Offshore accounts can be used to avoid taxes, but they're not foolproof. There are stricter regulations now, and hiding money can backfire if not done properly.

Great video, The first $100,000 invested was amazing. But when you hit $300,000 it’s like smashing the glass ceiling! I cried.

Congress isn't debating the loopholes because most of them benefit from the loopholes.

One lesson I've learnt from billionaires is to always put your money to work, and diversifying your investments. I'm planning to invest about $200k of my savings in stocks this year, and I hope I make profits.

Putting well-earned money into the stock market can be over emphasized for first-time investors, unlike a bank where interest is sure thing! Well, basically times are uncertain, the market is out of control, and banks are gradually failing. I am working on a ballpark estimate of $5M for retirement, and I have a good 6-figure loaded up for this, could there be any opportunity for a boomer like me? I'm nearly 60.

Considering who funds the legislators' campaigns, I'm not expecting any tax law changes anytime soon....

I learnt to manage my money through investments and it really works for me. They say money can't buy happiness but poverty can't buy anything.

Well I feel stupid going to work

Step 1: Be company chairman Step 2: Own lots of stock Step 3: Take out a loan using investments as collateral Step 4: Use loan to buy more investments and assets Step 5: Play "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" metaphorically speaking Step 6: ? Step 7: PROFIT!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="204">3:24</a> Giving Jeff Bezos the smile was a nice design touch.

Now show us the justification where its 100% legal for politicians to do insider trading but an average consumer could spend life in prison for doing the same

They need to have middle-class tax loopholes. Like tax-free savings accounts for buying houses or cars.

You keep calling it capital gains BEFORE the investment is sold. That is incorrect - it is unrealized gains. It cannot be taxed because it has no “real” value until it is sold.

There was a crucial detail missing from this video. Estate taxes. Anything inherited over 13.6 mil will owe estate taxes. This is actually decreasing back to 5.49 mil for tax year 2026. So basically, dying is only a "loophole" for the rich not the ultra rich.

My husband and I were fortunate enough to be able to pay off our mortgage early. We were both still working, and took the payment amount that we had been using to pay off our mortgage faster and we put it straight into investments. We were able to retire early because of almost 7 years of putting away what would have been our mortgage payment as well as maxing out our 401K/403B plans. Thankfully we were taught by both of our parents the value of living within our means. Thank you for your advice. I know it will help people. we are interested in investments that could set me up for retirement , I mean I've heard of people that netted hundreds of thousands during these crash, I listened to someone on a podcast who earned over $650K in less than a year, what's the strategy behind such returns?

Also don't forget that the interest expense paid on the massive amounts of debt that billionaires owe is actually tax deductible because it's secured against an asset! Same way that homeowners can deduct the interest on their mortgages, but billionaires get to take full advantage of this tax break as well. However, if you just have a personal loan from the bank, sorry! No deduction for you. Interesting how that works, isn't it?

Step 1: Be a billionaire

Thank you for your research. I find your videos are well done. RIght now I'm keeping an eye on Eledator

feel like hiding money implies economic corruption.

Taxes are so overly-complicated, it's ridiculous

You definitely have my sub. This content is next level. For me Eledator was the turning point. Please keep doing what you do and keep being you, love it.

Doesn’t seem quite right to tap the like button, since I hate the reality you’re exposing…but I appreciate you exposing it, so I did go ahead and tap. Given the enormous influence the wealthy have on Congress, via lobbying and cultivating personal relationships, I’m not terribly hopeful any loopholes will be closed.

The system was designed to favour the rich, these loopholes are designed to further aid them, With inflation at 3.70%, I'm looking to enter the market now and ride it out as the economy improves. I'm putting together a $350,000 portfolio with Stocks and ETF's. Do you have any recommendations with solid cash flow?

The "Loophole" >Takes out a US$40 Billion loan from banks at 2% interest and uses their hundreds of billions in stock value as collateral Average worker: *surprised Pikachu face*

This guy went from Ned Flanders’s to Tame Impala. Living life at the extremes fr

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="380">6:20</a> No, losing money on a business is never a good thing. It would make zero sense to buy a business and lose $10M on it for the sake of saving $4M in taxes.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="455">7:35</a> such a stupid idea - is the government going to give them money for their unrealized losses as well? And for people who think not my problem since i dont have a 100mil realize that normal income taxes started off as only for the super wealthy and now we all have to pay it.

