Small Business Tax Tips To grow & Keep Wealth in 2025 with Mark J. Kohler

Speaker 1 It's not about getting rich quick. It's not getting rich slow.
I want to get rich slow.

Speaker 2 This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network Production.

Speaker 2 We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month,

Speaker 2 taking the BS out of business for over six years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks?

Speaker 3 Well, it starts right about now.

Speaker 1 Right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now.
We're always talking about how to get right and what's working now. I can tell you about what the future is.

Speaker 1 I can tell you about the past is, but we want to tell you how to get ahead now.

Speaker 1 We're going deep today in business. We're going to tell you, and we're dealing with a 1%er.
I'm telling you. So we got both a rare breed and we got the Main Street.
coming right to you. It is Mark J.

Speaker 1 Kohler. He is a tax attorney.
He is the Main Street tax attorney, and he's going to tell tell us today how to get it all right. Because look, we've got to put more money in your pocket, baby.

Speaker 1 And that's what we're here to do. What's up, Mark? Hey, thanks for having me, Ryan.
This is awesome. And love that your focus is on this.
So important. Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 Look, we want to give actionable advice, ultimately. We have a lot of people on, and our focus this year and 2025 is how to get.
ahead in all things. And look, small business is the fabric of the U.S.

Speaker 1 You know, we can talk to the high end, we can talk to the low, we do all this, but we're talking like that is what drives America is small business. And I love what you're doing, Mark.

Speaker 1 I love the mainstream approach, podcasting, author. We're going to have all the links to Mark's stuff.
He's got more shit going on than you would believe, but it's all about helping the mainstreet.

Speaker 1 So, Mark, set the table for us, man. I mean, how the hell did you get to 1%? Lawyer and a tax guy, all in one.

Speaker 1 It seems like the perfect combo, though. Like when I started reading your stuff and talking to your people, I was like, this is a rare breed here, you know, but it makes sense.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, that's what the ladies say, you know.

Speaker 1 Spotted white leopard.

Speaker 1 Well, I was always an entrepreneur. I was the kid with the lemonade stand.
I was, had a small business in high school and hiring my brother's friends and screwing things up.

Speaker 1 And I mean, it was Tom Sawyer painting white fences, whatever it was. But I just loved entrepreneurship and when i went on to school i went into business and then i thought hey this accounting thing

Speaker 1 no offense to anyone out there i mean marketing class finance is tough sure but i don't want to work for wall street so marketing man i'm going to go accounting because i can stand out there if i can just get a c in accounting all the other a you know hire all the other a accountants and so sure enough i stood out in the accounting group as the party planner it was super fun and then i had this teacher who was a lawyer and an accountant.

Speaker 1 And I was like, holy crap, this guy can take over the world. So you had all the benefits of understanding the numbers sitting at the table in business.

Speaker 1 And then I could freaking file a lawsuit, fight the IRS, do whatever. And so I was like, I want to be that guy.

Speaker 1 So I went on a law school, come to find out of 100 lawyers, one of them has any tax background. And I freaking said, I'm going to Main Street, screw Wall Street.
And here I am. Hey, man, I love it.

Speaker 1 Because you know what, Mark? And we talked a little pre-episode this, but you know how many times I've asked a question of my accountant.

Speaker 1 You'd have to consult your lawyer on that.

Speaker 1 Because look, I like to push the limit. I can admit it.

Speaker 1 It doesn't take long to figure that out about me.

Speaker 1 But I want to do it legally.

Speaker 1 I want to get all I can get out of it. And so the moment you said that, I was like, I.

Speaker 1 have heard that a thousand times. You know, consult your lawyer on that, Ryan.

Speaker 1 Isn't it true? Yeah, it's maddening. And the hard thing is, is taxes are law.
I mean, it's tax law, you know, and understanding it. And

Speaker 1 only the big dogs or big companies have been able to afford tax rulers.

Speaker 1 So I've worked really hard over the last 25 years building a model based on volume and a boutique where we can help clients around the country and been doing that.

