Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio of the
Speaker 1: George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Arm
Speaker 1: Strong and Getty and no Key, I'm Strong and Getty.
Speaker 2: We heard from Zelenski suggesting the meeting of being productive,
Speaker 2: that it would indeed touch upon it had indeed touched
Speaker 2: upon that rare earth minerals deal again, trying to suggest
Speaker 2: I think Ukraine wants to move forward and finding a
Speaker 2: compromise there as well. And indeed they discussed some of
Speaker 2: the elements of piece here, potentially security guarantees, the return
Speaker 2: of prisoners of war.
Speaker 3: You have Special Envoy Keith Kennog meeting with Zelensky amid
Speaker 3: this blistering public feud Ukraine insisting the meeting went well
Speaker 3: and a new deal over mineral resources is on the table.
Speaker 3: Zelenski is saying Ukraine is ready for a just and
Speaker 3: lasting piece.
Speaker 4: A couple of reports from CNN and ABC about the
Speaker 4: ongoing talks and the war in Ukraine references to some
Speaker 4: of the to my mind insane things Donald Trump has
Speaker 4: said recently, and we'll be getting to that in a moment.
Speaker 4: It's it's interesting in scanning some of the emails you
Speaker 4: good people have sent to mail bag at armstrong and
Speaker 4: getty dot com and feel free anytime. All sorts of
Speaker 4: people with different theories and or psychoanalyses of Trump and
Speaker 4: Is saying that Ukraine started the war and Zelensky couldn't
Speaker 4: could have ended it, and he's a dictator and unpopular
Speaker 4: and the rest of it. If you think of it
Speaker 4: from the goal of stopping the war, does it really
Speaker 4: matter how he gets to the goal. He'll play the
Speaker 4: villain or pithesides against against each other, whatever it takes
Speaker 4: to get the win. The rest is just noise. He
Speaker 4: reigns in chaos during the pot and unexpected ways. It
Speaker 4: forces everyone out of their comfort zone, breaks down paralysis.
Speaker 4: That's you know, that's a pretty good thought or two
Speaker 4: from Ron. Thanks Ron, uh Paolo, Oh, whoops, it's a
Speaker 4: different topic. This is Steve from Washington State. I fear
Speaker 4: you've both forgotten the number one maximum concerning Trump. Take
Speaker 4: him seriously, not literally. I believe Trump is appalled at
Speaker 4: the human carnage you see. Zelenski is having to leverage
Speaker 4: or utility in the upcoming negotiation with Putin being dismissive
Speaker 4: of a Zelenski is useful in persuading Putin to come
Speaker 4: to the table. It's not personal, it's business. Okay, that
Speaker 4: could be. Please tell me this is seven dimensional chess,
Speaker 4: writes Christine. Been listening daily for twenty five years. Thank you, Christine.
Speaker 4: You must be a patient woman. I'm highly alarmed by
Speaker 4: Trump's foreign policy right now. It really appears to be
Speaker 4: pro Putin, anti Europe. He seems to have an unnatural
Speaker 4: admiration for Putin some strange way.
Speaker 1: It's all.
Speaker 4: It's all nutty, working our way toward an absolutely brilliant
Speaker 4: piece by one of my favorite historians and commentators, Douglas Murray,
Speaker 4: a couple of things worth knowing. When Russia took over
Speaker 4: a chunk of the eastern part of Ukraine, Luhansk, specifically,
Speaker 4: they used Aukraine and dump truck to remove a monument
Speaker 4: to the victims of the Haladomor, which you may not
Speaker 4: have ever heard of. Way back in nineteen twenty I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: Thirty two and thirty three, Ukraine was not digging Stalin's
Speaker 4: brutal totalitarian leadership of the Soviet Union, and the good
Speaker 4: people in Ukraine were demanding reform and bristling under Stalin.
Speaker 4: Stalin responded by starving at least three point.
Speaker 1: Nine million Ukrainians to death.
Speaker 4: Almost four million starved to death, horrific suffering. Cannibalism makes
Speaker 4: North Korea look like you're your family barbecue in terms
Speaker 4: of the available food and whatever.
Speaker 1: The desperation is. Just it was absolutely genocidal.
Speaker 4: And when Putin claims there's no Ukraine, they've never had
Speaker 4: a distinct identity or any They're just part of Imperial Russia,
Speaker 4: and they need to remember that that's.
Speaker 1: Utterly fictional and full of crap.
Speaker 4: Ukraine has a very very strong identity, although they have
Speaker 4: plenty of you know, cousinhood if you will, with Russia.
Speaker 4: Plenty of Ukrainians live on that side of the border,
Speaker 4: ethnic Ukrainians and vice versa.
Speaker 1: I mean, there.
Speaker 4: Are ties, absolutely, but one of the main facets of
Speaker 4: Ukrainian identity is we must never be dominated by Russia
Speaker 4: because they don't give a crap about our people.
