I'm speaking to a group of about 600 people at T. Harv Eker's Extreme Wealth yesterday about how to create their own personal wealth strategy and I'm sure many of them were wondering if this really works to speed up the growth of a person's wealth. After all, I showed them how you could turn a 5% appreciation on an investment into a 60% return just by using the concepts of leverage, velocity and tax savings.

Sounds too good to be true, right? While it may sound too good to be true, the numbers speak for themselves. I give a demonstration of this on our free cd download at http://www.provisionwealth.com/wealthcd.

The truth is that very few people will ever reach their financial dreams unless that have a wealth strategy and a proven system for building and implementing that strategy. My partner, Ann, and I have been using our system for over 6 years and it has proven to do three things:

1. Increase our returns on our investments by 2-3 times
2. Reduce our risk
3. Allow us to control our investments while spending very little time on them

If you don't have a wealth strategy or you think your strategy could use some improvements, call us at 866.467.5809. Our mission is to bring financial freedom to the world. That's why I am traveling all over the world (Las Vegas today, Canada in two weeks and Australia in November).

Remember that financial freedom is closer than you think! You just need a good strategy.

Warmest regards,

Tom

Thanks to everyone who was on our School of Tax Strategy coaching call last night. We had numerous great questions and a great discussion. I promised to blog about one of the questions to give some clarification.

Q. I know that I have a choice for basing my estimated payments either on last year's tax or this year's tax. Can I change my decision in the middle of the year? In other words, if I base my first two estimated payments on the current year's tax liability, can I then switch to using last year's tax liability for the remaining payments and still avoid any penalty?

A. Effectively, you can change, as the required annual payment is the lesser of last year's tax or 90% of the current year's tax liability. But beware of the exceptions to the option for using last year's tax. If your adjusted gross income is above $150,000, you have to pay 110% of prior year to meet that exception.

Warmest regards,

Tom

Here is a recent question from Michael about the deductibility of educational seminars.

Q: I am having an IRS audit and they are trying to not allow my deduction for taking a personal development seminar. Tony Robbins like seminar. I am in networkmarketing? and I thought that those were deductable. I cannot find any case law? can you help?

A: First and foremost, I always suggest to people that they hire a qualified CPA to handle any IRS audit. It's cheaper than handling it yourself as you will always end up paying less tax if a good CPA is in charge of the audit. Also, it seriously reduces the emotional strain of the audit because you don't have to deal with the IRS. That said, let me answer the specific question.

Section 212 and Section 274(h)(7) of the Internal Revenue Code specifically disallows deductions for seminars taken for investment purposes (i.e., production of income). These are probably the rules being cited by the IRS auditor as why your seminar is not deductible.

However, Section 162 allows a deduction for all "ordinary and necessary" expenses carried on in a trade or business. Michael's challenge is proving to the auditor that the Tony Robbins course specifically relates to his business. Again, this is where an experienced CPA would be useful in conducting the negotiation and proving the relevance of the course to the business.

For more about how you could take advantage of the expert negotiation team at ProVision, please visit our website at http://www.provisionwealth.com or just pick up the phone and call us toll free at 1-866-467-5809.

Warmest regards,

Tom

Debbie from our School of Wealth Strategy asks the following question:

Q: My life partner and I purchased two single family homes this year as rental properties and see advice as to what entity should be established to take full tax advantage/asset protection. One of these properties is in the Go Zone and we seek advice as to allowable depreciation on this property.

A: Seems like a simple question, doesn't it? As simple as it seems, we actually have multiple questions and sub-questions. Let me address them one at a time. The first question is which entity is best for tax purposes. This, of course, depends on your ultimate strategy and where you live and where you invest. In most states, we recommend forming an LLC that is taxed as a partnership. Especially because you are not married, we suggest you have an attorney draft an operating agreement for the LLC. We also suggest you get with your Tax Strategist make the most of the tax benefits of the LLC. If you don't already have a good Tax Strategist, please call our office at 866.467.5809 and we will be happy to get you lined up with a qualified Tax Strategist.

The second question is closely related to the first and this is the asset protection question. Again, in most states we would recommend an LLC, but ALWAYS recommend you speak to a qualified asset protection attorney. If you don't know one, call us at we will recommend one that will meet your requirements.

The third question is about the depreciation. And this has a couple of sub-questions. If you qualify for the GoZone depreciation, you can take 50% of the cost of the property, not including land, plus ordinary depreciation on the remaining 50%. But even if you qualify for the GoZone depreciation, you may be limited as to how much you can take this year, depending on whether you are passive or active in the real estate, your adjusted gross income, and whether you qualify as a real estate professional. For answers to all of these sub-questions, I recommend you go to our website at http://www.provisionwealth.com/products and subscribe to our School of Tax Strategy where you will get a new course on a specific tax strategy each month, including a course on making the most of your real estate tax benefits and one on depreciation.

It sounds like what you really need is a good Tax Strategy. For this, I strongly recommend you speak to my assistant, Beth Rojas, at 866.467.5809 and set up an appointment with one of our Tax Strategies to determine the best approach for you.

Warmest regards,

Tom