Want to learn how to pay no taxes? Read on. I’ve been studying up on tax laws since 1999.
Ever since I was 25, I paid more than $100,000 a year in taxes. You don’t get a thank you card if you pay over $1 million dollars in taxes in case you’re wondering. Instead, you get the government hooked on your juice with fishing letters from the IRS asking for more!
I didn’t mind paying my fair share of taxes when I was in my 20s because I was excited to progress in my career. I felt lucky to just have a job that allowed me to save like crazy and help others financially through charitable donations. As I grew older, my views on income taxes changed.
Since the turn of the century, we’ve witnessed a devastating war in Iraqistan that by some estimates has taken over 1 million lives. We’ve observed Congress do nothing to pass a balanced budget since 2008 while giving themselves pay raises every single year.
During the 2009-2010 financial crisis, the government doled out massive bailouts to institutions such as AIG while allowing executives to pay themselves millions of dollars. AIG even had the audacity to contemplate suing the federal government this year for wrongful terms! What the hell.
I felt sick to my stomach supporting such atrocities by a government who also discriminates against certain citizens while displaying no fiscal discipline. Why can’t we all be treated equally? Why is there a marriage penalty tax? How come your Social Security benefits go back to the government if you die without a surviving spouse? I don’t know.
Pay Less Taxes Because The Government Is Inefficient
When it takes 18 months for the city to fix a noisy and dangerous manhole cover, perhaps paying tens of thousands of dollars in state taxes is not worth it anymore. How about $5 bucks instead?
John F. Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Unfortunately, those words were spoken on January 20, 1961. Most of us weren’t alive then since the median age in America is only 35. I’m afraid our society has permanently adopted a one-way take, take, take mentality.
I think I’ve paid my dues. Unless you’ve paid as much in taxes, please don’t criticize me for writing an article on how to help you legally pay less taxes. To build wealth, we must minimize our expenses. Taxes are one of the largest expenses we’ll ever incur.
The Best Way To Pay Little-To-No-Taxes
Besides earning less money, the best way to pay little to no taxes is to make your income equal your itemized deductions. Single filers get a standard deduction of $12,000 while married couples get $24,000 for 2020+. Therefore, if you want to pay no taxes, then make up to $12,000 a year as an individual or up to $24,000 a year as a couple and voila! You won’t pay any taxes.
The problem is no single person or married couple can live off only $12,000 or $24,000 in income, respectively. Hence, forget about the pitiful standard deduction. Go for the itemized deduction which includes home mortgage interest, property taxes, and charitable givings.
Obviously you need a mortgage to be able to pay mortgage interest and property taxes, so consider owning a primary residence already. The government subsidizes your ownership by allowing you to write of your mortgage interest and property taxes.
If you want to truly make money in real estate, then you’ve got to own more than your primary. One way is by buying a rental property. With a rental property, you also get to take advantage of depreciation and other expenses associated with operating the property. Therefore, you earn income more tax efficiently.
As for charity, give as much as you can. It is better to give to causes you are passionate about rather than pay more taxes to the government who ends up wasting your money.
The below are three examples with some notes on how to minimize your tax bill.
How To May No Taxes On Job Income Or Passive Income
How To Pay No Taxes Notes
* To generate passive income, you’ve first got to save a lot. You can replace my passive income examples with normal wage income if you like. The effect is the same.
* What is peculiar is that one still has to pay property taxes to the state. At least property and state income taxes are deductible and the money is not going to the federal government. You can choose to move to a different state to lower your tax liability. Changing citizenship on the other hand is much more difficult.
* Starting in 2018, there is a SALT cap limit of $10,000 per person. If you get married, you actually don’t get $20,000 but still only get a $10,000 limit. This is going to be a net negative for many higher income earners who own property in expensive coastal cities.