Speaker 1: I want to lay that to rest. Also troubling to me,
Speaker 1: really troubling.
Speaker 4: Is this demand that train sign a minerals deal, not
Speaker 4: that some deal isn't you know, reasonable, because part of
Speaker 4: the strategy is we become such close friends with them
Speaker 4: and and do so.
Speaker 1: Much business with them.
Speaker 4: Russia doesn't dare invade because they then they would be
Speaker 4: invading our interests. So anyway, uh, the White House, White House,
Speaker 4: literally it's it's said by a number of observers. Put
Speaker 4: a deal on the table in front of Vladimir Zelensky
Speaker 4: and told them sign it right now to hand mineral
Speaker 4: rights worth hundreds of billions of dollars to the US.
Speaker 4: And Zelensky said, look, I'm open to a deal, but
Speaker 4: it needs more work and my people need to look
Speaker 4: at it.
Speaker 1: And and it was like being in a pushy car dealer.
Speaker 4: They said, no, you're going to sign this now, and
Speaker 4: Zelensky said, no, oh, I'm not. And that is one
Speaker 4: of the reasons Trump started going off on his high
Speaker 4: rades about Zelensky and saying things that were ridiculously untrue.
Speaker 4: You can defend that style of negotiating if you're talking
Speaker 4: about building a golf course in Scotland or something like that.
Speaker 4: I suppose I think it's unconscionable in this situation.
Speaker 1: I really do. It's awful, and it's not just morally awful.
Speaker 4: It damages the US is standing in a way that's
Speaker 4: completely unnecessary because The truth is, you need friends, and
Speaker 4: you especially need friends across the long term. And I
Speaker 4: don't think this is productive at all. But having said that,
Speaker 4: let's move on to the great Douglas Murray, along with
Speaker 4: Neil Ferguson, one of our favorite conservative historian slash writers
Speaker 4: thinkers around here, and Douglas Wrights. It's been a dizzy,
Speaker 4: disorienting week in an international diplomacy mentions the situation. Trump
Speaker 4: is absolutely right in wanting to end the bloodshed in Ukraine.
Speaker 4: The suffering has been appalling in the stalemate, brutal, But
Speaker 4: in the furious mix of wild opinions this week from
Speaker 4: the White House down, there are at least ten truths
Speaker 4: that every American voter must hang on to and Trump's
Speaker 4: rush down the bloodshed. These are also the truths against
Speaker 4: which any deal will be judged and which will define
Speaker 4: him when the history books are written.
Speaker 1: To ignore them or not treat them with the.
Speaker 4: Gravity they deserve will also have enormous consequences for decades
Speaker 4: to come. And if you do not know Douglas Murray,
Speaker 4: you should know that he is brilliant and incredibly knowledgeable,
Speaker 4: an absolutely not a never Trump type.
Speaker 1: That's the last thing he is truth number one.
Speaker 4: Vladimir Putin started this war, despite what Trump said days ago,
Speaker 4: and he goes through the history of it. There is
Speaker 4: no rational narrative outside of Russian propaganda that blames aggressive
Speaker 4: actions by Ukrainian President Vladimir's Zelenski or NATO that can
Speaker 4: justify such a military action, the massive invasion of Ukraine,
Speaker 4: and this came after Putin had already seized Crimea in
Speaker 4: twenty fourteen, folks, that's eleven years ago, going on and
Speaker 4: launched a war in the dnbas in eastern Ukraine. That
Speaker 4: doesn't include the other wars he started, like against the
Speaker 4: tiny nation of Georgia in two thousand and eight. Trump
Speaker 4: is absolutely right that the war never had to start.
Speaker 4: Murray writes, I believe it is true that it wouldn't
Speaker 4: have started if he had been in the Oval office.
Speaker 4: I would agree, But it was Putin, not Zelenski, who
Speaker 4: started the war. You know, I would add on if
Speaker 4: there were there some missteps or could NATO have handled this,
Speaker 4: that or the other better through the years, Yes, but
Speaker 4: that doesn't justify a full scale invasion of Ukraine. And
Speaker 4: there's just absolutely no question that truth number two is true.
Speaker 4: Russia is fighting for conquest. The Russian Federation invaded Ukraine
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty two. Whatever you think of the country
Speaker 4: or it's leader, Ukraine is an internationally recognized sovereign nation.
Speaker 4: Putin invaded in the hopes of devouring the country wholesale.
Speaker 4: By contrast, Ukraine has absolutely no territorial ambitions in Russia.
Speaker 4: And remember the brutality of Russia's actions. Among the multitude
Speaker 4: of depravities and war crimes committed by Putin's army has
Speaker 4: been the abduction of some twenty thousand Ukrainian children. Who
Speaker 4: wants to live in a world where the strong can
Speaker 4: simply devour the weak and kidnap little children by the thousands,
Speaker 4: Why hasn't the US put their release at the top
Speaker 4: of the list of negotiating demands. Truth number three, Ukraine
Speaker 4: is fighting for its independence. Most Ukrainians do not want
Speaker 4: to be part of Russia. They do not want to
Speaker 4: be gardened from Moscow. The vast majority want to live
Speaker 4: in an independent, sovereign country in control of its own future.