Speaker 1 But the important thing here is the number one cost in our lives are taxes. And people don't want to talk about it.
It's too boring. It's too complex.
What the the hell do I do?

Speaker 1 Well, we're going to freaking demystify that. That's my whole career: to say it's not that hard.
And you're the captain of your ship. Quit looking for an accountant to do it all for you.

Speaker 1 You can freaking run the ship here, hire the first mate, and you can control your destiny.

Speaker 1 What's the most common thing you deal with, Mark? You know, working with Main Street, working with small businesses. Like, what are those commonalities, you know, business to business?

Speaker 1 I think, because I think, I always think there's,

Speaker 1 there's knowledge in trends and numbers. And so when you get asked a lot of the same questions, when you deal with a lot of the same challenges, I tend to think that brings knowledge to our listeners.

Speaker 1 What are some of those key things that you're always sort of tackling or working with clients on?

Speaker 1 Well, what's great question. And what's interesting is since COVID, we've had the great formation.
We now have almost, we're pushing up to almost 45% of working Americans have a side hustle.

Speaker 1 And people, that's a small business. That's a gateway drug.
It's not a burden. We should look at it as an opportunity to use those funds to get out of debt, build wealth, create assets.

Speaker 1 And one in five Americans own a rental property in some form or fashion. So if I've got a rental property and a little small business, people, you're not quitting your day job.

Speaker 1 Let's just tap into that.

Speaker 1 And so a common, common theme and what we do every day is meet with that, that community, those people that are the backbone of this country that are starving for simple answers to get their kids on payroll, save some taxes, right off their auto, but you know, whatever it is.

Speaker 1 And I love that bread and butter stuff. And so it's just, there's no mystery.
It's not like there's this secret thing like, Mark, how do I save tax?

Speaker 1 It's just, it's just doing the basics and knowing it, understanding it, owning it. And that's, so there's no sexy secret there, except that

Speaker 1 you really can build a wealth that you maybe, maybe never imagined with just those simple base hits. It's not about getting rich quick.
It's not getting rich slow. I want to get rich slow.

Speaker 1 Yeah, adding them on and saving the most with

Speaker 1 that extra time, right? If you're going to moonlight over and above the day, the daytime job, it's keeping as much of that as possible, correct? Oh, yeah. See,

Speaker 1 you give me a day, you know, and there's nothing wrong with that W-2 day job, work corporate America. That's cool, it's great.
Let's go do your taxes, bend over.

Speaker 1 I can't do anything, I mean, you're screwed. But if you've got that small business, oh,

Speaker 1 now that little 1099 sum you were getting, that's like that's a golden ticket. Now, I'm writing off home office, auto, dining, computers, electronics, your cell phone, family members.

Speaker 1 I'm funding a Roth IRA. You can set up your own damn 401k.
Now, we're going to take all that money and start deploying it. And we're going to be efficient.
We're going to be lean and mean.

Speaker 1 And that I can, you can pay 30% less in taxes on that money than your day job. Your day job, you're screwed.
Let's go get this other money that's a lot cheaper to get.

Speaker 1 Everybody wants to talk about making money. Why don't we talk about saving money? It's easier to save money than make money.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it is. That's true.

Speaker 1 It's a very simple statement, but it's very true. I'm sitting here.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's true. It's because it's not always easy to make it.
Let me talk to you about this, Mark. You know, they talk about tax brackets, right?

Speaker 1 And I think some of this terminology, you know, W-2s in X bracket, if you're self-employed and small business owner, like, what's the lead?

Speaker 1 And there's always the talk, you know, like, especially like three or four years ago, like Trump pays like an effective 8% tax rate, like, or whatever it was, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 But, but for the average small business guy, and even the W-2, because we have people that are both, they're listening to our show, that are small business owners, and that maybe are W-Tu thinking going to small business.

Speaker 1 What's the least you could truly get away with, like legally, you know, doing it the right way? But, like, what kind of tax brackets should the average small business guy be in?

