and the bottom line is
Speaker 5: another thing that's.
Speaker 4: Really good for evil is if you're an independent contractor,
Speaker 4: you set up your own business and then you take
Speaker 4: pension deductions retirement, and there's so many benefits. You get
Speaker 4: a big tax deduction, and one of the things with retirement,
Speaker 4: like we're here, it is it's a POL fifteen and
Speaker 4: you say, well, these are all good things for next year,
Speaker 4: but there's some things you can still do. Suppose you
Speaker 4: put your return on extension today. There's many different types
Speaker 4: of pensions, most but not all of them provide for
Speaker 4: an exceptional tax plan because most things with tax plane
Speaker 4: you have to write the check by December thirty, first
Speaker 4: twenty four deductor twenty four. Not with most of the
Speaker 4: pension planets, so up to the time filing the return
Speaker 4: plus extension, which means suppose you put your return on
Speaker 4: extension today, that gives you half the year to set
Speaker 4: up the tension in twenty twenty five, fund it in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five, and then you can elect to deduct
Speaker 4: it from your twenty four taxes. So the bottom line,
Speaker 4: think about you earned money last year, you have another
Speaker 4: six months happy year to earn money, put it away
Speaker 4: for yourself, and take a deduction for last year twenty four.
Speaker 4: I mean, for me, this is just fascinating.
Speaker 1: So that would be like a small business person and
Speaker 1: had a really great twenty twenty four and is getting
Speaker 1: hammered with taxes. It can in effect shield some of
Speaker 1: that income from tax by putting it in a pension
Speaker 1: plan like retroactively.
Speaker 4: Ah. And when somebody gives you something nice, what do
Speaker 4: you say, thank you? Well, lawyer says more, I want more.
Speaker 4: And what happens is with the really great year you
Speaker 4: talked about with the pension plans, if you had a
Speaker 4: fantastic year, one of the things you can do they're
Speaker 4: so flexible, is you can make multiple plan year contributions
Speaker 4: in one calendar year and get a much much bigger
Speaker 4: deduction for that year. So suppose you are salesman or
Speaker 4: something else. You have big sale, you need a lot
Speaker 4: of money. What you want to do is you want
Speaker 4: to get looks that it was twenty four. He said,
Speaker 4: I'm looking at these taxes. I hate all these taxes.
Speaker 4: So you set up the pension plans. And by the way,
Speaker 4: you can have multiple pension plans in the same year.
Speaker 4: You set up multiple pension plans and then you make
Speaker 4: multiple plane near contributions in one calendar year. You get
Speaker 4: a gigantic deduction against that fantastic year, and that's one
Speaker 4: of the ways you don't pay taxes on it. Say
Speaker 4: this stuff really lives done.
Speaker 1: And then you end up taking it out years down
Speaker 1: the road when you're paying it a much lower rate.
Speaker 2: Theoretically, all right, we've got it.
Speaker 1: Like two more minutes, Stephen, anything else you want to
Speaker 1: squeeze in before we let.
Speaker 4: You go, Yes, before where you send your taxes in.
Speaker 4: You really want to learn as much as you can,
Speaker 4: either on your own from reading or going to somebody
Speaker 4: that does this, because most people cheat on their taxes.
Speaker 4: They cheat themselves by not taking everything to which they're entitled.
Speaker 4: And you know, there's just so much to the tax law.
Speaker 4: I know it's really complex, but there's so many benefits
Speaker 4: for you. So the bottom line is, like so many
Speaker 4: other things in life, you get out of it what
Speaker 4: you put into it, learn about it, or go to
Speaker 4: somebody that does this for a living, and you can
Speaker 4: really benefit. You See, there's so much difference in people's taxes.
Speaker 4: And again my example is the fortune five hundred. Look
Speaker 4: at all the money they make. Look at how little
Speaker 4: or nothing to pay in taxes. That's not just for
Speaker 4: the fortune five hundred, that's for everybody that knows about it.
Speaker 4: It's there for you, it's alive, it's legal, and that's
Speaker 4: what I do for a living and notating the stuff
Speaker 4: fascinates me. And it's so great to be able to
Speaker 4: legally do this.
Speaker 1: Stephen Moscowitz Moscow is LLP. Longtime friend of the show.
Speaker 2: Steven.
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure to talk to you. It's always interesting
Speaker 1: if you want to talk to Stephen. One triple eight
Speaker 1: tax deal, one triple A tax deal.
Speaker 2: Steven, thanks for the time, appreciate.
Speaker 4: It, Thanks so much. I had a great time, as always.
Speaker 2: Got it now.
Speaker 1: So obviously he gets paid to do taxes, so you
Speaker 1: know you would have an incentive to convince you to
Speaker 1: have a guy. But I don't doubt that that's true,
Speaker 1: absolutely true, that the majority of people cheat on their taxes.