Speaker 4: Truth number four, Ukrainians are not Russians. Ukrainians and Russians
Speaker 4: are not one people, a single whole. As Putin wrote
Speaker 4: in a twenty twenty one essay. He is also simply
Speaker 4: lying in his assertion that modern Ukra is entirely the
Speaker 4: product of the Soviet era. Ukrainians and Russians are two
Speaker 4: separate ethnic groups. They speak different languages and have distinct histories.
Speaker 4: Truth number five. Putin is a dictator. He has ruled
Speaker 4: Russia with an iron KGB fist since coming to power
Speaker 4: in nineteen ninety nine. He has ruthlessly quashed independent media,
Speaker 4: ended free in fair elections, crushed civil society, and killed
Speaker 4: his political opponents. And not just inside Russia but around
Speaker 4: the world. People who live inside Russia and express any
Speaker 4: opposition of the war are imprisoned. Truth number six Zelensky
Speaker 4: is not a dictator, a political outsider. Zelensky won the
Speaker 4: twenty nineteen presidential election, which was relatively free and fair.
Speaker 4: As I've said many times, the transition from Soviet republic
Speaker 4: to Western style democracy is a bumpy one. In every
Speaker 4: single case, it's unavoidable. It takes a while to root
Speaker 4: out the Soviet style garbage and corruption. Anyway, Douglas Murray,
Speaker 4: the Great Douglas Murray rites. He has a fifty seven
Speaker 4: percent approval rating, not the four percent Trump claim. Unlike
Speaker 4: in Russia, Ukraine has vibrant, independent media. Mostly there are
Speaker 4: some flaws there, but it is wartime too anyway. Despite
Speaker 4: claims to the contrary by Internet swamp creatures and Russian bots,
Speaker 4: many Ukrainians freely criticize the government's conduct of the war
Speaker 4: in spite of the imperfections of Ukrainian media. This is
Speaker 4: me talking about Douglas Murray. Yeah, you're absolutely allowed to
Speaker 4: criticize the conduct of the war. You get put in
Speaker 4: jail in Russia for doing the same thing. When Britain
Speaker 4: was fighting for its survival against the Nazis in the forties,
Speaker 4: it too did not hold elections. The Russian ambassador to
Speaker 4: the UK spent yesterday crowing that he's not sure Zelenski
Speaker 4: would be reelected if there are elections today. But we
Speaker 4: all know one thing for sure, whether or not Zelensky
Speaker 4: would be re elected in Ukraine. Putin will always be
Speaker 4: re elected in Russia because his elections are conjobs. Pageant
Speaker 4: shows Putin has not won a free and fair election
Speaker 4: in his life because he doesn't hold them. Or we'll
Speaker 4: squeeze in one more here and then finish up on
Speaker 4: the other side of the break truth Number seven, Russia
Speaker 4: is not a friend of the US. It is a hostile,
Speaker 4: nuclear armed state that resents American power in the world
Speaker 4: that the US has built. It has ever closer relations
Speaker 4: with China, Iran, and North Korea. In fact, all of
Speaker 4: its main friends are countries that are the biggest foes
Speaker 4: of America. Now, you could argue that if we altered
Speaker 4: our policy toward the war or toward Moscow, we might
Speaker 4: pull them back somehow or to some extent from their
Speaker 4: friendship with the access of a holes. It's a thought
Speaker 4: worth exploring. But for now, there's just no question Russia
Speaker 4: is not our friend or anything close to it.
Speaker 1: Three more of these truths you must never forget.
Speaker 4: On the other side of the break, stay with us
Speaker 4: if you can't grab the podcast later Armstrong and Getty
Speaker 4: on demand coming up next segment, something completely different. We're
Speaker 4: going to talk to long time a friend of the
Speaker 4: Armstrong and Getty Show and tax advisor Steve Moskowitz about
Speaker 4: what's going on tax wise last year and this year
Speaker 4: and what people ought to know. And it's just some
Speaker 4: great tax tips. So of stay tuned. That's next segment.
Speaker 4: If you can't hang around, just grab the podcast later.
Speaker 4: I'm strong and getting on demand. Right now, though, we're
Speaker 4: working our way through the list of ten truths from
Speaker 4: Douglas Murray's excellent column about the situation in Ukraine, and
Speaker 4: he gives Trump credit for wanting to end the conflict,
Speaker 4: which has been so horrifically bloody and is stalemated right now,
Speaker 4: but is highly troubled by some of the untruths that
Speaker 4: have been uttered by Trump and others, because going forward,
Speaker 4: even if some of the wild rhetoric were to lead
Speaker 4: somehow toward quote unquote solution, it's dangerous to run around
Speaker 4: internalizing false pretenses, if you know what I mean, Because
Speaker 4: the world's going to keep spinning and the challenges will
Speaker 4: continue in that part of the world, guaranteed, and you
Speaker 4: really ought to know what's what anyway. So truth number
Speaker 4: eight from Murray, Ukraine is a friend of the US.
