Taxes

Ed Slott is one of the most famous CPA’s out there. He has written many books and has wonderful shows on PBS. Ed has said for years…”taxes are going up! Get in a tax-free position NOW”. He couldn’t be more right.

Many of us in America have had 401k’s and IRA’s replace the pensions our parents had in their day. Sadly, these pre-tax savings make predicting our income future impossible.

Why? As taxes go up, we lose more of our nest-egg than we thought. Even in the fairy tale utopia where taxes never go up, RMD’s DO go up, and Social Security taxes go up every year correspondingly. So, if holding on to more of your nest-egg and giving Uncle Sam less sounds good to you, then you need to create a strategy for tax reduction….now.

Here are some important statistics to consider regarding taxation, and why taxes must go up:

• 2026: The provision for taxes to be held down, ends 1/1/2026 and will return to the previous higher brackets.
• The Congressional Budget Office is proposing doubling current tax rates in an effort to keep America alive.
• The current US debt is 22 Trillion dollars, with 100 trillion dollars in debts off the books.
• The interest on the debt has to be paid annually, and is ever increasing. If interest rates normalize, the interest on the debt alone, can rise to 1 trillion dollars annually.
• Currently 92 cents of every tax dollar go to Medicare and SS alone, leaving 8 cents of every dollar for the military, FEMA, CIA, FBI, and every other government agency and governmental service.
• With 75 million Baby Boomers, and 10,000 of them coming on to SS and Medicare every single day, within 2 years the government projects that 96 cents of every tax dollar will go to those two programs alone.

Can just these few points alone paint a mental picture for you of why taxes must increase, and why it’s so important to reduce your taxable exposure now?

Just converting your IRA to Roth may not be the only answer. It’s important to strategize with a trained advisor who can figure out the best way to accomplish getting you into the NO-Tax bucket in retirement. Is it really possible? YES!