If you can’t beat em, join em! I just tuned in to learn how to avoid taxes when I grow my income.

this is sad tbh

Removing stepped up basis makes a lot more sense than taxing unrealized gains

Using what income do they repay the loans in the "borrow"?

So move to Florida got it

Money is not meant to control people rather it is meant to be put to work producing more money for you. You cannot build wealth without putting money in its rightful place.

We experienced the pinnacle of our era, but it is now gone. Like what happened to Rome, the corrupt administration will bring this nation to an end. My condolences go out to anyone who is close to retiring and may be worried about whether their pension will be enough to pay the rising cost of living. Insane fiscal policy, poor regulatory policy, poor energy policy, and poor foreign policy

Beautifully done you guys. I love all your videos. I like the fact that you don’t post too many videos and take time to make very valuable ones.

So if $160 billion more was collected from "the rich," we would have a balanced budget? No.

Some of these methods are truly for the rich. But some of them are used by normal, everyday Americans. Tax Loss Harvesting and Step-up Basis are not that uncommon.

It's weird how much the male host changed, definetly prefered the mustache one

People want to keep their money. What an idea

But how do they pay back the collateral loan? Do they inherit the debt to their heirs too?

You call it "collecting art", I call it "tax evasion"

The government set these rules, so it’s silly not to follow them if it saves you money.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="41">0:41</a> You could've stopped at "The ultra wealthy don't earn much of their income."

Love how the income tax at the beginning was represented by like 10% of the cheque flying away 😄Americans don't know how good they have it tax-wise.

I've been watching Two Cents for a good while now and I found this episode the most interesting so far!!

It's almost like is not even profitable to be a worker. Workers should do some challenge called "not going to work anymore" it would be hilarious.

Fantastic, how we keep hearing that there is no public money for anything while this happens legally

The thing with regulations is that the rich always find the way to not pay taxes. They have an army of lawyers and financial advisors to help them continue doing that.

Oh so that's why I have to declare that I'm not a US resident on local bank forms when I'm on the other side of the world.

How Phil hides his mustache

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="321">5:21</a> graphic on the right is the 2nd T-Shirt I need from this channel Still waiting for the 1st one to drop (IRS's "Whatevs. Pay me") 😂

That Step up in Basis rule is astonishingly terrible. Here in Canada the capital gains are considered realized at death and the estate has to pay the taxes before distributing to the heirs (except to a spouse - things can be transferred directly to a spouse but the cost basis doesn't change). It makes for messy planning when someone wants to pass down the family cottage, but at least the taxes get paid.

Thanks for the tips. It is the duty of a person to legally minimize their taxes. College loan forgiveness is just one example why paying tax is bad.

I literally just Googled this topic yesterday! Thanks!

In the borrow, buy, die strategy there is one thing I am unclear on. When they die, their estate has to cover the loans and probably have to sell assets to do so. Are the assets sold by the estate to cover the loans also on a stepped up basis, or do they pay the full capital gains tax?

so if we all do the same nobody nationwide pays taxes....

Thanks for the great summary!!

Reminds me of "The Tax Poem." "Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table at which he's fed. Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes are the rule. Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts anyway! Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt. Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think. Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries tax his tears. Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways to tax his @ss. Tax all he has, Then let him know, That you won't be done till he has no dough. When he screams and hollers, Then tax him some more, Tax him till he's good and sore. Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he's laid. Put these words upon his tomb, 'Taxes drove me to my doom...' When he's gone, do not relax, it's time to apply the inheritance tax."

i dont get how financing lifestyle with loans dodges taxes, you still have to payback loans by selling investments eventually. I get that you want the investment to grow at a higher rate of return than the loan but im missing something here.

These topics should be learned in school. In these 8-9 minutes you guys told us way more valuable things that we can get in one year of economics in school lol

Effing depressing as hell.

Student debt relief should not be allowed. Pay your debts.

My takeaway is to not looks for ways to earn a pay check, but rather invest your time into your own business or even hobbies!

I paid 1.09% two years ago, and 4.9% this past year. Most poor pay really low if any taxes..

Can confirm, these financial and legal tools are available to everyone, but you have to have the assets and proper structures first before you can benefit from the 400+ deductions available to business owners and real estate investors.