Speaker 4: Ukraine wants to be part of the American led order.
Speaker 4: Its people in government are deeply pro American. Since the
Speaker 4: start of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian men and women
Speaker 4: I have seen fighting at the front lines are fighting
Speaker 4: the Russian military to protect their loved ones in their country.
Speaker 4: They also do it in the knowledge that if they fail,
Speaker 4: other countries will be next. Truth number nine, Putin cannot
Speaker 4: be trusted. This isn't just a statement of fact, it
Speaker 4: is also something that eighty one percent of American voters
Speaker 4: agree on. Keep that in mind next time you know,
Speaker 4: Russian bots and Internet trolls on the Internet. Trolls on
Speaker 4: the Internet. Great sentence, Joe, convince you that, well, lots
Speaker 4: of people think Putin is really a good guy.
Speaker 1: No, they don't, No, they don't.
Speaker 4: Putin has invaded multiple countries in violation of every international treaty.
Speaker 4: He has interfered in multiple elections in his nearest neighbors.
Speaker 4: He has violated international agreements, including the IF Treaty with
Speaker 4: the US. He has lied to American presidents and European
Speaker 4: leaders his whole career. He has lied to Trump even
Speaker 4: since Trump has been back in office. Most recently, Putin
Speaker 4: promised that he wouldn't target Ukrainian energy official and facilities
Speaker 4: and hadn't yet. Just this week he carried out a
Speaker 4: massive Missilan drone strike against multiple energy facilities in Ukraine.
Speaker 4: It is almost as though Putin's word doesn't count for
Speaker 4: very much and he doesn't care if you know it.
Speaker 4: That's true truth number ten American to Ukraine. American aid
Speaker 4: to Ukraine, I should say, is not being wasted. No
Speaker 4: one would argue that Ukraine is a country without corruption,
Speaker 4: but that does not mean its people and sovereignty should
Speaker 4: not be protected. We should also remember which country in
Speaker 4: this war is truly corrupt. Russia is one vast kleptocratic
Speaker 4: state led by Putin In, a small cartel of oligarchs
Speaker 4: who have made themselves among the richest people on earth,
Speaker 4: all while keeping most of the Russian population in a
Speaker 4: state of poverty that would not be believed by most
Speaker 4: of us in the West. Putting us this is me now,
Speaker 4: putting aside that humiliating video Tucker Carlson made the lovely
Speaker 4: grocery stores in Moscow.
Speaker 1: That's where all the super rich people are.
Speaker 4: You go out into Rrussia, it's unbelievable poverty and oppression.
Speaker 1: Back to Murray.
Speaker 4: Putin and his cronies have been accumulating power and wealth
Speaker 4: all their careers, and they will torture and kill anyone
Speaker 4: who exposes this corruption. Remember his political opponent Alexi Navalni
Speaker 4: and the lawyer serge A Magnitsky. It's easy to expose
Speaker 4: corruption in Ukraine, but in Russia it is deadly. Besides,
Speaker 4: according to the Department of Defense, some sixty billion dollars
Speaker 4: out of one hundred and eighty three billion Ukraine has
Speaker 4: been spent in America. It's money that has benefited American
Speaker 4: workers and facilities.
Speaker 1: The war has also degraded the military one of the.
Speaker 4: Most despotic regimes in the world, and it's sent a
Speaker 4: strong deterrent message to China, Iran and North Korea not
Speaker 4: to do the same. You can criticize Zelensky, complain, but
Speaker 4: we should be under no illusions about who started this
Speaker 4: fire and who the true dictator or villain of this
Speaker 4: tragic tale is, well, said Douglas Murray. Next, as I said,
Speaker 4: we're going to talk about taxes, tax tips, waste, save
Speaker 4: you money, ways to reduce your headaches and stress with
Speaker 4: our longtime friend Stephen Moskowitz, among other things, also a
Speaker 4: very funny hockey story. After the big tournament wrapped up,
Speaker 4: stay with us Armstrong and Getty. Let's talk taxes, enough
Speaker 4: global conflict something we can all use. A conversation with
Speaker 4: longtime friend of the Armstrong and Getty show, Stephen Moskowitz,
Speaker 4: who has advised us on tax Stuff Forever, founder and
Speaker 4: tax attorney for Moskowitz l LP.
Speaker 1: Steven joins us. Now, Steve, how are you.
Speaker 5: I'm fantastic, and you know I'm happy because I get
Speaker 5: to talk about that, and you know I mean that.
Speaker 1: You know it's funny.
