« BackHow to defer US taxestaylor.townSubmitted by surprisetalk 3 hours ago
  • nayuki 40 minutes ago

    > Loaned money isn't taxable income, so you can save/spend it without affecting your tax rate.

    > Death is a popular escape from deferred taxes. When you die, your obligations to the government vanish. Your heirs inherit assets/property at market value. Their assets depreciate from new cost bases.

    The article talks about taxes in the USA, and I think the treatment of taxes at death is unfair by giving a significant tax advantage to people who hold assets till death, especially with the step-up basis. The way Canada handles it seems more reasonable to me:

    > Capital property generally includes real estate, such as homes and cottages, investments like stocks, mutual funds or crypto-assets, and personal belongings like artwork, collections or jewelry. When a person dies, they are considered to have sold all their property just prior to death, even though there is no actual disposition or sale. This is called a deemed disposition and may result in a capital gain or capital loss

    -- https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individ...

    In exchange, Canada does not have an inheritance tax. All taxation is resolved in the estate of the deceased person before the money or assets are passed on without further taxation.

    • jeffreyrogers 2 hours ago

      Pretty good overview of how/why these deductions reduce your taxable income. Couple of things to note.

      Depreciation is recaptured if you sell an asset for more than its depreciated basis. People sometimes get into trouble with this if they rapidly depreciate real estate and then sell it. Even if you sell for less than your purchase price it is possible to owe taxes.

      You also aren't going to be able to pay no taxes since you do need to realize some income to pay for mortgage/rent, food, transportation, etc. I guess if you had assets you could borrow against it would be possible to pay for these using the loan proceeds (which are not taxable).

      • PopAlongKid 12 minutes ago

        >Death is a popular escape from deferred taxes. When you die, your obligations to the government vanish. Your heirs inherit assets/property at market value. Their assets depreciate from new cost bases.

        The article only addresses a subset of economic activity. The larger portion of the adult population are wage earners or retirees, not business owners. For them, large investments in Traditional IRAs or 401k plans are most definitely not able to escape upon death the income taxes that were deferred.

        • hirako2000 2 hours ago

          I'm not sure to understand how deferring taxes is a better deal than paying it here and now.

          Since I'm not a financial adviser, someone asked me take on which 4k projector to buy last Xmas.

          I explained that the tech has improved so much lately, they've become somewhat affordable, I recommended a model and pointed ou that he would certainly get a better device next Xmas, for half the price. I thought he would follow suit given his budget was a bit below the retail price. That would just wait.

          His response was he would rather go ahead and up the budget a few hundred dollars to get it right away. That projectors will surely get much better by next year, but that he, certainly, will not.

          • deadbabe a minute ago

            We should force cost basis to rise some % every few years, in order make tax due on unrealized gains. How would that throw a wrench into these tax deferral schemes?

            • yonixw 37 minutes ago

              > For your leveraged investments, pay yourself in refinanced cash when your investments appreciate and/or credit rates drop.

              In other words: Gamble that (1) your investments appreciate, or (2) that you will find credit rates drop when convenient.

              In 1 word: Gamble.

              So, either you are rich and have spare money to gamble, which sure, might be beneficial against taxes. But you could also gamble against any other sector (stocks, housing, startups...)

              Or, if you are not rich, just put it in the 401k (or eq).

              • SoftTalker an hour ago

                It seems to me that I'm running into more people who just don't file their taxes. They wait for the IRS to send them a letter saying how much they owe, and they just pay that.

                I can't figure out the thought process of someone who finds this sensible. Maybe there isn't one.

                • davidfekke 2 hours ago

                  Is this advice from Wesley Snipes?

                  • codemog an hour ago

                    > If you aren't actually reinvesting capital, pay your damn taxes. Don't be an asshole.

                    Why? So my government has more missiles to blow up children? No thanks.

                    • fogzen 39 minutes ago

                      You can’t legally reclassify all your expenses as reinvestment. The IRS will determine what is actually an expenditure, and there are rules around it.

                      • dleslie 2 hours ago

                        That's a great deal more complicated than our TFSA and RSP programmes, here in Canada.

                        • kg 2 hours ago

                          > Defer US taxes by reinvesting your taxable income into the economy as business expenses, depreciating assets, etc.

                          Be really careful when doing this. Make sure you have a great accountant - if you go more than a few years without turning a measurable profit, your risk of being audited apparently goes up. My accountant personally cautioned me about this since my business has been in an R&D phase for 5 years so we've been showing a small loss every year. The last thing you want is for the IRS to decide you've been cheating on your taxes.

                          • tonymet an hour ago

                            tax penalities are low interest loans, so you can invest the money and pay the IRS the penalties at the end of the year.

                            • buellerbueller an hour ago

                              Or, just pay your taxes. We collectively benefit from them.

                              • 3rodents an hour ago

                                How to Not Pay Any Taxes: don’t be American.

                                Living tax free is easy enough for everyone except Americans.

                                • oxqbldpxo an hour ago

                                  It is a good thing for life, money and health, to be clear how much is enough. In money frugality always wins. These billionaires they're very miserable. Their faces show stress, worry and animosity. People say money does bring happiness. It is BS. It holds true only if there is health.

                                  • WarmWash 2 hours ago

                                    If what was supposed to be your tax dollars is instead going towards giving more people work to do (and hence generate more taxes) the government will be happy.

                                    • jimt1234 2 hours ago
                                      • fredgrott an hour ago

                                        Funny thing, states like CA, TX, TN going after folks who thought it good idea to register vehicles in MN and not pay their own local state sales taxes...

                                        Please consult a real tax lawyer before even following such advice...

                                        Why? They have skin in the game such losing their license if they do something wrong and illegal...

                                        • uoflcards22 an hour ago

                                          super cool

                                          • josefritzishere 2 hours ago

                                            This feels like a great way to get audited by the IRS. It does not feel like sound advice.