Speaker 1 Well, very,

Speaker 1 a very perceptive question. And I'm going to try to answer this simply.

Speaker 1 So, everybody, there's seven tax brackets out there,

Speaker 1 and the highest being 37.5%.

Speaker 1 Okay, cool.

Speaker 1 No one pays in total 37.5% in federal taxes because it's graduated. So when we have brackets, that's our bracket on the next dollar after a certain limit.

Speaker 1 So once everybody kind of gets that, that this is a graduated bracket, that's point number one. So then what we want to look at is what is your effective tax rate?

Speaker 1 So like after we take all the killer write-offs we can think of,

Speaker 1 lots of options, What's that effective rate? And for some people, it could be zero. For others, it could be 35%.

Speaker 1 Now, it is generally true, the more money you make, the more tax rate you're going to pay,

Speaker 1 a larger percentage of your income and taxes. But then we've got strategies and tools.

Speaker 1 For example, why Trump was such an anomaly, and he really wasn't, is just the Wall Street Journal wanted to point this out, is that he is a real estate professional.

Speaker 1 I've got his tax return here on my laptop. I got Joe Biden's and his from 2016.
He was a real estate professional. Now, you've talked about here on your show all the time.

Speaker 1 If you want to invest in short-term rentals, long-term rentals, do real estate and deploy money in real estate, it's not for everybody, but we have depreciation strategies and investment strategies that can offset my income over here.

Speaker 1 Trump had so much in depreciation from his hotels and in real estate investments, he was able to wipe out his income from the apprentice and his retail.

Speaker 1 So his effective rate at the end of the day was very low.

Speaker 1 Now, someone else that just works a day job, has no write-offs, makes 500 grand a year at Verizon as a VP, okay, you're going to be paying 30% or more in an effective rate because you're not using the strategies to your in the best way.

Speaker 1 And I'd like before we started the show too, you were talking about, hey, don't hate the player. Just hate the game.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, if you don't, if you don't like the Trump paid 6%, don't be pissed at Trump. Yeah, exactly.
Just learn the rules.

Speaker 1 And so when you understand the rules, you're like, okay, I could invest in oil and gas. I can invest in a little solar.
Oh, I'm going to build a Roth IRA. Peter Thiel's got a $5 billion Roth.

Speaker 1 It's a tax-free ATM. Oh, I'm going to invest in my health savings account and never pay tax on healthcare again.
And these little tools that are out there are amazing and they're not complicated.

Speaker 1 Rich people, okay, here's the last point. Rich people geek out on tax strategies.

Speaker 1 If you want to be rich, start geeking out on some of the stuff and it'll blow your mind because this is where the rich get richer.

Speaker 1 Talking to Mark J. Kohler, main streets,

Speaker 1 tax lawyer. But look, Mark, I'm serious.
Like,

Speaker 1 here's what I don't like. And that's why I really love your energy and your passion on this because it's so real and raw and true.

Speaker 1 Thanks. We sort of, like you said, the rich geek out on it.

Speaker 1 And everyone else almost criminalizes write-offs. Do you notice that temperature, how that's changed like the last 10 years? Like, it's almost like people put it in this camp of like

Speaker 1 a criminal might be strong, but like you'll be talking to someone unethical. Exactly.
That's the better word. And why the hell does that proliferated?

Speaker 1 I think,

Speaker 1 okay, this is hard-hitting. People that don't make a lot of money don't want to look in the mirror and own that.
whether it's lack of determination, laziness, or just knowledge. They'd rather blame

Speaker 1 or put this wealthy person in a box and say, Oh, they're unethical and bad, rather than look in the mirror and go, You know what? I could learn a few things.

Speaker 1 I could freaking, maybe I'm not going to watch TV every night for three hours and I'm going to learn how to digitally market online.

Speaker 1 Or I'm going to, this weekend, I'm going to drive Uber for seven to eight hours and take that money and go buy a rental property next year.

Speaker 1 I mean, can we get off our ass and do something rather than blame the rich for being

Speaker 1 determined?