Speaker 4: I was just gonna say, I'm gonna embarrass Steve and
Speaker 4: tell the folks this. I have known professional musicians, athletes,
Speaker 4: all walks of tech, guys, all walks off and I've
Speaker 4: never known anybody who's more their jobs than you are.
Speaker 1: Steven. You love helping people deal with taxes, sincerely, I
Speaker 1: love it.
Speaker 5: And there's so much in the taskl There's so many
Speaker 5: hidden gems. I have everything from all walks of life.
Speaker 5: Whether we can tell you how you can deduct your
Speaker 5: multimillion dollar yacht to your struggling and how the government
Speaker 5: will give you money to help you take care of
Speaker 5: your kids, and everything in between. For example, I have
Speaker 5: a question for you, because I told you that you
Speaker 5: could go on a two week vacation anywhere in the
Speaker 5: world you choose, some stranger would pay for it, and
Speaker 5: the money the stranger gives you is tax free. How
Speaker 5: would you like that?
Speaker 1: When can I leave?
Speaker 5: He said? Oh my god, what is Steve talking about?
Speaker 5: And I'm talking about Internal Revenue Code Section to eighty
Speaker 5: a g like Armstrong and Geddy, also known as the
Speaker 5: Augusta rule. And what happens with that. You can rent
Speaker 5: year home for up to fourteen days a year and
Speaker 5: there's no tax on it. So the bottom line is
Speaker 5: in that home can be the mansion you live in,
Speaker 5: the studio apartment you rent, or a boat. And I'll
Speaker 5: explain that separately, but the bottom line is supposed. For example,
Speaker 5: he said, okay, I'm going to rent my place out
Speaker 5: for one thousand dollars a day, and now everything is
Speaker 5: so many people like renting a home instead of a hotel.
Speaker 5: So the bottom line is you go ahead, and let's
Speaker 5: assume that you rented your house four one thousand dollars
Speaker 5: a day, so it's fourteen thousand dollars. You go off
Speaker 5: to Hawaii, you spend ten thousand on your trip. That
Speaker 5: fourteen grand that you got is tax free. It doesn't
Speaker 5: even go on your tax return. It's excluded from income.
Speaker 5: That's just an example of one of the many, many,
Speaker 5: many hidden gems in our tax law. And glad people say, well,
Speaker 5: why should there be such things because our legislators and
Speaker 5: their infinite wisdom thinks this is good for the economy
Speaker 5: or the business, or there's some special interest that pushed them.
Speaker 5: But the bottom line is this law is for everybody.
Speaker 5: All the laws are for everybody. We're all equal under
Speaker 5: the law. And the bottom line is you just have
Speaker 5: to know where these gems are hidden. Because there's two
Speaker 5: reasons for the tax code wants to get money from us.
Speaker 5: But the other one if you give us all kinds
Speaker 5: of incentives like this, mister Will, what a deal, I mean,
Speaker 5: think about it. You're off on vacation anyway. The Airbnb's
Speaker 5: is so popular and you get fourteen days tax free.
Speaker 5: So you can see why I get so excited over
Speaker 5: these things.
Speaker 4: Love it so hey, we are happy to have so
Speaker 4: many small business people, entrepreneurs, go getters listening to the show.
Speaker 1: Also slackers like myself. But what do you.
Speaker 4: See small business people either failing to take advantage over
Speaker 4: getting wrong? What advice would you give them? Just right
Speaker 4: off the bat.
Speaker 5: Oh, the first one is a retirement plan. There's over
Speaker 5: twenty different types of plans. You can have multiple plans
Speaker 5: in the same year, and you can put away so
Speaker 5: much by there's for benefits to that. One. You pay
Speaker 5: less taxes. Usually when I'm talking to a client, people
Speaker 5: say sign me up, Steve, You've got me say taxes.
Speaker 5: Besides that, the money sits in your plan and the
Speaker 5: income doesn't fit tax wells in the plan, so no brainer.
Speaker 5: Everything grows faster and bigger if there's no taxes on it. Also,
Speaker 5: it's exempt from lawsuits, so take a level. But I
Speaker 5: hate to mention his name. Suppose you take a look
Speaker 5: at OJ Simpson who had a multimillion dollar judgment against
Speaker 5: him for many, many years, and he never lost a
Speaker 5: penny off his pension. So that's good when you're in business,
Speaker 5: so you don't have to worries to take it away
Speaker 5: from you. And most tax planning you have to write
Speaker 5: to check by December thirty first twenty four to deduct
Speaker 5: it in twenty four. But with most of the pensions,
Speaker 5: not all of them, but most of them, you have
Speaker 5: up to the time of filing your returns, including extension,
Speaker 5: which in English means depending on your business entity, you
Speaker 5: could have as late as October fifteenth, twenty five to
Speaker 5: set up the plan, fund it and still deduct it
Speaker 5: from the previous year. Twenty four and that there's all
Speaker 5: kinds of things in here. So for example, if you're
Speaker 5: in a pension, there's no okay, everybody knows about four
Speaker 5: one ks and Irish and all that, but there's all
Speaker 5: kinds of additional plans. Is what I call the fancy plans,
Speaker 5: which you can put in much much more money, and
Speaker 5: they're based on your age, your earnings. There's an actuarial
Speaker 5: evaluation ticket. But people can put away a tremendous way
Speaker 5: more than this. But when we talk about putting things away,
Speaker 5: everybody should have a pension plan. Everybody should put that away.