Speaker 1: The cheating is you cheat yourself by not taking advantage
Speaker 1: of everything. Yeah, and this is again this is not
Speaker 1: a commercial in any way. But and it depends on
Speaker 1: your financial circumstances, where you are in your life and
Speaker 1: one hundred other things.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's entirely up to you.
Speaker 1: But our experience Jack and me as individuals and as
Speaker 1: business partners has been you spend hundreds and save thousands
Speaker 1: by consulting professionals. And maybe your situation is you'd spend
Speaker 1: thousands and save tens of thousands. You know, again depending
Speaker 1: on your life circumstance. But that's been our experience. One
Speaker 1: of my main takeaways from Noan Steven and I think
Speaker 1: he brought this up at a lunch we were at
Speaker 1: with him one time, is the idea of and it's
Speaker 1: changed the way I think about things.
Speaker 2: But like would your I mean a basic question.
Speaker 1: Of would you rather get would you rather have be
Speaker 1: received fifty thousand dollars or eighty thousand dollars? Obviously I'd
Speaker 1: rather receive the eighty thousand dollars. What are the tax implications?
Speaker 1: How's the fifty thousand coming to you? How's the eighty
Speaker 1: thousand coming? Is it coming through income? Did your grandma
Speaker 1: live it to you?
Speaker 2: You know? Is it a prize you won?
Speaker 1: It's because there are different tax implications for all these
Speaker 1: different things. You might be better off with the fifty
Speaker 1: thousand than the eighty thousand. If it was a gift,
Speaker 1: then if it was income, blah blah blah, And you
Speaker 1: always have to look at that end of it.
Speaker 2: It should not be that dizzying, but it is right.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoyed that. I did. I always get
Speaker 2: something out of it. More on the way stay here.
Speaker 4: Shot of course.
Speaker 2: Of a Minecraft movie.
Speaker 3: Please no throwing pulps horn and also absolutely no.
Speaker 2: Jockey. So you don't know, I haven't told you.
Speaker 1: Jack wife was actually at the theater everybody waiting for
Speaker 1: the Minecraft movie to start. He gets on the microphone
Speaker 1: and then when they figure out it's actually him, the
Speaker 1: guy who says chicken jockey in the movie, everybody went
Speaker 1: burst our Oh I'm sure that'd be very exciting as
Speaker 1: as a child.
Speaker 2: All right, innocent fun. Why not need more of that?
Speaker 2: Not less?
Speaker 1: My son's super into Minecraft has been for quite a
Speaker 1: few years. My youngest, my oldest for whatever reason, does
Speaker 1: not like video games. Never has really, but my youngest,
Speaker 1: and the chicken jockey is something that shows up like
Speaker 1: almost never.
Speaker 2: It's incredibly rare. When you're playing the game.
Speaker 1: There's a different there's a chicken jockey. There's a cat
Speaker 1: can't be camel jockey, Oh I doubt it, but there's
Speaker 1: a different jockey that shows up now and then it's
Speaker 1: more common. But the chicken jockey is like you never
Speaker 1: see it playing the game, It'll just all of a
Speaker 1: sudden be there and like it might happen once in.
Speaker 2: Your life if you play a lot. Wow.
Speaker 1: So that's part of the whole thing of the game.
Speaker 1: It being in the movie is a very big deal.
Speaker 2: That's funny.
Speaker 1: I started the show by saying, Finna die today, or
Speaker 1: Finna gets some medicine, so I can make it through
Speaker 1: this show. I've picked this up from my son, who
Speaker 1: occasionally uses the very popular slang Finna. I hear it
Speaker 1: in a lot of his hip hop music that he plays.
Speaker 1: That's just gonna say. That sounds suspiciously urban hip hop
Speaker 1: to me. Yeah, I guess the origin is fixing too.
Speaker 1: But I've never any young person say fixing to, so
Speaker 1: I think they skipped fixing to to just Finna, which
Speaker 1: is basically short for I'm going to Finny get a sandwich.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a sandwich. So if you hear
Speaker 1: that now, you won't be confused, or you can sprinkle
Speaker 1: it into your vocabulary if you're around young people and
Speaker 1: you'd like to sound more with.
Speaker 2: The times, I will pass. Thank you, though, fine.
Speaker 1: The desire of young suburban kids to affect the manner
Speaker 1: of urban hipsters. Yeah, is well, it's eternal. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's gone on forever. It's it changes, yet it stays
Speaker 1: the same. It's an interesting phenomenon.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Whenever I say Finnah to him, he he's disgusted by it.
Speaker 2: Cringes.
Speaker 1: Yes, say that a lot, then he couldn't cringe more exactly.
Speaker 1: Youthful dialects gets so annoying as you get old. Why
Speaker 1: is there anyway we have a fourth hour of the show.
Speaker 1: If you don't get the fourth hour, you gotta do something.
Speaker 1: You ought to subscribe to our podcast, Armstrong and Getty
Speaker 1: on demand.
Speaker 2: Thanks for being here, Armstrong and Getty.