Mark J Kohler's EXPERT Analysis Of Trump's Tax Cuts Plan

0:00With the American Express Platinum Card, I can unlock experiences like no other. Since I'm always booking my next trip, I love that I can earn points on travel. Plus, I get a resi benefit, so you know I'm hitting the restaurants everyone's talking about. And you can find out your welcome offer after you apply, which could be as high as 175 ,000 points. For experiences like no other, there's nothing like platinum. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash explore dash platinum. Terms apply. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. So we have a tremendous conversation for you today with Mark J.

0:37Kohler. He is the founder of Main Street Tax Pro, where he has trained tens of thousands of tax professionals, as well as Main Street business owners to become certified in understanding how to maximize their activity around their taxes, how they pay the least and get the most back, right? How you do it right, how you build a business properly set up for taxes. And Mark's expertise goes so far beyond that. While he's kind of come out of the tax and legal environment, his expertise has expanded well beyond just tax and legal into Main Street business operations. Insofar as this year, he was invited to Davos for the World Economic Forum to speak to the international community about small business in the United States.

1:25We dig into the Trump tax cuts or the proposed tax cuts and how they can impact us as Main street business owners and everyday operators here in the U.S., as well as so many other topics. You're going to love this one. High energy, lots of enthusiasm, tons of impact. Get ready. Buckle up. Here comes Mark J. Kohler.

1:56In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home.

2:12mark dude appreciate your time appreciate you coming on the show i'm excited to have this conversation today no it's my honor seriously i really appreciate opportunities like this so we can both impact more people it's just it's wonderful yeah so i want to get right into the meat and potatoes of something that just came out trump just released his proposed tax cuts There's a ton of stuff in there, right? And then there's all this information coming from, we'll call them, people who don't agree with Trump or tend to not agree with him. And there's a lot of information that I think, and I'm getting people reaching out to me and I don't know anything about taxes, but buddies are like, hey, how does this impact us?

2:46Is this what he promised, et cetera? So, you know, I guess maybe let's start with the extension of like the tax cuts and jobs Act in terms of like what he had in place before he's kind of bringing back like and maybe just in general breakdown for us, you know, is this really tax cuts for the labor class, for the middle class, for Main Street, as he promised and as it seems? Or is this as we're kind of being told from the other side, a backdoor into tax cuts for billionaires and all his oligarchal friends? Yeah, it's now I'll thank you. It's a wonderful question, and I don't want any of the listeners here to think I'm just out on the Trump campaign trail.

3:28I am not. I am all for Main Street America, and whether it's Democrat or Republican, let's pass good tax legislation to help small business owners and real estate investors because that's the backbone of this country. It's not the big corporations. It's 90 % of our economy are small business owners with less than 100 employees. And so I'm with you. We are going to hope that this new legislation this year will have the best and the most impact on that segment of our country and that economy. So, well, what's kind of fun here is we've got Terminator 1. Now we get Terminator 2. So what did we see in the first movie?

4:12You know, in the first movie, that's exactly what we got. We got bonus depreciation for equipment and real estate investors. the opportunity zone provisions, better deductions for autos and mileage, better tax rates. We simplified the tax rates and lowered the tax rates across the board for the wealthy and the middle class and the low. Everybody got a tax cut. And so that Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was about 500 pages, I used to carry it around with me for a year or two as I was on the road explaining it, wrote a second edition of my book to explain it. It was packed with a lot of stuff. But here's the interesting point.

4:54The guts of it was, we're going to offer all these tax incentives for the middle class, lower tax rates, and these tax strategies. How in the hell are we going to pay for it? He brought foreign corporations, U.S. corporations doing business abroad. They had to bring their revenue back to the U.S. He slammed all the foreign bank account issues going on in Switzerland and multiple countries. He was tough on the corporations. He said, bring your money back to the U.S. And in turn, I'll give you a 21 % corporate tax rate. But I want all this money brought on shore. So that's what a budget has to do.

