SUMMARYMark Kohler, a top tax attorney, CPA, and best-selling author, joins the show to break down powerful tax and wealth-building strategies specifically for entrepreneurs and high-income earners. With decades of experience simplifying tax law for the everyday business owner, Mark dives deep into how smart structuring and proactive planning can help you legally pay less in taxes while building generational wealth.Throughout the conversation, Mark unpacks how to leverage S Corporations, write off daily expenses, and even pay your kids while saving thousands annually. He also walks through advanced retirement strategies like the Mega Backdoor Roth and self-directed accounts that allow investments in real estate, crypto, and even cows. This episode is packed with golden nuggets for anyone earning between $250k to $1M+ looking to get serious about long-term financial freedom and bulletproofing their wealth.CHAPTERS02:35 – How the Rich Pay Less in Taxes (Legally)04:54 – Tax Write-Offs You Didn't Know You Could Take07:21 – Why You NEED an S Corporation ASAP09:40 – How to Legally Pay Your Kids & Save on Taxes12:08 – Real Estate + Business = The Ultimate Wealth Hack14:37 – How to Write Off Travel, Dining & Your Home Office17:02 – Buying Cows & Crypto with Your Retirement Accounts19:00 – Mega Backdoor Roth Explained Simply21:08 – What to Ask Your Accountant if You Make Over $250k23:10 – Should You File a Tax Extension This Year?GUEST DETAILSWebsite: https://markjkohler.comYouTube: Mark J Kohler (500k+ subscribers)Instagram: @markjkohlerBooks: The Tax and Legal Playbook, The Business Owner’s Guide to Financial FreedomPodcasts:The Directed IRA PodcastMain Street Business PodcastLive Events: Hosts 2 affordable national conferences annuallyConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter
Chapter 1: How can entrepreneurs legally pay less in taxes?
My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life.
Today, we're going to talk about some very important stuff that most entrepreneurs suck at. So you're going to want to tune in. Mark's here with me, the best-selling author, massive podcast, true expert at this, been doing it for many years. He's helped consult over 10,000 small business owners on tax strategies, which we're going to dive into.
Chapter 2: What tax write-offs can you take that you didn’t know about?
His company, his firm, sets up a new LLC every 15 minutes. Yeah, this is the foundations of business, the most entrepreneur skit that's going to cost them probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars over their lifetime. So I wanted Mark on to come help you guys save a lot of money. And when you save it, it will remember me because you can send it my way. Mark, welcome to the show.
Rudy, thanks for having me. This is such an important topic. And I honor you for talking about the topics that are kind of people think are boring or complex. We're going to break it down.
Chapter 3: Why should you set up an S Corporation?
I think these topics are boring just to open up until you start paying hundreds of thousands in taxes. And then you go, okay, I got to pay attention. It's kind of like your health. In your 20s, 30s, you don't worry, right? And then you start getting sick. Go to the doctors, get bad blood pressure. And he says, you're going to die early. And you go, okay, I got to worry about it now.
So that's why we're here.
Chapter 4: How can you legally pay your kids and save on taxes?
Yeah, it's funny. You go hang out at a dinner party and talk to rich people. They love to talk about tax strategies. They're like, oh yeah, I'm doing this. And oh, I'm doing this because that's what moves the needle. It's easier to save money than make money.
you know, especially once you get going, I think even my own journey, we've worked so hard as entrepreneurs to get the business off the ground, to start making money. And then we hit, you know, hopefully everyone in business hits this point where you reach way over the average salary. Now you're making way more than you spend to live. And you've got all this money mounting up.
Chapter 5: What is the ultimate wealth hack combining real estate and business?
You want to invest it. You want to do something with it. You probably learned from books and podcasts that you shouldn't just sit in with millions in your bank account, right? You're trying to get it out, invest it. So if Let's dive in, right?
We're going to talk about three or four advanced strategies to help small business owners with that tax strategy and being smart with their investments and stuff like that. So how do they start doing this? What's your experience? You want to start with an overview?
Chapter 6: How can you write off travel, dining, and your home office?
Yeah. Well, it's funny you say that because my first tip and everybody, this is absolutely critical. We're going to go through four today and I'm going to freaking wow you. I want you guys making money today on this podcast. So the number one is captain your ship. So many people think as a small business owner, I'm like, oh, I'm going to find that perfect accountant.
