Mark J. Kohler
speaker
651 appearances
4 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2019
last heard 10 Jul
Mark J. Kohler’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So start with some decent bookkeeping. Next to actionable, get a podcast or some good blogs that you like or video that you follow on YouTube of tax tips. I've got a 30 Ultimate Tax Guide this, and I have a podcast where every week we talk about different tax tips and all that. If you don't like Mark Kohler, it's fine, but you've got to have someone.
that you're following say, okay, can I write off? What am I doing right now with healthcare? January 15th, that was a big day. That's the last day to enroll for healthcare for 2025 and get a health savings account. What am I doing by April 15th? Am I putting together college savings for my kids in an ESA? What is an ESA?
Well, you know, kind of you tell me the difference between a Roth and an IRA. So start getting educated on these things and just start kind of learning. And it's going to be hard. It's not going to be sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's just like, oh, my gosh, but you're going to be the coolest person at the next dinner party. You're like, oh, check out what I learned.
You know, everybody's like, what? You know, I mean, it's just cool stuff.
Here's the number one thing I've been talking about this last year and a half. It's just really evolved to something very special. And this is for you too, Ryan. Just everyone listening should be doing this. And that is integrating your family. into this business. So let's assume you're stopped delegating, you're starting tracking, you're treating your business like a business.
Understand your card table moment. When was that moment? When I had that great idea, every small, every big business started out as a small business. And there's no such thing as a small business, as big ideas. And you've got this idea and you want to make it big. And you've got this dream that, that little nucleus, share it with your family. And how to do that is called the family board.
I want you to have a family board and a family office. You don't have to be a billionaire to have a family office. Your family office is that third bedroom down the hall with a couch in it. That's your family office. Let's start writing off a retreat with our family at least once a year. We could be writing off dining as we go out as a family and talk about business.
We can be paying for our kids' cell phones, whether at college or even in high school. Our kids are going to be helping with the business in social media or stuffing envelopes or cleaning rental properties. This is family. I mean, do we have to watch The Godfather for crying out loud people? Treat your business like family and have a family board and a family meeting.
It makes your LLC or corporation more legit because you're having annual board meetings like all of you know you should be. And you're writing off crap your accountant doesn't even talk about. All of my kids, it was so funny, right? At Christmas, my kids love it. They come down to the Christmas tree. All my kids are over 18 now. They come down to the Christmas tree.
They go to their Christmas stocking. We still try to do that. It's fun. And they go in there and there's their 1099 for the year. It's just adorable. They love it. They get their 1099 for the year for all the money I gave them during the year because I'm taking the tax write-off. They're in a lower bracket. They can pay tax at a lower bracket. They're building their lives. You want money from me?
You're getting a 1099 because you're on my board.
Think about this. Your kids don't pay taxes this year on the first $14,000 and change, $15,000 and change. The numbers just changed for inflation. So your kids could earn $14,000 a year at working at McDonald's and pay zero tax. No one in America pays tax on their first standard deduction of around $14,000, let's say. So you've got four kids that could work anywhere and earn $14,000.
Why aren't they working for you? You can pay your children under age 18. You don't have to give them a W-2. There's no FICA. There's no FUTA. There's no workers' comp. And it's outside labor and the right line item. I teach all that. We talk about it on our shows. It's in my books, blah, blah, blah.
But your four kids, depending on their age and what they're doing in the business, let's say we're paying them $5,000 to $10,000. Four kids average of seven. Four times seven, we're at 28 grand. We just got a $28,000 tax write-off. So you're gonna be paying for school lunch, school clothes, soccer, football, all that. You're not paying for it anymore, Ryan. They pay for it.
You're transferring money from your company into their bank account and they pay for school lunch and sports. Now you just got a tax write-off for that. And you can even double down and form an IRA for each one of them. So now each of them have a Roth IRA of seven grand a pop, if you want. And now that can come out for college tax-free. So I've got my Roth IRA going. My kids are on the payroll.
We're having board meetings as a family and I'm taking my four kids out and I'm teaching them about business. They're selling books at my table. They're at the event checking people in. They're ushering people at the event. My kids learn that my life is business and my passion is going to be their passion if they want it to be. That's how succession happens.
So many business owners think they're just going to plop a business on their kids when they're 28 years old and they're going to get it. They're not. They're not.
And so you've got this incredible tax deduction right now while your kids are under age 18, the board meeting for better asset protection, more tax write-offs, you're building wealth in their IRAs for them in college, and you're teaching them about your business. There's so many birds you're knocking out with one stone, I can't even count them all.
And I just want to say this for everybody. I know our time is almost up here, but what could happen? I want to warn everybody. Ryan could get off this podcast and go, I got to call my accountant. So he picks up his cell phone, calls his accountant and go, hey, what the hell, Tom? Why am I not putting my kids on the payroll of my Schedule C? I got an S Corp over here.
I got a 1065 and an LLC over here. Why are my kids not on my payroll? Well, Ryan, you can't do that. Well, because it's high risk. You know what? Nine times out of 10, he's not going to jump on the bandwagon with you because it wasn't his idea.
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