Speaker 1 I led the witness. That was was hard.
I led the witness.

Speaker 1 I led the witness, Mark. I tend to do that.
Like, you went right where I wanted you to go because it's the truth. That's what, and the truth hurts sometimes.

Speaker 1 It's like, but I do think that's what's happened is it's been criminalized or, you know, bad mouth or what, oh, right. You know, he just writes all things or he's cheating the system or whatever.

Speaker 1 And it's like,

Speaker 1 there's a difference between cheating the system, which is why I love that you're a logger too. Cheating the system because we got to talk about these things.

Speaker 1 And I know that a lawyer is going to tell me, you know, what's what's legal, what's not legal, is cheating the system

Speaker 1 and using the system.

Speaker 1 And dude, you just hit the word I wanted to say. I got to dive in here because this is exactly the word you say.
The tax code, people, everybody, this is so, so important. You want to get theoretical.

Speaker 1 The tax code is built to motivate people to do things.

Speaker 1 Get married, pay less tax.

Speaker 1 A married couple will pay less tax than a single or or married filing separate go put handicap access in your business get a tax credit go buy a solar water heater this whatever or efficient water heater at home depot get a tax credit go buy an electric vehicle get a tax credit go buy real estate and help others have affordable housing take depreciation go do this go do that the tax code all you're doing is using it to help america get better and we'll give you a tax break you get a tax break break for doing good things to help the economy.

Speaker 1 And that's the mind shift.

Speaker 1 The rich are figuring out, hold up, I can make money doing this, save tax, and make Main Street America better. Holy shit, sign me up.
Win, win, win. That's the whole thing.

Speaker 1 It's not what we've been conditioned. by media or whatever else, which is win for me, lose for the government,

Speaker 1 breaking law, pushing the limit. No, like you said, it's set up because

Speaker 1 people smarter than me knew that we needed actions to make this country run. Because everything that you named, Mark,

Speaker 1 actually drives an action that keeps the economy and everything else moving, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 It's crazy. Yeah, there's another classic one right now.
It's the oil and gas tax credit. And there's depletion credits and all this.

Speaker 1 If you want to go drop at any income level, you don't have to be materially participating. You don't have to be, you quit your day job.

Speaker 1 There's funds you can invest in for oil and gas royalties, depletion,

Speaker 1 exploration.

Speaker 1 and invest 100 grand and probably get a $90,000 tax write-off, make cash flow and resell it for $150,000 four years from now.

Speaker 1 The government needs drillers to go get natural gas and oil in the United States on U.S. soil, and we'll give you a tax credit.
And all of a sudden your effective tax rate goes from 25% down to 10%.

Speaker 1 You're making money. You're helping America be self-reliant on natural resources and everybody wins.
And you're the bad guy? Because you found this kick-ass tax strategy? You know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 But it's right. I'm right there.
I'm not crazy, right? Like I'm

Speaker 1 the proliferation of the, you know, the wealthy getting ahead or all that. That's a real thing.
And that drives me crazy.

Speaker 1 Dude, you're a lion. You're not a sheep.
You're a lion. That's it.
I love it. So

Speaker 1 let's talk about,

Speaker 1 I'm going to ask you two questions.

Speaker 1 Our listeners, and

Speaker 1 we're going to couch this as

Speaker 1 small business owners or soon to be after this episode, small business owners.

Speaker 1 One thing they should stop doing

Speaker 1 and one thing they should start doing. If I'm a small, they likely aren't.
I know we look, we got

Speaker 1 800,000 downloads a month on this show.

Speaker 1 So we got a lot of people, probably a lot of different things that they may or may not be doing that you don't know, but they come to you. What's the one thing you tell people to stop doing the most?

Speaker 1 Okay, stop is first. Yeah.
So what do we not

Speaker 1 do? To stop doing if I'm a small business owner? Yep, yep. From an accountant.
Stop thinking. Okay, here it is.
It's a mindset thing. It's going to be easy.