Speaker 4: So well, I was just going to say, and that
Speaker 4: includes I, like, I'm my only employee, I'm a sold proprietor,
Speaker 4: I can have a pension plan for myself.
Speaker 5: Right, absolutely absolutely, And again with retirement plan, there's so
Speaker 5: much in there. For example, suppose you say, well, you
Speaker 5: know what, I'm listening to the show today, but I'm
Speaker 5: a little bit older and you know I haven't had
Speaker 5: the money in there. Well, there's something called a ketchup plan.
Speaker 5: If you're over fifty, you can put in bigger deductions.
Speaker 5: And our legislators, in their infinite wisdom and get this
Speaker 5: if you're sixty, sixty one, sixty two, or sixty three.
Speaker 5: Only those ages you have a super catchup plan this
Speaker 5: beginning this year. In twenty twenty five, you put it
Speaker 5: even more. The bottom line is there's so much here,
Speaker 5: And then what about taking money out of plans? He said, well, okay,
Speaker 5: you know I need the money, but I don't want
Speaker 5: to get hit with that penalty. There's all kinds of
Speaker 5: exceptions to that. If you're a victim of domestic abuse,
Speaker 5: you can take money out without the penalties. If you
Speaker 5: need it for emergency purposes, you can take it out
Speaker 5: without penalties. If you take it out because of federally
Speaker 5: declared disasters, think about O the wildfires in California, let's
Speaker 5: mention Hawaii and other places, you can take it out
Speaker 5: without penalty. If someone's terminally ill. And also a not
Speaker 5: to are firefighters. If they're age fifty or with twenty
Speaker 5: five years of service, they can take it out without penalty.
Speaker 5: I should go on and on and on, but there's
Speaker 5: just so much here for everybody, and whether you know,
Speaker 5: with being a small business owner, this is just the
Speaker 5: troumendous say. I get so excited over this, but if
Speaker 5: you're in business. There are so many benefits to you
Speaker 5: just it's incredible, and it's all kinds of things. For example,
Speaker 5: supposed to me says, you know, I'd like to have
Speaker 5: an electric vehicle. Well, guess what, you know the government
Speaker 5: will give you seventy five hundred bucks. And you say, well,
Speaker 5: that's nice. I can go ahead and take seventy five
Speaker 5: hundred dollars off my tax return, right you can. But
Speaker 5: even better, when you're at the dealer, you say, you
Speaker 5: know what, there's a special program where I can say
Speaker 5: to the dealer, I'll give the credit to you. You
Speaker 5: knock seventy five hundred bucks off the price, so I
Speaker 5: never have to give you the money and ask for
Speaker 5: it back. You get the seventy five hundred from the government.
Speaker 5: There's so much, so much there. Then there's another thing
Speaker 5: that gets me really excited, something called opportunity zones. Suppose
Speaker 5: you have this situation. You sell something anything, some gold coins,
Speaker 5: some stop, real property, anything, and you have capital gain
Speaker 5: and you say, well, all right, you know, I realize
Speaker 5: that there's three capital gains rates zero. It's a nice one,
Speaker 5: but you have to be making less than forty seven
Speaker 5: grand for that or fifteen percent, which is between forty
Speaker 5: seven grand and over just half a mil. You know,
Speaker 5: most people are making under half of MIIL fifteen percent bad,
Speaker 5: and it goes to twenty percent if you're over five
Speaker 5: hundred and eighteen thousand. But the bottom line is you say,
Speaker 5: you know, I don't want to pay that either. So
Speaker 5: you can go into an opportunity zone and you can
Speaker 5: defer the taxes until twenty six. As you say, when
Speaker 5: somebody gives you something nice, what do you say thank you?
Speaker 1: Of course no, you say more.
Speaker 5: I want more. And what happens is there's a provision
Speaker 5: with these opportunities zone. Suppose I do this. Suppose what
Speaker 5: is an opportunity zone. There's designated areas in our country
Speaker 5: where the government says, invest here and we'll give you
Speaker 5: special tax benefits. And there's a tremendous number of them.
Speaker 5: So you go ahead and do that. And let's assume
Speaker 5: that you buy a real property for a million bucks.
Speaker 5: Ten years later you sell it for one hundred million.