* A $30,000 mortgage interest deduction can be calculated as a 3% mortgage interest rate off of a $1 million dollar loan. Too bad the mortgage limit is now $750,000 for 2020+. Some may poo poo paying interest, but I say paying interest with other people’s money to build wealth is much better than paying taxes to the government.
* If you have a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of $200,000 as an individual, or $250,000 as a married couple, you’ll also have to pay a 3.8% surcharge tax on all capital gains and dividend income. This is called the Net Interest Income Tax. The government does not have the guts to cut spending, hence more taxes are inevitable.
* You might be wondering how does someone survive if their entire $60,000 in income goes to charity, mortgage interest, and property taxes? The answer lies in living off your savings.
The Standard Deduction
The standard deduction was increased to $12,000 per individual and $24,000 per couple in 2018. In other words, any income you make up to these levels is tax free. If you are in the 10-12% TAX BRACKET you pay zero percent tax on long term capital gains and qualified dividends up to $77K.
How To Pay Zero Taxes on Rental Property Income
How To Pay No Taxes Notes
* Owning a rental property is like owning a business. All expenses related to running your rental property are deductible from the rental income. Just be careful that deductions start phasing out after you make more than around $166,000 a year.
* A key part of the expense is depreciation. Depreciation is a non-cash expense to provide a fair way for the normal depreciation of your property.
* There’s no escaping property taxes again, but at least it is deductible. It’s important to convince the city your property is worth the least amount possible to pay the least amount of property taxes.
* It’s best to receive no rental income while you are in a higher tax bracket. Once you’ve retired, you’ll probably be in a lower tax bracket and should receive more rental income given your rent will be higher and mortgage interest and amortization will be lower.
Rental Property Is Less Passive
The only thing about owning rental property is that it scores low on the passive investing scale. The older and richer you get, the less you want to deal with maintenance and tenants. This is where investing in real estate crowdfunding platforms like Fundrise and CrowdStreet, my two favorites, come in.
Real estate crowdfunding allows you to invest in commercial real estate around the country with potentially higher returns without any grunt work.
For example, there is huge valuation and cap rate differences today between expensive coastal city real estate and heartland real estate. With real estate crowdfunding, an investor can arbitrage the valuation and cap rate differential for potential profits.
There’s no reason employees need to be stuck paying $4,500 a month for a crappy two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco or Manhattan when they can rent a massive house for half the price in Austin, Texas.
How To Pay No Taxes On Business Income
Notes On How To Pay No Taxes On Business Income
* Starting your own successful business is harder than just working a day job, but it’s one of the most gratifying things you can do. A lot of your normal living expenses can be considered business expenses. For example, you can have annual board meetings in Rio de Janeiro if you want. The flights, meals, and accommodations are all expensable. Nobody says your annual board meeting has to be in a place of suffering. Everybody should at least start their own website today to take advantage of the internet and the 3 billion people online.
* As an employer and employee, you get to contribute up to $19,500 to your Solo 401K + 20% of operating profits. In this case, the person contributes $18,000 + $13,000 = $31,000 that doesn’t get taxed. You can also contribute $5,000 for yourself and for your spouse in a traditional IRA. Eventually you will have to pay taxes on these pre-tax retirement accounts, but not now.
See: How To Save Over $100,000 Pre-Tax In A SEP-IRA And Solo 401k
* The business has a net profit after tax of $16,800, however you’ve got so many more tax shields at your disposable which can easily wipe out the tax liability.
* Business taxes are one of the most complex taxes to calculate. The above is just a simple example of how a cupcake owner with $100,000 in revenue might not have to pay any taxes at all.
How To Pay Less Taxes On Business Income Part II
Notes On How To Pay Less Taxes
After Gawker Global filed for bankruptcy, Fortune Magazine wrote an amazing expose regarding how Gawker Global created a Hungarian subsidiary to transfer revenue to in order to pay only a 5% effective tax rate instead of a 34% effective US tax rate. I’ve put together a sample income statement of the parent company above that reflects a huge tax savings thanks to inter-company dealings.
