“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein
Generosity Wealth Management is proud to introduce a new dimension to our services: AI-enhanced tax analysis. This tool is designed to complement your comprehensive financial plan by thoroughly examining your tax returns. Leveraging advanced AI technology, this service scans your returns to identify potential strategies for further harnessing the tax code effectively. It’s not just about reducing taxes; it’s about enhancing your overall wealth strategy. Watch as Generosity Wealth Management founder, Mike Brady, explains how this tool integrates with holistic financial planning to increase your net worth, regardless of potential tax implications.
Transcript
Mike Brady with Generosity Wealth Management, a comprehensive, full-service financial services firm headquartered here in Boulder, Colorado.
Today, I want to talk about an added service that I’m providing for my clients and prospective clients, and to the degree that you think that I could help out one of your friends, neighbors, or family, I would love to do that. The reason why I’m doing it is I believe that there are things that you can control and things that you can’t control. As human beings, though, we’re not very good at discerning between them. We seem to spend an awful lot of time worrying about the things that we can’t control, and a lot of times, we just neglect that which we do have control over.
Taxes are one of the biggest expenses that Americans have, and they are something that we can control with certain planning. Yes, we’ve got to take this box and put it on that line, but when it comes to deductions and tax strategies, we have a very complicated tax code that, if we educate ourselves about that tax code, is in our best interest so that we pay that which we owe legally, but using the rules so that we’re not paying more than what we are legally obligated to pay and that is to your benefit.
This tax analysis is really cool. You upload a tax return to me (Secure Upload HERE), and what I do is I use something called an optical character reader, which automatically converts it into a computer line for me. Using AI and my software, it gives me maybe 20 different suggestions. After looking at your modified gross income, your taxable income, this deduction, and that deduction, and your entire tax return, it says here are 10 or 20 things that you might want to consider for this specific client. I go through that, and I say, “I really think that numbers 2, number 7, number 11, 12, and 13 are relevant for this client.” I click it, and it goes to a little report.
Click Here to Download a Sample Planning Report
I print that report out with a tax snapshot that we can then go over. The tax snapshot is your ordinary income, your long-term capital gains, and your effective tax rate. It’s very graphical; we can go through that together so that you are in “relationship” with your tax return. What I mean by that is you understand how your situation’s end result came about. This variable, this second variable, this third variable. Which are the ones that we have control over? Which are the ones that are having the most impact on you and your tax return?
As part of this video and this newsletter, I’ve included an example that comes with my software. These are not real clients, but you can see what it looks like. You can see there’s a tax pyramid so you can see which tax bracket you’re in. You can see whether you’re eligible for various phase-ins and phase-outs and that’s what we call in our industry and the tax industry all the different types of opportunities you have for various income levels. For some of them, it might be $100,000; for some, it might be $50,000. It phases out so that if you’re under, let’s say, $100,000, you’re eligible. Then it slowly goes away by the time you’re at $150,000 as an example. So, that would be a phase-out, so if you make $151,000, that’s no longer eligible for you. We can see which phase-ins and phase-outs are good for you that we should focus on, and other tax opportunities that, frankly, I might have forgotten to ask you and you might have forgotten to tell me, but it’s right there in the report that we received from your tax return.
Why would I do something like this?
It makes me a better financial planner for you. If I see the big picture that’s down on this piece of paper, it will help me do a better job for you.
I want you to share it with your CPA. I want to get to know your CPA so that he or she knows me and says, “Wow, this guy is complementing the work that I’m doing on behalf of my client, our mutual client,” which are you.
I’d love for that CPA to be impressed so that he or she says “Wow, Mike Brady is somebody that I should refer other clients to because I want to continue to grow my business.” If you’ve got friends and family and neighbors that you think would benefit, send them my way and we can talk about it. Maybe I can add value.
I’m in the wealth maximization business for clients, not the tax minimization. There are two different strategies. Wealth maximization means increasing your wealth, even if that means sometimes paying more taxes. I mean, tax minimization is you want it down to zero, which means the best way to do that is to lose money or to lose your job or to put all your investments in the mattress, not making any interest. I’d rather maximize the gain for you in your investments and your income, et cetera so that your taxes go up. But of course, your wealth goes up even faster than your taxes do. I’m in the wealth maximization business, and there might be strategies like a Roth conversion or a backdoor Roth or something else that we’ve missed that we haven’t talked about that will help you out as part of the total services that I am providing for you, the client. If you’re not a client, then prospective client.
What I am hoping that you take away from this video is that I want you to:
Send me your most recent tax return using the secure drop link that will be part of this newsletter. Secure Upload HERE
Talk with me about that. Once I do it, I’ll reach out to you, and I’ll either send it to you, and we can have a quick conversation about it, or I’ll explain what your tax return means and where you might be able to modify it to your advantage.
If you like it, pass it on to your CPA or other advisors like your estate planning attorney so that my centers of influence – my professional network — continue to grow because that helps me out as well.
When I help you out, and you say nice things about me, that helps me out, which then allows me to help more and more people out. One of the things that I like to say is that everyone who comes to me is helped, even if not everyone needs to be a client. That means that when you say nice things about me, I always take the time to help others out to increase your social capital so that you look like a hero, so it helps you out, it helps them out, it helps me out. It helps out our community. That’s really what being generous is all about and that’s why I created Generosity Wealth Management.