Speaker 5: You've made a gain of ninety nine million. You know,
Speaker 5: I can calculate the tax on that right now in
Speaker 5: my head, you know, the taxes zero. What Steve Wait
Speaker 5: talking about there's a special provision that if you hold
Speaker 5: this property for more than ten years, when you sell it,
Speaker 5: there's zero capital game. There's no cap one. So in
Speaker 5: my example, you made a profit of ninety nine million bucks,
Speaker 5: you paid zero taxes. Talk about an incentive. So you see,
Speaker 5: that's why I get get so excited about this and
Speaker 5: our laws filled with these things.
Speaker 4: Stephen Moscowitz, founder of Tax Atturning moscow ats LP, is
Speaker 4: online longtime tax advisor of the show and our friends. So, Stephen,
Speaker 4: in a couple of minutes, we have left what notable
Speaker 4: changes to the tax code have happened recently or do
Speaker 4: you expect to happen as the Trump administration gets gone.
Speaker 5: So I think there's going to be a lot with
Speaker 5: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. When President Trump was
Speaker 5: president in the first term, he had a lot of
Speaker 5: stuff that was going to be basically he expected to
Speaker 5: be re elected and he had a lot of stuff
Speaker 5: in the tax law that was expiring right after what
Speaker 5: it was his second term. So it's expiring now they're
Speaker 5: probably going to make changes and keep a lot of
Speaker 5: the things. And also so a lot of things that
Speaker 5: have changed or the numbers, like the standard deduction went
Speaker 5: up a little bit for twenty twenty four and a
Speaker 5: little bit of numbers. You know, for example, the art
Speaker 5: didn't come credit. So we talked about the other end
Speaker 5: of the scale. For example, suppose you have three kids
Speaker 5: and you're making under sixty six eight nineteen. The government
Speaker 5: will give you seven eight hundred and thirty dollars, but
Speaker 5: is give them will give you the money, so you
Speaker 5: have those things. There's also change to the kitty tax.
Speaker 5: It's a small change for kids that are under age nineteen.
Speaker 5: The first thirteen hundred bucks is tax free. The next
Speaker 5: thirteen hundred bucks is taxed at the child's right. So
Speaker 5: if it's a little something. Then the amounts for the
Speaker 5: flexible spending accounts and the health savings accounts have gone up.
Speaker 5: So what are those things? Basically, there are two different
Speaker 5: types of accounts where you can put some pre tax
Speaker 5: money and I don't get a tax, and then you
Speaker 5: use it for healthcare. Now there's differences between them, so
Speaker 5: with an exception, you can't have both. There's an exception,
Speaker 5: but we won't get into that right now on the show.
Speaker 5: But for the most part, you say, well, what's more
Speaker 5: important to me, and you look at these and basically
Speaker 5: the best way to do it is there are charts
Speaker 5: and you say, okay, well, a flexible spending account, here's
Speaker 5: the advantages. With the health savings account, here's the advantages.
Speaker 5: But basically the idea here is you get a tax deduction,
Speaker 5: you use the money for medical and isn't that nice?
Speaker 5: You don't have to pay tax on that amount of
Speaker 5: your earnings. And the bottom line, for example, with a
Speaker 5: health savings account, you can triple benefits. There's no taxes
Speaker 5: on the money you put it in, it grows tax free,
Speaker 5: and there's no taxes when you use it for medical bills.
Speaker 5: So again, I mean, you look at this stuff and
Speaker 5: you say, well, okay, why shouldn't I have it? There's
Speaker 5: so much in tax complaints about their taxes. My taxes
Speaker 5: are too much, they're that, but people overlook all these benefits.
Speaker 5: And again I'm just throwing out a few samples and teasers.
Speaker 5: There's so much there. If you're interested in this. To me,
Speaker 5: this has fascinated me my whole life, and it's here.
Speaker 5: It's available for everybody.
Speaker 4: Well, if you want to get in touch with Stephen,
Speaker 4: his number is one triple eight tax deal. It's one
Speaker 4: triple a tax deal. Stephen, It's always a pleasure. Thanks
Speaker 4: for the time, interesting and fun as always be well.
Speaker 5: Thanks so much. I had a great time as always.
Speaker 5: Thanks for inviting me all right.
Speaker 1: Thanks Yeah.
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Speaker 6: Democrats are clinging to these radical, losing propositions. Democrats are
Speaker 6: out there defending the idea that unelected bureaucrats don't have
Speaker 6: to listen to the will of the electorate, don't have
Speaker 6: to follow the results of the will of the people
Speaker 6: expressed through an election, but can do whatever they want.
Speaker 6: Democrats are out there saying that we can and should
Speaker 6: spend tens of billions of dollars on radical left programs
Speaker 6: all over the world, in Bosnia, in Croatia, all throughout
Speaker 6: the Confident of Africa, and everywhere else, but not here
Speaker 6: in America.
Speaker 7: Man, I'm telling the Democrats just sit there, play possum,
Speaker 7: let them go, let them go. Poll numbers of decline,
Speaker 7: and the collapse is already underway. Let's see when it
Speaker 7: put the medicaid budget, when it put the tax to
Speaker 7: four point five billion dollar trillion dollars, or tax cuts
Speaker 7: to wealthy people. Just let the ball come to you.
