143 of 151 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid, Simplified Advice!, June 28, 2001
Review Summary: The hardest thing for you to find is simple advice about which financial structure to use for self-employment and small business activities and how to balance cutting taxes, having flexibility, and avoiding asset exposure. This book is the best simple version of how to do all of this I have seen. You will obviously need experts to help you do your planning to match your needs, but this book will prepare you to work knowledgeably with those experts. Over a career as a small business owner, this book may be the most valuable one you will ever read.
Review: I am a big fan of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and wrote a review of that book that caused me to get a lot of e-mails asking tax-related questions. I am delighted to see this book because it means that those who wonder how developing passive income can cut taxes can start to understand why that occurs.
"Loopholes . . . are government incentives." For many years, Congress has provided tax incentives to encourage certain kinds of business development and investing. As a small business owner, you have the opportunity to benefit from some of those incentives, legally and morally.
This book will be most valuable for those who know little about the structure of the income-tax code and regulations, how property is protected against legal suits, and ways of creating financial flexibility. The tools you can use differ from year to year, as the rules change. This book is good for explaining the general concept of how these rules usually work. It also tells you what kinds of advice and expertise you need from others. Most people don't know where to start, and this book gives you a step-by-step process to assess where you are today, get the resources you need to help, evaluate a potential strategy, create a plan to implement a strategy, and monitor how well your strategy is working and whether you need to make any changes or not.
There is a tendency for popular books about business and investing to overpromise what can be accomplished. I thought that Ms. Kennedy avoided that problem. Based on my understanding of these issues, she describes things accurately and appropriately. When she gets into more problematical areas like VEBA, her cautions are well-stated and complete.
I have heard many people try to explain these concepts simply, and her explanation is the briefest, accurate one it has been my pleasure to read. Knowing more detail will not help you all that much.
The main drawback of the book is that it doesn't go into enough detail about the advantages of real estate investing. Rich Dad, Poor Dad makes quite a point about how taxes paid can be low on such businesses. Basically, the answer is that you get to charge off part of your investment as an expense (depreciation) and that there are special incentives for specific classes of real estate that reduce tax bills even more. So I expect that I will still get e-mails about why Mr. Kiyosaki is so positive on real estate businesses.
After you finish reading and applying this book, I suggest that you think about how your family life should be structured for optimum happiness. If you think about that subject as much as you do the structure of your finances, you will truly be wealthy in all the ways that count.
Live life with rich spirituality!
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51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not only the rich pay less in taxes!, July 19, 2003
By A Customer
I am continually amused when I hear people say that only the Rich get the tax breaks and the poor and the middle class have to "pick up the slack."The fact is, if you are paying too much in taxes, whose fault is it? In this outstanding work, Lechter and Kiyosaki lay out numerous strategies to substantially reduce your taxes. And by the way, reducing taxes is not only morally and ethically right, it is also smart.The biggest expence we pay is taxes. Use this book to plug up the dike on excess tax spending.Other books I recommend are More Wealth Without Risk, Brilliant Deductions and How to Pay Zero Taxes in 2003.
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informative yet Easily Readable, August 30, 2001
By A Customer
I started out my career as a highly compensated employee, but discovered that I was working at building a business for other people. I was also in a field (micro-electronics) that had a lot of highs and lows and I had gotten caught in a few lay-offs throughout the years. I made the decision to start building my own business. I was fortunate to find DKA (Diane's CPA firm) and they were able to help me restructure my rental properties into a real business and take advantage of many of the loopholes described in this book. I think the timing for this book is excellent as we see more and more lay-offs happening in businesses. It's no coincidence that there is a huge upsurgence in small and home based businesses at the same time. But, most small business owners are never taught how to take advantage of their businesses plus what it takes to have legal tax deductions. This book tells in simple, how to language how to find your own legal loopholes. It's also quite entertaining to read the stories of what others have done (or should have done). If you are tired of paying too much in taxes and tired of worrying about protecting your assets, this is the book for you! Be prepared to get motivated to take action.
This is an excellent book for beginners as well as experienced business people. Great job Diane.
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