2nd part of my comments that seem to get deleted... On offshore accounts. Most people follow the law, even if they're opening accounts in other countries. The assumption is that they're trying to 'hide' their wealth, but in reality, there are multiple reasons for opening accounts in other countries. Most people doing this are following the law, but people invested in this narrative assume it's only to 'hide' their wealth. The penalty for doing anything illegal is steep. Very few people risk it. As for all the legal loopholes, the key work here is legal. They're not 'hiding' their wealth. They're following the law. If anyone is to 'blame', it's legislators that pass 'flawed' laws.

how do you pay those loans? dont you eventually need to sell some assets?

Thank you guys.

Realizing that buying twitter was not only controlling the narrative, but also a big ass tax write off with extra steps. The house always wins.

Regarding the "Buy, Borrow, Die?, If someone takes out a loan on their investment, but dont sell their stock, how do they make payments on the loan to pay it back?

*Hallelujah 🙌🏻!!!!! The daily jesus devotional has been a huge part of my transformation, God is good 🙌🏻🙌🏻. I was owing a loan of $49,000 to the bank for my son's brain surgery, Now I'm no longer in debt after I invested $11,000 and got my payout of $290,500 every month…God bless Mrs Christy Fiore ❤️*

I'm not sure I trust a video that gets "capitol" gains spelled wrong at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="189">3:09</a>. Are we really taxing state capitols now?

Something tells me that Congress is taking as long as they are to close these tax loopholes because if they just close them immediately that makes a lot of their lobbyists angry and might put them out of a job.

this must have taken a lot of work. good job

This video is a PERFECT example of the economic illiteracy of PBS. Example 1: Why is there a "step up" in basis on inherited stock? --- It's true that there is a step up in basis for inherited stock that applies to the inheritor's capital gains. But it's untrue that the step up isn't taxed (as the authors of this video either mistakenly or intentionally forget to mention). The step up in basis is taxed at the inheritance tax rate of 40% for the federal government alone. That 40% tax is paid on both the REAL increase in the value of the stock and the INFLATION driven increase. The inheritor pays lots of taxes even on inflation which massively enriched government to the detriment of citizens. Why is that done? First, because a significant portion of the NOMINAL gain on a stock results from inflation. Inflation enriches government coming and going. People shouldn't be taxed for inflation which is why there is indexing on federal income tax. Second, there is a record keeping issue. Let's say, my Aunt Mini bought some stock in 1975. She passes away in 2025 and leaves it to me. For me to pay the tax on the gain, I would have to try and find her records from fifty years ago to determine what she paid for the stock. That would be a nightmare for taxpayers and even for the IRS. Example 2: So called "tax loss harvesting". --- Let's say I invest in a factory that will last ten years. The proposition is that I will invest USD 20 MM and I will earn a profit of USD 50 million. My tax rate is about 50% (considering federal, state, local, and other taxes). So I pay USD 25 million in taxes. I would net USD USD MM leaving me with a 20% gain. But here's the trick our friends from PBS (government funded) would like to use to get a free tax hike. Taxes are paid on an annual basis. So in years one and two, while building the factory, I invested USD 10 MM and gained no revenue. I lost USD 10 MM each year, although I was hiring people, buying things, and helping the economy. Now my factory goes into operation. But for the first three operational years (years 3, 4, 5) I lose money. In years six through ten I make a fortune in profits. But those profits were only possible because of my investment and losses in the first five years. The folks at PBS want to tax my on only my profits, ignoring my investments, costs, and losses. They won't let me reduce my profit by the USD 20 MM I invested or the USD 30 million in operating losses I took while getting the factory up to speed. They want to tax me at 50% on USD 100 MM. That is they are taxing me not only on my profits. But they're also taxing me on the amount I invested, my costs, and my losses. That is they want USD 50 MM in taxes. They want ALL THE PROFIT for government. THEY ARE GREEDY. Here's the question. Would you invest (and risk) USD 20 MM just to hand over the all the profits to government? Neither would anyone else. The result would be no investment, no jobs, and no taxes paid. The effect of what PBS is suggesting was tried in the 1970s under Jimmy Carter. The stagflation that resulted was so bad that even liberal states like Massachusetts and New York voted to re-elect Ronald Reagan after he corrected the policies PBS is pushing. Example 3: "Tax havens." --- "Tax havens" is the term smug leftists use to describe jurisdictions that don't tax their citizens into economic oblivion. When you go to shop, you look for a store offering the merchandise you want at the lowest price. Stores with low prices are able to do so because they are efficient in how they spend their money. The smug leftists in this video would probably accuse you of choosing a "retail haven" if you shop at Target rather than Macy's. This exposes the thinking of our smug leftist friends. They criticize states such as Texas, Washington, and Florida for having low taxes without even looking at how well those states are carrying out the tasks of government for their citizens. THEIR PREMISE IS THAT HIGHER TAXES ARE ALWAYS BETTER. To them the happiness or well being of the citizens counts for nothing. All that matters is the imposition of confiscatory taxes.

