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How to defer US taxes

taylor.town

11–20 of 186 posts

Re: How to defer US taxes

#11
post #6
post #2

> 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…

Can you elaborate? As a business owner in the U.S. I can opt to reinvest all revenue back into the business, thus would show zero net profit but (presumably) increase my company’s value. (And remember there are other taxes and fees paid to various governments, not just tax on income/profit, so it’s not typically like nothing gets paid.)

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/know-the-difference-between-a-h...

Re: How to defer US taxes

#12

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 s…

Not sure I understand your example. If you always wait for the new version of a product to release the following year then you are never going to buy anything.

Re: How to defer US taxes

#14
post #2

> 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…

The point is creating failed businesses is legal and tax deductible.

Re: How to defer US taxes

#15
post #6
post #2

> 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…

Can you elaborate? As a business owner in the U.S. I can opt to reinvest all revenue back into the business, thus would show zero net profit but (presumably) increase my company’s value. (And remember there are other taxes and fees paid to various governments, not just tax on income/profit, so it’s not typically like nothing gets paid.)

You can't reclassify profit as reinvestment to show zero net profit. (If you could every business would have an internal hedge fund or private equity business and would show zero net profit).

Re: How to defer US taxes

#17

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

I don't know if you're right or wrong, but it is an incredibly common tactic and done all the time by many businesses and people. There are of course ways to do this that are less noticeable by the IRS (as acknowledged in the article) and it doesn't seem like they have the capacity to investigate and audit the vast amount of this practice. My understanding is they are typically focused on fraud and/or folks simply not filing.

Re: How to defer US taxes

#18

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 s…

The projector prices are a scam except for Christie and Barco

Re: How to defer US taxes

#19
post #10

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 s…

Deferring taxes is essentially an interest-free loan from the government to you. You can take that money, invest it, and then keep most of the earnings when you eventually pay the taxes. There are also some loopholes where capital gains taxes deferred until after death just don't get paid at all. This is the "step-up basis" where your inheritors get to reset the basis of capital assets and neither you nor they has to…

Yes, and when you do pay it's a lower "real" tax (due to inflation)

Re: How to defer US taxes

#20
post #6
post #2

> 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…

Can you elaborate? As a business owner in the U.S. I can opt to reinvest all revenue back into the business, thus would show zero net profit but (presumably) increase my company’s value. (And remember there are other taxes and fees paid to various governments, not just tax on income/profit, so it’s not typically like nothing gets paid.)

>As a business owner in the U.S. I can opt to reinvest all revenue back into the business,

Not entirely, no. Any of those reinvestments that count as capital expenditures aren't immediately deductible, but only on a throttled schedule, which is why the concept of depreciation exists in tax law:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15061439

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