Recommendations On Paying Less Taxes
Start Your Own Small Business
I encourage everyone to start their own small business. You get a lot more flexibility with deductions as you can see in the example above. The best way to start a business is create a website like mine by signing up for a hosting company like Bluehost, which costs less than $4/month. You get a free domain name for one year too.
Once you’ve got your simple website up and running, you help legitimize your business. There’s no need to incorporate as an LLC. Just be a sole proprietor, report your income on your schedule C, deduct all your expenses, and pay taxes on your operating profit.
Whenever I spend money on travel, it is largely a business expense because I’m always prospecting for potential clients. I expense a portion of my car lease payment given I drive down to the Peninsula to work at my consulting clients. Many of my meals are also expensed due to client luncheons and dinners.
Finally, I contribute over $50,000 a year pre-tax to a Solo 401k because I run my own business. You can check out my step-by-step guide on how to start your own website today. Once you’ve got your own website, you’ve helped legitimized your business.
Manage Your Finances In One Place
I recommend signing up for Personal Capital, a free financial management tool online that helps you track your net worth, analyze your investments for excessive fees, and manage your cash flow. I ran my 401k through their 401k Fee Analyzer and found out I was paying $1,700 a year in fees I had no idea I was paying!
They’ve also come out with their incredible Retirement Planning Calculator that uses your linked accounts to run a Monte Carlo simulation to figure out your financial future. You can input various income and expense variables to see the outcomes.
Updated for 2020 and beyond.
Though I am not sure if it makes a huge tax difference for the very wealthy, but for a solid middle class person like me, I have an HSA (Health Savings account) from my work and I can put in it about $280 per month tax free. It goes from my gross pay and so my HSA has tax free money. Of course, HSA can only be used for qualified medical (and dental) expenses, but you cannot avoid medical expenses forever. There is also no cap on how much the balance can be, only how much you can put in it tax free per year. I have put in the max for a couple of years until recent, when I needed money for other things. Still I put in $100 per month and the balance is getting close to 10K now. I don’t have to worry about going to a specialist for a root canal or an extra crown. I can pay for it. If my wife or kid needs something medical, I can pay for that too. I have had HSA now for ten years and it has done miracles. Whenever you use it, remember the IRS is paying with you.
Wish there were similar opportunities here in India. The scenario is not quite the same here.
interesting grade level examples, the assumption is on most that you have plenty of money to begin with to live of – not realistic for 99.99% of the population.
I am a 31 year old, mother of two under two, and a perpetual student (currently considering leaving my PhD program to pursue part time work remotely).
I am increasingly interested in learning the aforementioned tools/skillset s to support my husband’s business as well as friend/family members working towards financial independence. Would you be willing and able to work with me to learn from/create a curriculum to help hone these TIMELY tools?
God bless you for your magnanimity.
Is this based on filing as sole proprietor or LLC?
As far as I know, most 401K contributions are already free from tax and so you can’t count it again as a deduction.
? What do you think a tax deduction is? It’s money you don’t have to pay taxes on. If you didn’t take it as a deduction you would be paying taxes for money that you put in your 401k.
If you receive a W2, your 401(k) contributions are already deducted from the income you’ll report on your tax return. The only time you would include 401(k) contributions as a deduction are if you’re self-employed and paying into a self-employed version of a pre-tax 401(k).
Deductions for state taxes or mortgage interest are UNFAIR.
I have worked since 1970 and had several mortgages but have never had enought deductions to file long form. Why should I pay all my taxes when you rich people with your overpriced mansions get all these writeoffs?
GET RID OF ALL WRITEOFFS AND CREDITS!
FLAT TAX!
Better yet, replace federal income tax with a federal SALES tax!
We already have a sales tax is most states.
The $10,000 SALT cap for 2018 and beyond is a step in your direction + the doubling in standard deductions.
just move to puerto rico and live there half a year
If you live in New York and your income is from NY, then you have to pay NYS taxes even if you live full or part time in another state. New York closed this loop hole in 2010 when a lot of millionaires decided to live 6 months and 1 day in sunny FLA.