Speaker 1 I got a few others, but stop thinking you're going to find an accountant to do all of this for you.

Speaker 1 Stop thinking that, oh yeah, as soon as I find that accountant, I don't have to worry about this anymore. I'm going to find that perfect accountant that speaks Mark Kohler.

Speaker 1 And by the way, I got a network of a thousand accounts around the country and growing that speak Mark Kohler.

Speaker 1 But you're not going going to find someone that's going to care as much about your finances and future than you.

Speaker 1 Now, you need a good accountant. They're your first mate.
But where are you steering the ship?

Speaker 1 Do you understand what strategies they're doing? Are you understanding what structure you are and why?

Speaker 1 You don't have to know how to do an effing tax return, people, but you need to know what numbers are on it. and how to read it.
A rich person knows their tax return.

Speaker 1 See, just start doing what rich people do. It's super easy.
And they work with their advisor. They don't have an account that just plugs all that crap in and you pick it up two months later.

Speaker 1 They have meetings with their accountant throughout the year, at least quarterly, and going, Hey, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that.
I'm going to start that. I'm going to sell this.

Speaker 1 And it's synergistic. So stop thinking you're going to hire someone to take all of this off your plate.
You're taking the number one thing you should be doing and thinking you're going to delegate it.

Speaker 1 It doesn't work.

Speaker 1 I'm going to boil that down, Mark. That's what I do.
I'm a marketer.

Speaker 1 You need to be the CEO of your tax tax team that you start building today.

Speaker 1 And so your accountant is on the team, but you're the CFO, CF, CFO, or CEO.

Speaker 1 Both. Yeah, both.
Both of the team. And you have to think about it that way because you cannot deal, just like your own business.

Speaker 1 I've got, look,

Speaker 1 I'm marketer. I own five companies now.
I've gone down this road. I tried to delegate the business away.
You know, doesn't work.

Speaker 1 Good luck. No.
It doesn't. Is that right? You know, that's when you get in trouble.
Yeah, it's what gets, I've been in,

Speaker 1 got all the scars. You know, I've done it too.
Done it too. You cannot delegate.
And the taxes, you need to be the CEO of your own tax team.

Speaker 1 And it might be a two-person, two, three-person team, but that's what I just heard you say. And I think we try to delegate the taxes away.
Yep, I love it. So,

Speaker 1 and you lead right into my second point. And it's so easy, people, this mind shift change.
So, number one, you're not going to delegate away

Speaker 1 this tax and legal topic, although you're going to build a team. So I love the way you said that, CEO of that team.
What you are going to do, that's a little different though, is

Speaker 1 I need you to treat your side hustle, your business, like a business.

Speaker 1 We've got to start knowing there's a set of books. There's a methodology here.
I've got to put in tax deposits. I've got to be engaged in the process.

Speaker 1 So many people that have a side hustle, they get this mysterious 1099 from selling something on, you know, they got a 109 from Etsy or eBay or whatever.

Speaker 1 They're getting a little 109 for a side hustle somewhere and they see it as a burden. No, no, no, no, that's a business.
Treat it like that. Treat your rental property like a business.

Speaker 1 When you start to treat your operation like a business,

Speaker 1 it now starts to work for you. And the profit from it can be redeployed into assets that work for you while you're asleep.
And that money can be used to expand and scale.

Speaker 1 But if you don't treat your business like a business,

Speaker 1 it does you no good. It's just a noose around your neck.

Speaker 1 Anyway. So you've got to start owning and being involved and being the CEO of your tax team.
You don't have to do it all. CEOs don't do it all, but you've got to be involved.

Speaker 1 And you've got to, because ultimately, this is what it crystallized for me. And I've gone through this this myself is like thinking through

Speaker 1 the opportunities for the write-offs and other things. There's just things that the accountant's not going to know.
They're not in your business every day.

Speaker 1 They don't know how this was used or that was used. And a receipt's not going to tell them that.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 you have to be involved.

