My research revealed something entirely different. It turns out that the tax laws in all developed countries are similar. They are so similar, in fact, that a book could be written that applies to entrepreneurs and investors around the world. This is that book.
To be sure, the details of the tax laws are different in each country. And we will look at specific tax strategies you can use in your country at the end of each chapter. But unless you are a tax professional, you, the entrepreneur and/or investor, don’t need to know all of the details. You can leave those to your tax advisor. You have to know the concepts. And the concepts are the same regardless of your country of origin or the country in which you do business.
This book is about tax planning concepts. It’s about how to use your country’s tax laws to your benefit. In this book, I tell you how the tax laws work. And how they are designed to reduce your taxes, not to increase your taxes. Once you understand this basic principle, you no longer have to be afraid of the tax laws. They are there to help you and your business, not to hinder you.
Once you understand the basic principles of tax reduction, you can begin immediately reducing your taxes. Eventually, you may even be able to legally eliminate your income taxes and drastically reduce your other taxes. Once you do that, you can live a life of tax-free wealth.
So let’s get started.
How the Tax Law Can Be Your Best Friend
Taxes are Stealing Your Money, Your Time, and Your Future
“Taxes are your largest single expense.”
– Robert Kiyosaki
Every day, taxes are stealing your life away. Income tax, sales tax, value-added tax, employment tax, and a host of other taxes are eating away at your life.
You may think they are just taking your money. If only this was all they were taking. Taxes don’t just take your money—they steal your time—because money is time. People with lots of money have lots of time because they don’t have to spend their life trading their time for money. Instead, they can trade their money for time.
Taxes don’t just take your money—they steal your time—because money is time.
The average person in a developed country spends 25 to 35 percent of their life working to pay taxes. That means more than two hours of every workday are dedicated to feeding your government. And three to four months out of every year are spent working solely so that you can pay your taxes. That adds up to over 13 years in your work life and 20 years in your lifetime—20 years. That’s a prison sentence.
And it’s not going to get better anytime soon. As inflation eats away at the spending power of our currency, it also puts us into higher tax brackets. So we end up with even less purchasing power because a higher percentage of our income is taxed. And with the increase in the number of entitlement programs in every country, there is a higher demand for tax revenues to support them. The United States alone has over $80 trillion of unfunded social liabilities in the form of Medicare and Social Security promises to its aging population. And this number grows every day as new entitlement programs are enacted.
It hasn’t always been this way. In the early years of the income tax, only the very rich were subject to the tax. It was believed that since the rich had more income than they needed in order to live comfortably, they could afford to pay some of this back to the government. And because they had earned this income under the protection of their government, certainly it was fair that, in time of war, they could pay back the government some of their excess in order to maintain their freedoms and the protection afforded by the government.
This all changed after World War II. The governments of the world found that the income tax was a useful revenue-raising tool that could be used to rebuild an economy that was ravished by war. So the governments began taxing the middle class. At first, it was only the excess earned by employees over the average cost of living that was taxed. The government provided exemptions for the first income earned so that the average person could live on their regular earnings and only pay tax on the excess that would otherwise go to investments.
As they watched the behavior of the people who were now paying income tax, the government began to tinker with the tax law to see how it would affect the activities of the taxpayers. What they found was that a minor change to the tax law could have a profound effect on the behavior of the people. If the government gave a tax incentive to invest in business, more people would invest in business. If they gave a tax benefit to those who invested in oil and gas, more people would invest in oil and gas.
And so the tax law grew from a simple revenue-raising vehicle to a vast array of laws that governed the economic activity of the land. And so it is today that the tax laws of every country are modified as the economy changes and as social policies change.
You may think that you have no choice about how much tax you pay. Everyone has to pay taxes, right? Wrong. There are millions of people who legally pay little or no tax. What’s their secret? Do they know about loopholes that are in the law that allow them to get away with not paying tax? No. They simply understand how the tax law works. They understand that the tax law is not something the government uses only to raise taxes. The tax law is a tool the government uses to shape the economy and promote social, agricultural, and energy policy.
These people understand that the tax law in every developed country is now a series of incentives for entrepreneurs and investors. In the United States, over 95 percent of the tax code is intended not to raise taxes but rather to stimulate economic, agricultural and energy activities. In fact, the tax law is a map (or a code) to vast amounts of wealth. And the tax code doesn’t only show you how to reduce your taxes. If you follow the tax law carefully, you will discover that the secrets to amassing huge amounts of cash flow and wealth are found within its pages.
…the tax law is a map (or a code) to vast amounts of wealth. And the tax code doesn’t only show you how to reduce your taxes. If you follow the tax law carefully, you will discover that the secrets to amassing huge amounts of cash flow and wealth are found within its pages.
The reason is quite simple. The government wants the economy to grow. It wants you to invest in local energy production. It wants you to invest in local agriculture. And it wants you to invest in economic activities that provide housing and jobs for the people. All of this is contained within the tax law. When you understand the tax law of your country, you will understand what the government wants you to do with your money. And you will understand the fundamental principles for making large amounts of money.
| TAX TIP: | Include tax planning in your wealth strategy. Remember that it’s not just what you make that matters, it’s what you keep. When you keep taxes in mind as you invest, you end up keeping more money and make better investment decisions. |
Was the tax law written for the wealthy? Absolutely! The key to taking advantage of the tax law is to behave like one of the wealthy. Do those activities that the government wants you to do, and you will not only permanently reduce your taxes by 10 to 40 percent or more, you will also begin building more wealth and cash flow than you had ever imagined possible. Just look at how much faster a $10,000 investment grows without taxes.
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