I'm going to find, and then I can just not worry about it. You know, I'll just find an accountant and then I'm all good. No, people, I was just talking to Rudy before the show and he's like, yep, I was teaching my accountant another strategy because he is engaged. I am engaged in learning about my situation, even though I serve thousands of clients.
Chapter 7: Can you buy cows and crypto with your retirement accounts?
And so when you captain your own ship, you have the visual picture. I call it a trifecta. You've got a structure with your operations on the left, your assets on the right, and it all flows down into your 1040, your revocable living trust. Now, if I just said something that sounds weird to you, you're not capturing your ship.
So make sure that you're learning cool strategies and you don't have to do them, but you have to be able to talk about them and make sure that your professionals are doing them. And if you're not, you're missing out because it is your ship. You get to decide where it goes. And if your first mate's not doing it, throw them over.
Chapter 8: What is the Mega Backdoor Roth and how does it work?
Yeah, I love that. And I think this is the reality that I learned. Most basic accountants and even attorneys don't know this stuff. Right. And we are fooled by society to think in life doctors, accountants and attorneys all know their stuff. Just like any other industry, you have really good ones. You have a lot of average in the middle, and then you have some crappy ones, right?
And that's like you have a certain level of trust that you probably shouldn't because if you hire a builder, you're watching what they're doing. And if the kitchen's coming together and the sink's upside down, you say stop, right? Yeah, that's right.
Chapter 9: What should you ask your accountant if you make over $250k?
And counting is gonna do that. Yeah, and that's a great example. And so here's your action item, then we'll go on to tip number two, is that when you're learning, and I've got a great podcast that makes this simple, the Main Street Business Podcast, and I write on this regularly to keep it simple, is that when you know the strategies,
Just knowing the strategies will tell you if you have an average accountant, a crappy accountant, or a tax lawyer, whoever, or a good one, by just knowing what they're talking about. If you say, oh, I want to write off my home, or I want to write off my traveler, my auto, what's my S-corp about? No, oh, I want to self-direct my retirement account and go buy some crypto, or I want to do this.
Chapter 10: Should you file a tax extension this year?
And your accountant... looks like a deer in headlights, then that's told you I've got the wrong one. Just like you walking into a construction project going, uh-uh, you are a bad contractor. So that's number one. Start learning a little bit. And it's actually pretty fun. It's not that painful at all. You're making money and it's strategic.
Yeah. And again, like with business, even like I'm a marketer and we always teach our clients with marketing and ads, I'm like, you don't need to become a master at Facebook ads and stuff like I am, but you need to know enough to be dangerous. Right. And I think it's like, hey, you haven't got to become an accountant.
But you need to know enough like I do, read a couple of books, listen to a few podcasts, go to a few events, and boom, for the next 50 years of your life, you're going to save probably millions of dollars on taxes now just because you spent 20, 30, 40, 50 hours educating yourself.
Yeah, and it's ongoing education. Why Rudy's having me here, people. Rudy's going to learn something today. I know he will because when I talk marketing, I learn from him. And that's because it's ongoing. And we've got tax legislation and policy big time this year. So we've got to pay attention to that. I'm going live on YouTube constantly, giving our followers updates on that.
Okay, strategy number two. If you're a small business owner and you've got ordinary income, we're not going to talk about real estate today. Love that. I love saving and investing in real estate. Some of those strategies with short-term rentals, long-term rental syndications, self rentals, blah, blah, blah.
But just your operational business, you're a consultant, you're a landscaper, you're a online marketer, you're an influencer, you're a restaurant owner. Okay. That's an operational main street America business. Once you start making more than 50 grand a year, so you're taking home five grand a month. You're like, this is cool. I make them five grand a month or better.
I'm starting to find my dream. I'm going to scale. S corporation. You've got to convert your LLC, which you should start with anyway, so you can start branding, get your EIN, get your banking going, start learning how to run your business financially. Then you're going to convert to an S corporation, as in small.
When you convert to an S corp, it allows us to save on FICA, the number one cost that hits small business owners, which is 15.3%. This year on the first 180 grand. So I only want to pay that on a portion of your income. Now, we don't have enough time in today's show to break it down. I've got YouTube videos on this and articles. And even the people here listening are like, well, I have an S-corp.
I'm done. Really? What was your payroll percentage last year? Uh, I don't know. Well, you're screwed then. Because I'll tell you, most accounts are conservative. They're going to make you take more payroll than you should. and you to be involved in that conversation.
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