Speaker 1 And let me, no, totally. And you said this at the very beginning of your show.
You want to give actionable items. Okay, let me give you some actionable.

Speaker 1 All of you, at the very least, should have a spreadsheet where you track all of your expenses. Number two, use a credit card or debit card exclusively for your business.

Speaker 1 If you've got an Amax, use it for business. Use your Visa for personal.
Try to start separating your accounting. If you're using QuickBooks Online or some of the easy software platforms, great.

Speaker 1 But just start tracking your expenses.

Speaker 1 You don't know if they're a write-off or not, but if you don't track them, you can't meet with your accountant at the end of the process and carve out the ones that really work for you.

Speaker 1 Bad bookkeeping loses money. So start with some decent bookkeeping.

Speaker 1 Next actionable, get a podcast or some good blogs that you like or video that you follow on YouTube of tax tips.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 other college savings for my kids in an ESA? What is an ESA?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 You know, and everybody's like, what? You know, I mean, it's just cool stuff. Yep.
I love that. That might, that might fall on what they should start doing yes yeah exactly

Speaker 1 stop delegating stop stop delegating start documenting the deed

Speaker 1 i gotta write that down i gotta write that down stop delegating start documenting you know dude that's good uh the interplay you know i mean can you hear me now you're like this is this is what i do just write things you know like i like it um what uh what else should we be doing mark that i mean a lot of people obviously documenting taking control what else what are things we need to start doing?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Just everyone listening should be doing this. And that is

Speaker 1 integrating your family into this business. So let's assume you stopped delegating.
You're starting tracking. You're treating your business like a business.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 and social media or stuffing envelopes or cleaning rental properties our fam this is family i mean do we have to watch the godfather for crying out loud people treat your business like family and 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 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 and 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 a tax write-off

Speaker 1 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.
I love that. I love that.

Speaker 1 Mark J. Kohler, he is Main Street's tax lawyer, tax advisor, and lawyer in one.
I don't want that to get confused. You got to know that before you leave this episode.
But Mark, I love that.

Speaker 1 I'm going to start giving my kids. I got four boys all under the age of 15.

Speaker 1 Oh, my gosh, dude.

Speaker 1 Think about this. Your kids don't pay taxes this year on the first 14 grand and change, 15 grand and change.

Speaker 1 The numbers just changed for inflation. So your kids could earn $14,000 a year at working at McDonald's and pay zero tax.

Speaker 1 No one in America pays tax on their first standard deduction of around 14 grand, let's say. Okay.
So you got four kids that could work anywhere and earn 14 grand. Why aren't they working for you?

Speaker 1 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 FUDA.
There's no workers' comp, and it's outside labor and the right line item. I teach all that.

Speaker 1 We talk about it it on our shows. It's in my books, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 But your four kids, if depending on their age and what they're doing in the business, let's say we're paying them five to 10 grand. Four kids average of seven.
There's four times seven.

Speaker 1 We're at 28 grand. We just got a $28,000 tax write-off.
So you're going to be paying for school, lunch, school, clothes, soccer, football, all that. You're not paying for it anymore, Ryan.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 They're selling books at my table. They're at the event checking people in.
They're ushering people at the event.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 They're not.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I'm doing about one-fifth of what you just said.

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 1 so uh notes taken and that i'm not the only one i mean i'm doing it they know daddy works they're integrated they come i i make it clear they do things they're doing a lot of what you said but i'm not following it the way you're describing so uh ryan offered needs mark caller on

Speaker 1 and i just want to say this for everybody i know our time is almost up here yeah but what could happen i want to warn everybody ryan could get off this podcast and go, I got to call my accountant.

Speaker 1 So he picks up his cell phone, calls his accountant, 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.

Speaker 1 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 and because,

Speaker 1 you know what?

Speaker 1 Nine times out of 10, he's not going to jump on the bandwagon with you because it wasn't his idea.

Speaker 1 And so he's going to be offended that you brought him a tax strategy.