Financial Samurai,
I need help. I make 150k a year and have to save $1,500 each month to pay taxes at years end.
I have a lot of bills, mainly 3 mortgages on 2 homes totaling 9k, 450$ credit card payment, utilities, tuition and some life Insurance. I was thinking of getting a second job to pay for sons college but that would put me to save even more for taxes. I made a huge mistake investing heloc cash that was stolen in the great recession and suffering for it.
lets say your bought a building for $1 million. with the mortgage, you are paying close to $2 million. the mortgage interest deduction from the rental income is so tiny, is it really worth not buying the building with cash? at the end of the day is it worth paying more on the mortgage that what you will save on the taxes?
How much were you making at 25 years of age to be paying $100,000 in taxes? Asking for a friend!
Hey Sam,
Do you have a recommendation for a solo 401k that has cheaper fees? There’s a mention in the article, but no link to any particular one…
Thanks!
I am 60 yo, have 5 rental homes as a business. Another Business, Horse lessons. Wife is a contract computer person. Your examples are really geared toward 1 million dollar properties or more. my typical rental house is worth $200,000, interest $5000, HOA $400, tax = $2500, repairs $2000, income for one $16,000. Now, my plan has been to build an income, so I can retire and also leave my Son a money machine. 4 of the 5 homes will be paid off soon. I do realize, that locations change character and am planning on selling then buying in a different area utilizing the 1031 tax exchange. Have done before. But your example numbers are sort of like a hotel in New York. A bit scary. And yes, you have little money to live on. It all works if you have 5 million in the bank then do your examples. And I deduct everything I can and year end taxes just kill me.
I will be earning (and working extremely hard for it) $130000 in online poker by 2022. The tax is about $25%. It’s killing me knowing that, although poker is not integrated with Free Competitive Enterprise, somehow my government thinks my 100K is taxable. Wrong. Well that’s the reason I must make an additional $30000 (to make up for otherwise $70000). This is criminal. I will be getting my talent taxed. The casino should be taxed, but not me. This is casino responsibility. Taxes are not the reason poker exists as acceptable. This is my risk, my sacrifice, and my endurance. I have nothing to do with the US government in this manner.
So, I understand.
I have employment income, and max out my contributions at 20% which is company matched. If I start my own business, can I contribute an additional amount to save additional taxes?
Also consider utilizing savings strategies that grow tax deferred and the money can grow with uninterrupted compound interest over long periods of time. This is called The Infinite Banking Concept. If done correctly, paying taxes only once on the seed and compounding over mulitple generations then you too can be like the Rockefellers and other wealthy Dynasties. Hence the reason I called my business Dynasty Banking!
Some interesting ideas. An HSA is like an IRA for all practical purposes if you have a high deductible health plan. This can shelter an additional 6700-7700 per year.
The paying interest is a sucker bet. If I have the option of paying 30,000 in interest or 30% of that 30,000 in taxes, I’m paying the tax…unless I am leveraging that money to make more. IF it’s interest on my own house, forget it.
Hi, I just graduated from college and got a new job this month in SF Bay Area. The income tax is very high, a total of 35% taken off from my salary. How should I avoid paying this much? Should I create an LLC or an s-corp and report losses to that side business? become a contractor?
What is the best way for a young single professional who is struggling to make ends meet due to high rent, deal with lowering taxes?
Hi,
This article doesn’t make sense. My gross income is around 150k-160k filing jointly. There is no way I can pay no taxes. Do you have any suggestion in my case. Also buying mortgage worth 1million you atleast need 200k as down payment and if you do not take home any money. You will never be able to buy any mortgage.