Mike Brady, Generosity Wealth Management. 303-747-6455. Have a wonderful day. Thanks.
“Play by the rules, but be ferocious.” – Phil Knight
As we welcome the start of another promising year, it’s not just about making resolutions but also about making wise decisions—especially when it comes to our finances. That’s why Generosity Wealth Management is stepping in to shed light on a crucial part of your financial journey: tax planning.
In our latest video, we invite you behind the scenes with Michael Brady as he guides you through the early stirrings of the tax season. Discover the critical steps you should take now to ensure a smoother, more beneficial tax return process. From understanding the significance of your 1099s to preparing your documentation, this video is your first step towards fiscal responsibility in 2024.
But that’s not all. Generosity Wealth Management goes the extra mile by offering an exclusive opportunity. Once your taxes are filed, we invite you to share your return with us. Utilizing advanced Optical Character Recognition technology, our team will meticulously analyze your documents, helping you strategize and make informed tax decisions for the upcoming year.
And if you’re not yet a client? Consider this your invitation. Share your completed tax return with us, and let’s explore how our savvy tax planning can set the stage for a prosperous year. Your financial well-being is our priority, and it starts with making smart moves today.
Dive into our video now and take the first step towards a financially secure future.
Transcript
Hi there. Mike Brady with Generosity Wealth Management, a comprehensive, full-service financial services firm headquartered here in Boulder, Colorado.
Today, I want to talk about taxes. First, I want to talk about the logistics of it before we talk strategy. The logistics, especially for my clients, are that the first 1099s will start going out around February 1. Whether you get them electronically or they mail them, the first ones go out around February 1, and then every two weeks, if you haven’t gotten it they send out another draft copy. If you’re confused by anything that I’ve said so far just send me an email. My email is up on the screen and Felicia and I will walk you through or even compile on your behalf what you need and send it to you or your CPA as a package. We want the tax document collection to be a stress free event. If you’ve got three, four, ten accounts with me it doesn’t matter with different registrations. We’ll tell you, Hey, I have these different ten accounts. You should be receiving three or four, and here they are. Or we might say you need three or four documents. Two of them are ready, and two of them are still waiting. Because of complex reporting requirements, some 1099s don’t go out to clients until February or March, which is kind of irritating because you want to get your packet together and get it into your CPA, but that’s the reality. Many 1099s are done right at the beginning of February, and then there are a few stragglers that for whatever reason sometimes clients haven’t received them going forward even into March. Be patient, don’t get frustrated. Give me an call or send me an email and Felicia and I will get you hooked up to tell you what the status is.
The second thing I wanted to talk about is this really cool report that I have and I’d love to offer it to all my clients as well as people who are not my clients but are watching this particular newsletter. Once you get your 2023 taxes done I will provide you with a link so that you can upload it to me and I will have this optical character recognition, or OCR, and it will convert that into my computer into this wonderful little spreadsheet. It will tell me everything about your tax returns and even some areas that we could have a conversation for tax planning within the year 2024. What I like at the end of that conversation is I’ll go over it with you once I have your tax return for 2023 and say hey listen, let’s understand what the present situation is and then we have two or three or four different avenues for looking at hey, maybe we can save some taxes here or we could do a conversion over here, et cetera. Just so we can have the conversation as 2024 unfolds. Please take me up on that. It is free and I’d love to talk with you, I’ll talk with your CPA, your tax preparer so that we’re all on the same page.
Most people’s single biggest expense is taxes, but they don’t understand their taxes. They don’t under what options they might have before them, and that’s what I want to do is help you so you can have that conversation with your CPA or we can loop in your CPA and have that conversation together.
That’s it for today’s video. I just wanted to let you know 1099s are coming down the pipeline. They’re going to arrive in February and March. If you have any questions send me an email or Felicia and we’ll get you hooked up. If you’ve got your 2022 we can do it immediately. We can look at what your 2022 taxes were, but definitely when you get your 2023 done send it to me so that we can have a really good conversation and do some tax planning.
Mike Brady, Generosity Wealth Management, 303-747-6455. Have a wonderful day. Thanks. Bye-bye.
I was recently asked by a news journalist my opinion on how to avoid penalties on your required minimum distributions.
Of course, my first answer was to make sure you actually take them and problem solved! I think she was looking for more…..so I did in fact answer more seriously.
Personally, I always watch over all my clients that are at least 70 years old (or have a beneficiary IRA) to calculate the requirement and ensure it’s taken care of. If you don’t adhere to the rules, the tax penalty is 50% of what you should have taken out, in addition to Federal and State taxes you’ll have on the actual withdrawal.
The link below references my response to the journalist on what to do if you make a mistake.
The deficit is the difference between tax receipts (inputs) and tax expenditures (outputs). The deficit has been declining over the past few years, but it’s not due to decreased expenditures, it’s due to increased revenues.
The private sector has been healing itself over the past 5 years, and it shows with the tax revenue.
Summer is right around the corner, so I thought I’d share the really cool chart above (and link below for interactive) for the various state gas taxes across the country.
As a side note, I’m curious to see how gas taxes are addressed by states going forward. With higher fuel efficiency and hybrid technology, gas tax revenues are down since people are buying less gas.