Step up basis is the biggest tax loophole ever

The “Score Beyoncé tickets” line will not age well lol

That guy’s transformation goes from High and Tight haircut and Mustache White cop that pulls you over to a LGBTQ guy who has a vegan restaurant.

My advice to everyone is this : if you want to grow big this year especially in your finances. Be willing to make investments. Saving is great but investing puts you on a pedestal where you wouldnt have to worry about savings as you do now. Thanks to larysa Caba, my portolio is doing really great and im proud of the decisions i made last year.

New law that just went into effect is closing one or more of those loopholes. ' Corporate Transparency Act ', no more shell companies. Well can use a shell company, but each one must have a unique address down to the room in a building and a face+name that is running it which include all legal documents (so no more fake person running a shell company). So places like delaware can no longer stack 100's off thousands of businesses to a single street address.

I was literally just thinking about this subject these past few days. Thanks for the video

How to be smart with your money. ❤

It's nice to cash in early on a Two Cents episode

so informative!!! thank you for all your work Philip and Julia! 🤯

I have followed you both for years. I get a big joy when I see y’all post a video. Much love ❤

Great episode. The tax laws are confusing so that less people understand them. A Roth IRA or Roth 401k is a great way for the middle class to avoid paying taxes in the future on any gains that their investments make.

The step up basis seems like the one to get rid of - after a certain $ amount the step up shouldn’t apply. Don’t force people to sell but they shouldn’t have the basis reset

Thanks for the tips.

Thanks for the blueprint

They need to get rid of stock buy-backs too, which used to be illegal. And also ban representatives from trading, since they have insider info.

The initial statement of the irs estimating that wealthy are skipping out on $160B a year in taxes implies that they are doing so illegally. Then the video walks through both legal and illegal ways in which wealthly people may avoid paying taxes with the same tone of "the wealthy are cheats" and never clarifying how much of that $160B number is attributed to illegal or legal means of tax avoidance. This feels borderline "misinformation" to me. Also the buy, borrow, die segment implies that every wealthy person who borrow large sums of money is doing it solely to avoid taxes and never discusses other reasons they may have, like maintaining voting control of their company, or just betting that their equity will have a higher rate of return than the interest rate of the loan

Stepped-up basis only benefits working class people to top 1% rich people, not the ultra-wealthy. The whole purpose of stepped up basis is to avoid double taxation because you pay a 40% estate tax on any estate above $14.61 million ($13.61M exemption + $1M for max tax bracket). So paying estate tax and capital gains tax would be a double tax. For the billionaires, a 20% capital gains tax is much better than a 40% estate tax (which taxes both gains and what you put in), so they set up dynasty trusts and other entities to avoid estate taxes (but they don't benefit from stepped-up basis either). The only people who benefit are people who pass down less than the $13.61M exemption since they get pay no estate taxes and benefit from stepped-up basis. If you all remove stepped-up basis, you're only increasing taxes for yourselves on the house and stocks you'll inherit, while the billionaires will be unaffected.

Look, anyone can do a loophole easily. Take out a HELOC loan on your home. Or refinance a mortgage on your home or investment property. The cash out is tax free.

You two can talk how our government wasting our tax next.

lol do you really think the government would be responsible with that $160B? They’re over 30 trillion in debt. It would last less than 10 days and nothing would improve.

The 'step up in basis' seems particularly frustrating because folks are avoiding taxes on money they didn't earn to begin with.

I actually feel an anxiety attack coming on from watching this video. I'm so sick of being poor and getting taken advantage of.. while so many others get to have inflated lifestyles that they don't even need. It's not fair

"How Rich People Keep Their Money from Being Taken"

I was gonna say "Swiss bank accounts" ----

This was well done. So much so, it pissed me off! 😂🥴