I can guarantee this genius and ethical hacker…i didn’t know how he did but all i know is that i contacted him after a friend referred me and he helped me with his hacking skills and since then i have been paying lesser tax
So in the first scenario you are taxed 15% on $20k ($3k). So you should subtract the difference from your 28% on $100k ($28k), meaning you get a tax refund of $25k each year?
I am confused. If I make only 23k a year now and want to stay in this tax bracket, what is my best way to lower my taxed income? Ira or 401k? also this is a little different but in my state I we get greatly subsidized health care is you make under 23k, if my income rises about to lets say 25k, is there a way I can put money away in such a way that my over all income stays below 23? Thanks!
if most of your income is from w2, having your own side business no matter how big or small and claiming a net loss is the way to reduce your taxes.
I have a friend that has a wine blog where he makes about 10k a year off ads and consulting. He deducts almost 100k in actual wine as business expenses (he needs to drink wine in order to blog about it no?) and claims a 90k loss that he writes against his w2 income. Party will probably end for him soon but so far it’s been good (he has claimed net profit some years).
WHY WORK??
ugh.. it’s tax season again and I’ve been dreading it..
I just got my taxes back and I have to write a check to Feds for an additional $19k for a total 2016 tax bill of $88k AND to the great state of CA, I have to write a check for an additional $8k for a total CA tax of $28069.. Thanks to $6k on AMT and another $3k for O’bamacare tax.
I’m 58 and have been asking myself, why should I bother to keep working when i’m paying 37% for taxes (37% when you add Fed, State, SS, Medicare tax. Thankfully I have enough to retire on, so I think this may be the year!!
It makes me sick paying this to the gov for worthless wars and welfare for those that choose not to work or take advantage of the system.. Yes, I’ve become very cynical in my old age…
I can stop working.. pull out $72k annually from my investments, and save $20k per year by getting subsidized health care from O’bummer.. and sit on the beach drinking mai-tai’s!
Exactly. I stopped in 2012 to make much less money and I am SO MUCH HAPPIER! The best thing I’ve done is start a business with this website and be more free.
You can always go John Galt too :)
I guess I’m WAY out of your league for this to help me. I raised 3 kids who are all out on their own now. I work as a school nurse and another part-time job on the weekends for a total of $35K. Because my kids are grown and because I am within 10 months of paying off my home, I am paying Federal AND State taxes this year. They want another $1,000 of my money so that what I tried to save for an emergency will now be depleted. How can these principals work in my situation??
Just so you know, I file single and I have an excellent credit score of 825. I have credit card debt of about $2500. I’m afraid allowing more to be taken out of my paycheck will result in my not being able to pay household expenses. Any thoughts???
if you are not already, you could reduce your taxable income by putting into a 401k if your company offered it, or an IRA if your company did not offer it..
But taking more money out she my not be able to make monthly expenses?
I filled for bankruptcy chapter 7, 6 months ago, and got a letter 2 moths ago that i was granted and my case was closed. Couple days ago i received a letter from Arizona Department of Revenue saying i owe taxes from period ending in 12/31/2004., 12 years ago, and that i have 15 days to pay. According to them i owed 240.07 but they are now charging me 466.64 Is this right. I feel like this is buishit. They are calling it Bankruptcy Discharge. Should fight against this. Can they charge me for tax that i never knew, and never received anything from them in 12 years. Can someone help me on how to deal with this. I don’t hear pay for it. I think is an absurd. thank you.
Send them a copy of your bankruptcy discharge. It is also helpful if you can get in touch with an individual revenue agent and get them to look at your case. Do not pay anything no matter what they tell you, a single payment could be construed as affirmation of your debt and will only spur them on to collect the rest of it and possibly other taxes you might not know about either.
I cannot agree with you more on multiple points, great article, great way of thinking, thank you for sharing.
You will see my email ID with this comment, you mention that for the past several years you have been doing your own taxes so that you can understand the nuances and create pro forma scenarios such as AMT etc, do you have those in Excel that I can see? I have been trying hard to create an Excel that replicates the 1040 but it’s proving to be next to impossible.
