As you know, today there is a growing outcry to, “Tax the rich.” Many believe the rich are tax-cheats and are ripping off the poor and middle class—and some are. As long as taxes exist, there will be tax-cheats, and not all of them are rich. The poor and middle class have their fair share of tax-cheats. We all know there is a large, underground, tax-free economy in every city of the world, all filled with tax-cheats. You probably know some of these people.
Tom Wheelwright’s book will give you a different perspective on taxes. He sees taxes as government incentives and economic stimulus to keep the wheels of the economy greased and moving.
That is how my rich dad saw taxes. He simply saw himself doing what the government wanted done, and in return, the government offered him tax breaks.
Again, my problem has been, getting other people, friends, family, business associates, and yes, CPAs to see taxes from the same point of view.
Most people could not see this point of view, simply because most people are terrified of the taxman, even many CPAs. Most people live in fear of doing something wrong, which is why many people feel better just paying more and more in taxes and then protest that the rich are tax-cheats. This is not financially intelligent.
Today, I receive tax breaks because I provide jobs through my businesses, provide housing through my apartment houses, and provide energy by drilling for oil, keeping energy costs low and the economy moving.
I don’t write this to rub it into your face. And I acknowledge that it doesn’t even seem fair. But as not just my rich dad, but also probably every dad said, “Life isn’t fair.” Rather, I write this because I want you to know that you can also use the tax code to your advantage to help you make money—or at the very least, greatly reduce your tax burden.
And that’s why I’m very happy that my friend and personal tax advisor, Tom Wheelwright, wrote this book. To me, there is no better person to explain how taxes work, how the tax code can help you grow richer, and who can—I’m not kidding—make taxes fun.
I think you’ll find, as I have, Tom’s passion for taxes—and helping you save money in taxes—to be infectious. And I know you’ll find the wealth of knowledge he brings to the table to be life changing.
He brings good news: you don’t have to let taxes kill you financially. The rules in the tax code, whether you know it or not, are there to help you—not harm you.
All you need is the proper knowledge and a little guidance. In this book, Tom offers both in spades.
If you believe the rich are tax-cheats and rip-off the poor and middle class, this book is not for you. You’ll probably enjoy Das Kapital more.
If you want to earn more and pay less in taxes by doing what the government wants and needs done, however, this is the book for you.
– Robert Kiyosaki, Capitalist
When I was a boy, I loved to argue. It didn’t matter whether it was on the tennis court or playing Monopoly®. It wasn’t simply that I felt I was right; it was the joy of the debate. I discovered that the more I learned about a subject, the more likely I was to win an argument. And what’s the point of arguing if you don’t plan on winning, right?
I also found that the more vague the question, the easier it was to argue. I grew to love studying about anything that didn’t have a fixed answer. When I turned 19, I went to Paris, France, on my mission for the Mormon Church. Everybody knows how the French love to argue. And they have the right language for it. Arguing in French is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done. It’s such a beautiful language. And the French love a good argument. Unlike Americans, they don’t take it personally. So you can argue with them for hours on end without anybody getting their feelings hurt. I’m convinced that the French invented the seven-course meal so that they would have plenty of time to argue without their food getting cold. (I remember more than one meal lasting over four hours.)
Maybe it was my love of a good argument that drew me to law in the first place. Although I never earned my law degree (I didn’t want to hang out with lawyers—ugh), I loved the thought of practicing law.
I also enjoyed learning about money, earning money, and spending money. So when I went to college I took accounting courses and specialized in tax accounting. Being a tax accountant, I could work in the law and with money at the same time.
During my first 13 years out of college, I worked as an employee for some Big Four accounting firms and a Fortune 1000 company. I was very successful as an employee. Promotions came easily and steadily. In my first firm, Ernst & Young, they gave me the opportunity to work in the National Tax Department–a great honor for a young CPA. I did equally well at the Fortune 1000 company, making great strides in reducing their sales and property taxes. When I left them, I went back into public accounting with a different international accounting firm. One day, only seven months after I started working there, I went into my office, only to find a note on my desk from my boss that I was to come down the hall to see him as soon as I got in.
This was a little odd, as I worked in the Phoenix office and my boss worked out of the Los Angeles office and my boss had not told me previously he was coming to town. I immediately went down to the office he was in and he invited me to come in. The first thing he said to me was to please close the door. Something was up. I couldn’t tell right then whether it was good or bad. Then he told me to please sit down. That couldn’t be good. He proceeded to tell me that he had decided to let me go. “So you are firing me?” I asked? He nodded.
This was quite the shock for someone who had always excelled in school and work. I headed home. As I walked in the door, my wife said, “It’s a little early for you to be home, isn’t it? What’s going on?” I told her what had happened. She had a few choice words for my then former boss. Then we started planning our future. I had always wanted to start my own business and perhaps this was the opportunity to do so. Quite a leap of faith when you consider that we were a single-income household with two young boys and that I was the sole provider.
I started with two clients. For the next nine months, I worked tirelessly to build my business, speaking to everyone I knew and even making cold calls. I was so successful that after nine months I doubled my business. That’s right—I went from two to four clients. That wasn’t going to pay the bills. Then one day a friend of mine, also a CPA, called me to tell me that there was an accounting firm for sale located not far from me. It turned out that I knew the CPA who was selling the firm.
The only challenge was that not only did I have no money, I was $40,000 in debt. I asked my friend for advice and he offered to lend me some of the money. The seller agreed to finance about 50% of the sales price and my parents loaned me the rest of the money. My first no-money down deal. Within a year, I was so busy I had to add a partner.
About five years later, I met Robert Kiyosaki and began studying money and business under his tutelage. I learned a completely different way to look at money and business—and education. I’d never seen teaching like Robert’s before I met him and started attending his conferences.
Here I am now, writing a book in the Rich Dad Advisor series. Without Robert, I would never have written this book. In fact, I couldn’t have written this book. Much of the big-picture thought process about taxes and wealth contained in this book comes from my many meetings and seminars with him.
When Robert first approached me about writing this book, he told me that it had to be about how entrepreneurs and investors could reduce their taxes. And it had to be international in scope. I did some checking in the bookstores and libraries and I couldn’t find a single book on taxes with an international perspective. This presented a great challenge to me.
How could I write a book on taxes that applied to every entrepreneur and investor in every country? I know the U.S. tax law very well. I’ve been studying it for 35 years. But like everyone else, I thought that the