Speaker 1 This is the problem with me trying to educate accountants because they are so scared that they're going to go, oh my gosh, I should have told Ryan that.

Speaker 1 That's what's going on in his head, but he can't say that. So now he's going to poo-poo Mark Kohler, which is BS.

Speaker 1 I've got more credentials and more writings behind me than any other accountant in the country on this. And I'll stand behind it.
And I teach other accountants this.

Speaker 1 They just got to own it, go to their clients and go, you know what?

Speaker 1 I got to be a better advisor for you. We're going to put the kids on payroll in 2025.
Let's do it. And Ryan's going to go, great.
You're not going to be mad at at him.

Speaker 1 You're going to say, thanks for pulling your head out of your butt. Let's go.

Speaker 1 And so people, when you go to talk to your accountant, if they're going to poo-poo good strategy and make you feel like a child, which they can do, you say, bye, you're fired.

Speaker 1 I'm going to go to Mark Kohler's network of Main Street Tax Pros around the country, interview one of those because I had to take 900 quiz questions, watch 75 videos, be in a training with Mark every day and speak Mark Kohler so I can get a consistent effing answer between my lawyer and accountant.

Speaker 1 That's where you go and you fire your dumbass accountant. Sorry, I got a little off the chart there.
That's all right. I love it.

Speaker 1 I think I'd approach my accountant with, you know, why aren't you doing this? I like to approach mine, you know, kind of like my wife. I like to come with sugar, not the salt.

Speaker 1 You know, like, hey, baby, you know.

Speaker 1 So, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to him gently, you know. There you go.

Speaker 1 You say, he'll get certified with Mark Kohler. He'll bring your clients.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, you know what? I think Duolingo, you know, it's not Spanish. It's not French.
We need Mark Kohler on the Duolingo. The newest language to learn.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Brought to you.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I love it. Let me ask you one thing as we close out, Mark.

Speaker 1 Talk to me because there's these fine lines between law and finance and tax and all that. And I know you're not a financial advisor,

Speaker 1 but something tells me a lot of these things are all tied together. Where do you fall on the crypto bus?

Speaker 1 Where do you go? Then you throw out crypto. Okay, I'll answer both those questions.
First of all,

Speaker 1 I am a financial advisor. Everybody, your accountant should be a financial advisor.
Exactly. But I'm not, but listen, I'm not an investment advisor.

Speaker 1 I don't tell you what to buy and sell. That's an investment advisor.
So, Ryan, the way I like to say, yeah, I give damn great financial advice.

Speaker 1 Get out of debt, save more, get organized, and quit effing around on the weekends. That's great financial advice.
There's no license for a financial advisor.

Speaker 1 There's a license for an investment advisor, which I am not. I'm not going to tell you what to buy or sell.

Speaker 1 So there's the distinction. And I think people should be asking their accountant for financial advice.
Holy shit, tell me what. I've done 10,000 consults.
You kind of alluded to that at the beginning.

Speaker 1 You're saying, Mark, in 10,000 consults, what have you learned? And I can share that financial wisdom.

Speaker 1 That's not a, I'm not, there's not a problem there anyway crypto freaking love it i got some xrp that's kicking ass right now i'll tell you that yeah me too i saw that today it's up like 10 i bought it like 60 cents like four months ago

Speaker 1 so we've hosted now in the last four years three national crypto tax summits for two days i teach all the strategies of crypto mining the metaverse staking

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 1 all the different strategies inside the uh an IRA with crypto.

Speaker 1 And we have crypto IRAs at our directed IRA company. All of my XRP is in a Roth IRA, tax-free.

Speaker 1 And so we just love crypto.

Speaker 1 But I'm not telling everybody, don't go buy crypto if you don't know it.

Speaker 1 You're not making a specific, and that's why I didn't ask because I wanted you to, you know, we both like XRP, obviously. However, we're not saying go buy XRP.

Speaker 1 I mean, I'm asking you for exactly how you answered, which is more

Speaker 1 how the tax world and setting it up properly and all that sort of thing, which you kind of nailed. I mean, is it, it's obviously

Speaker 1 that could be a whole show in itself. Maybe that'll be part B.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Mark. Yeah.