Please help! I just turned 33. Have been working as a business owner in a hectic, high risk, exhausting industry for 13 years hoping for the right opportunity to come along and just as I was about to throw in the towel and take a new direction in life…. BAM! $800k in profit over the past year. Most of my business expenses related to this profit were incurred before the end of 2014 and I collected most of the receivables this year without many expenses to offset the income. I file cash basis as an S-Corp. This is pretty much a one shot business lick. I haven’t made any decent new money in 2015 and I may never make decent money again in this industry. I’ve maxed out retirement accounts (SEP IRA) and spent money on everything that I can justify for the business that has some amount of benefit to me professionally. After all this my CPA is telling me that I’m in the highest tax bracket and where I sit currently for 2015 I’ll owe approximately $185k in taxes!!! I just can’t stomach that amount. I feel like there has to be ways to not give the government that kind of money to squander. I risked every dime I had to invest into this high risk endeavor, slept on a blowup mattress for 10 months 1500 miles away from home and worked 12-14 hrs a day 7 days a week to make it happen. I stuck it out in a crazy business that has robbed me of any normal social life (constantly moving around the country), worked my tail off and risked it all and was fortunate enough to be in a good place at the right time and take advantage of an opportunity with every bit of energy I could muster. Bottom line is I don’t have faith in the wasteful, runaway train monster governments and don’t want to give them my hard earned money that I want to use to stabilize my family, finally. I know there’s lots of details someone that might be interested in helping me or providing insight would need to know to do so that I’d be happy to provide. I don’t have any mentors with the right experience to turn to so I’m looking for input out here on the web. Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks! Randall
Randall,
I agree with your CPA, maybe because I am a CPA, but mostly because I know there is no legal way out of it. I’ve seen many people in similar situations, they make a bunch of money one year and come in thinking there is some kind of magic dust that takes away tax obligations. That’s what good CPA’s do right? Unfortunately you have to get creative and do things like not receive the money in a certain year and even that strategy is dangerous because the wording of the law say’s something like “receive or could have received” payment for goods/services rendered.
I will caution you to not go in for scams that promise to eliminate your tax bill because chances are if you fall for one of these, you will wish to God you had just paid your taxes when faced with actual jail time, penalties and attorney fees.
Increasing business expenses has got to be the easiest most joyful way to enjoy life. Buy more assets which create more income. ;)
I like your examples Sam, but why not just live very low key? That 61,000 in passive income won’t have you paying more than $10000 in taxes (even living in California). I believe that we all should try to live by the old Spartan adage of never showing wealth. That Lamborgini over there? That’s for suckers… only making the Italians richer. So an extra $40000 a year is way better in my book–something a good investor could turn into over a billion dollars. And that’s power, and freedom to start great businesses for the sake of humanity.
I believe almost everyone is capable of the following:
Step one: get rid of all debt. Any debt over 4% get rid of it. Let’s face it, if you are not a spectacular investor, it is most likely not worth the risk. Without it, you’ll probably have a much clearer head anyway.
Step two: Decide why and where you want to live.
Step three: Locate suitable piece of land, water etc… Decide on a travel trailer, fifth wheel, boat, tiny house, stone house… As a slightly worse alternative, consider owner financing that land, renting it, or buying a fixer upper. But remember a house is not an investment! Thousands of dollars (I mean millions) in property taxes and maintenance are being discarded which could otherwise be put to use in the market or a hedge against inflation (Private gold/metals).
All for quality of life or take a gamble on the corporate ladder? No thanks. I’d rather keep all my money than give 85% of it back to interest, taxes, healthcare, and living expenses. A personal business is a much safer bet, or an educated gamble with infinity times the reward. You must know that since you started this blog, right?
Sure, sounds good. What’s your current situation now e.g. age, net worth, passive income, occupation etc?
I’ve got a new passive income post update for 2016 you can check out here. Progress!