Comments on: Paying Zero Income Taxes on Average Income

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 14:34:16 +0000

Paying zero income tax in the UK is pretty much impossible full stop! Once you work full time, the tax man quickly removes you of all your hard earned money!

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 17:36:32 +0000

In reply to Michael. If you're experiencing a 0% capital gains (and qualified dividends) rate, you're right... putting money into a qualified retirement makes less and less sense.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 09:49:19 +0000

Hi, Steve

I’m new to this blog. There’s a vast amount of valuable information here. I’m definitely learning a lot, and I thank you for that.

My question for you is.. if we can effectively get taxed 0% on our capital gains (when playing our cards right), why even bother funding a retirement account?

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 18:50:44 +0000

In reply to Larry.

Hi Larry,

It’s pretty hard to pay zero taxes once your income passes $100K. But you can do things to dial down your NIIT (example, operate as S corp or as real estate professional)… and then there are things you can think about doing like rearranging your business and investment activities so more expenses qualify as legitimate business deductions.

Remember, though, that someone needs to play for the aircraft carriers floating around the Pacific Ocean…

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 10:28:17 +0000

I found both this post for average income earners and the previous one for the $100k earner interesting and well done. How about doing one for high income earners? It seems as though once one gets above the ACA thresholds the extra taxes pile up (NII, AMT, and the Medicare plus up) and the deductions go down (loss of exemptions, Pease limitations). You probably cannot continue the “zero taxes” theme, but are there any “gambits” left other than maxing tax deferred contributions?