Speaker 7: We don't need to be aggressive now.
Speaker 4: Interesting, while he is full of crap, James Carville did
Speaker 4: express something I've been saying lately, which is the frantic
Speaker 4: objection to even the super popular stuff I don't get
Speaker 4: it politically. I guess you need to do that to
Speaker 4: raise money from your Internet base, which is ruined American
Speaker 4: politics anyway. Interesting that James Carville, the Rage and Cajun
Speaker 4: would say the Democrats need to play possum. I understand,
Speaker 4: we have a story about a seal. Sorry, I was
Speaker 4: reading and talking at the same time, Katie, Is there
Speaker 4: anything we need to know about the seals story?
Speaker 8: He's adorable and he had a grand old time in
Speaker 8: the city of New Haven?
Speaker 1: All right, here's a report from NPC. I guess.
Speaker 9: Police responding to a stranded gray seal pop in the
Speaker 9: heart of New Haven, slopping more than thirteen hundred feet
Speaker 9: through the city streets earlier this week and popping up
Speaker 9: several times away from the water in the days before.
Speaker 9: And while many joke the seal was chasing New Haven's
Speaker 9: famous clam pizza, researchers explain.
Speaker 5: I think that if I was trying to go atlant
Speaker 5: to find the nice quiet area.
Speaker 9: Now Mystic Aquarium is helping the youngster pack on the
Speaker 9: pounds with a delicious diet of fish smoothie and of
Speaker 9: course haring to help him prepare for the wild. While
Speaker 9: the pup will eventually be returned to the ocean. His
Speaker 9: place in America's heart is sealed.
Speaker 4: Ah, I don't get it. Oh wait, now I get it.
Speaker 4: Oh clam pizza.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a weird one, right, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I guess, although you know, I like creative, weird pizzas
Speaker 4: I have for years and years and years.
Speaker 1: Hmmm, I don't know about clam pizza. I'm not hankering
Speaker 1: for it. No, no, not a no.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 8: The noise at the beginning of that report is actually
Speaker 8: the noise that the baby seal makes.
Speaker 1: It's like this where Yeah, okay, beautiful. What was I
Speaker 1: gonna say?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: We learned last week two weeks ago during the One
Speaker 4: More Thing podcast that sea otters are like Rapie and Murdery.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Should we be as affectionate towards the seals as
Speaker 1: we are?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 8: Yeah, they're sea dogs. They are total sea dogs. Oh okay, yeah, Well,
Speaker 8: I love dogs. I'm willing to take on the sea
Speaker 8: variety and give it an audition. So I promised to
Speaker 8: a funny hockey story, and this is it. You might
Speaker 8: enjoy this, Katie. So the NHL had this brilliant idea too.
Speaker 8: The only reason we're talking about hockey. Is the NHL
Speaker 8: had this brilliant idea that instead of their stupid All
Speaker 8: Star game that nobody watches or cares about, they would
Speaker 8: hold a fourteen tournament with players from four of the
Speaker 8: major nations that supply players to the NHL, the US, Canada, Finland,
Speaker 8: and Sweden.
Speaker 1: I think it was Don't assume me if I wasn't wrong. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's the idea, and it was a super big success.
Speaker 1: The guys were playing for country.
Speaker 4: It was like a mini Olympics, and the fans were
Speaker 4: absolutely loving it. But anyway, my buddy was a great
Speaker 4: hockey fan, former very elite hockey player. He was telling
Speaker 4: me a story about one of his buddies that almost
Speaker 4: caught out in the NHL.
Speaker 1: Really really good player.
Speaker 4: But he was hired to be an extra in a
Speaker 4: movie about hockey and the director said, all right, we
Speaker 4: need to have a fight now there's a hockey fight scene.
Speaker 1: And the guy said, oh, we'll handle it.
Speaker 4: And the director was like, well, we need to talk
Speaker 4: about the choreography and the blah blah blah, and the
Speaker 4: guy said, no, just show me where you want the shot,
Speaker 4: and the director said, right there in the corner and
Speaker 4: he went to his buddy. He said, Hey, Jimmy, we're
Speaker 4: gonna go on the corner. I'll hit you with an elbow,
Speaker 4: you push me, and we fight, okay, And so they
Speaker 4: just went in the corner, dropped the gloves, beat the
Speaker 4: hell out of each other. Great hockey fight scene and
Speaker 4: cutt says the director, and.
Speaker 1: They skate away. Hey, you got me with that uppercut.
Speaker 1: That was good, man, that was really good. That was
Speaker 1: a good fight.
Speaker 4: Dude, high five having pounded each other in the head
Speaker 4: for the movie.
Speaker 1: That's hockey players. Oh, that's a hockey player.
Speaker 4: Armstrong and Getty