Speaker 1 One of my trainings for our accountants in our program, they have a whole module on crypto so that they understand how it's taxed, how to transact with it, how to take crypto in your business.

Speaker 1 The IRS has a task force on crypto. It's the blockchain people.
It's public.

Speaker 1 There's prosecutions now. More and more of people trying not to pay taxes on their crypto transactions.
Don't go there.

Speaker 1 And by the way, everybody there's no such thing as a crypto tax there's freaking crypto like the dollar that's what it is if you make money you're gonna pay tax deal with it so i teach a lot on that we got a lot of podcasts on it too

Speaker 1 mark

Speaker 1 what fueled you like what you know like there's this abundance of energy obviously neither one of us are sheep uh you know

Speaker 1 so but

Speaker 1 you know you're obviously not watching netflix reruns but but i always like when I see successful people, I end up asking this question.

Speaker 1 I've asked Grant Cardone, I've asked a lot of people, and everybody has a different spin on it. But what fuels you? What drives success for you? Well, it's the Rockstar Recovery Lemonade.

Speaker 1 It's hydration and energy boost all in one. Zero carbs, zero sugar.
I love this. And

Speaker 1 by the way, Rockstar sent me a whole box.

Speaker 1 Exponent is the official sponsor of right about now.

Speaker 1 So, and they have no artificial flavors, no artificial energy, plant-based adaptogens so uh i like that i'll send you a case of this

Speaker 1 i love it i love it i love it yeah um well what fuels me is i just

Speaker 1 i just there's something deep inside of me i just love the american dream i love people being able

Speaker 1 to be independent and take control of their own destiny. And if I can be a part of that magic and

Speaker 1 helping them find their one thing.

Speaker 1 And and I love that from city slickers with Billy Crystal when he went out and the you know to move cattle and he's like and Curly told him there's just one thing and he's like well what's the one thing what's that one thing for you and if you and and

Speaker 1 building

Speaker 1 a future and wealth I hate to tell everybody I'm sorry we don't live in caves anymore we've got to make it a priority it's a it's a huge issue with the quality of life and our relationships and if I can find out that one thing I love to do that passion and and I can help you take that to the next level and build it and make it self-sustaining and you can leave a legacy with your family.

Speaker 1 I just love that. And so that's what I'm all about and helping people find their American dream and then live it.

Speaker 1 The devil's in the details. And Mark, you're on it.

Speaker 1 Hey, Mark, work everybody, keep up with what you're doing. Well, everybody, easiest place in the world, markjkohler.com.
Mark Jay is injolly, kohler, k-o-h-l-e-r.com.

Speaker 1 and if you're a tax advisor out there or want to be a tax advisor holy i'll equip you right now holy crap to go out and make money as it the industry needs you the tax industry is on fire ryan it's just really ugly right now and people need good tax advisors so we're out there business owners my podcast is there our law firm you can get a consult with one of our lawyers right now to help build your plan it's very affordable we'd love to be a boutique for the small business owner across america directed ira anyway all the resources are at markjkohler.com workshops the social media i'm just honored to be here honored to be here brian thanks so much for having me hey mark my pleasure man we'll do it again if you're up for it and we'll have show links to all of mark's stuff mark j kohler we need more marks we appreciate you brother thank you man hey guys you're able to find us ryanisright.com you'll find highlight clips links to mark's stuff And of course, social media.

Speaker 1 That's where we're growing. That's where we're blowing up.
And check us out on YouTube. You got to watch this episode.
Mark looks so good.

Speaker 1 We'll let him forgive the rock star, but you know, we'll get him on the exponent.

Speaker 1 We'll get them switched. But

Speaker 1 we appreciate Mark for bringing it from Main Street to your home. We got you next time, Edie Time, right here on Right About Now.

Speaker 3 This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities.

Speaker 3 Thanks for listening.