5:32So when he passes this bill, last point, when you pass a budget like this, or bill, it's got a balance in 10 years. It's a legislature required. So it's got to balance the tenure. So where the government giveth all these great cool tax strategies, he's got to show how we're going to pay for it. And I'll tell you how we're going to pay for this round. But your first question was, did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act really do that? It did. And we saw it. And we saw the economy flourish. Will he do it again? We're all crossing our fingers. And the promises he made this week say he is. So we can get into how he's going to pay for it yeah and hopefully it's going to work before we before we get to how he's going to pay for it one of the things i'd really like to with with each topic that we address today i would love to get into kind of the almost like how how are people who are fighting this right because you know i follow along with what's going on you hear elizabeth warren you hear chuck schumer you hear bernie sanders and everything they say you know aoc these guys stand up or they go on on social media and it's just this drumbeat of this is this doesn't help anybody but the elite this is just him glad handing his friends you know how how are they like is that argument just completely based in false narrative like like how do if you're sitting here and you're not educated right you you don't follow along with what these things are going on and you just pop your head in and you hear these two sides, how is someone supposed to start to really make up their own mind?

7:04Like, how do we sort through all this conversation? And to me feels so often like a very intellectually dishonest take on what's happening. Ryan, your skepticism is completely valid. And millions of Americans are frustrated, frustrated by this. They turn on mainstream media or listen to a C-SPAN cut hearing, throw it out on social media, and they're like, what the hell? Trump just said he's not going to tax tips. He's not going to tax Social Security. He's not going to tax overtime. We're going to keep our tax rights all. That's what he campaigned on. That's what he followed through before, and he says, I'm going to do it again.

7:40Then how in the hell can I turn on my social media feed, and Bernie Sanders or some other congressional senator or congressman says Trump's evil he's really gonna get breaks to billionaires you're like how do I reconcile this yes I it frustrates the hell out of me someone that's read tax legislation my whole career from the left and the right side here's the only way I can make sense of it Ryan and I two years ago I'd sound like a conspiracy theorist now you're like holy crap, maybe this is true. And that is, and look at the USAID issue right now. And when we see the USAID budget funding mainstream media, not only in the US, but all over the world, sending out disinformation, wanting to censor so that they can control their narrative, so they can keep spending this money however the hell they want.

8:36And we're just getting the tip of the iceberg. Maybe, maybe Maybe the left and some of these folks running all of these NGOs do have an agenda to villainize Trump and make him look stupid. Maybe they are so brainwashed as well. And these NGOs and others have lobbied these political representatives on the left to just say Trump is crazy. Trump is bad. The syndrome of this focus that everything he says is evil. Maybe they are doing it unconsciously. unknowingly, but there's some evil stuff going out there. And maybe that's the message we have to go. Let's just see what Trump does. And when he pulls this off and we see tax savings, maybe for once, some of these folks will wake up and go, all right, I was fed a bunch of bullshit.

9:27So I've been in sales, marketing my whole life, leadership, negotiation positions. And so I'm always kind of analyzing the argument that people make. And I'm always, I'm very intrigued by how the left makes arguments because one, I often disagree with their core of the argument or most of the time. However, they still make these arguments and they're politicians or they're talking heads. So this is what they do for a living. So intelligent. Yes. And they're in, they're not dummies. Right. So like, like I was listening to Elizabeth Warren as she was grandstanding about the treasury or the federal court, a circuit court judge blocking a doge's access to the, to the treasury information or limiting their access.

10:06Right. And she's standing up there and claiming this as a win for the American people. Yet this organization in a very short period of time, in this case, Doge, has found all this incredible waste. And I'm like, okay, if I'm trying to make this argument, and I'm just interested in your take as someone who's also in the business space and have done all the deals that you've done, right? Like, if I'm going to make this argument that Trump is evil, how, like, the proper way to argue this would be to concede the small points in which he is making wins, right? There is obviously fraud happening in the system that cannot, like at this point, it can't be denied.

10:42Yeah, they will stand up there, completely ignore that and make this argument that it's all about the oligarchs. So is it truly that they're just so, I mean, your belief is it that they're so captured? And I'm trying to get to how we work these things out in our head if we're not as involved as maybe you and I are, right? Like, is it just that they're so captured? Could it be that the corruption is so deep they don't want to lose their money train? Or is it honestly that they've just lost the narrative because they live in this tiny little bubble and they just simply don't see or that that these things that the American people, the boots on the ground, American people are looking at, you know, eight million dollars for DEI studies in some other country that's not here.

11:25And they just can't relate to that. Like, like, I think I think it's a little there's never one thing. Right. You're smart enough to get that. I love the way you're analyzing this. But I think it's a combination of both of those. Yeah. And then you blend in their lobbyist money, the cyclical rotation of the unelected officials that are in Washington on the left as well. And that's a big money train for them. Yeah. And they're going to feed Elizabeth Warren and others the narrative that benefits them. And I have to believe I think some of those political representatives have been bamboozled, tricked, fed so much information.

12:11They are literally in that little bubble of a different reality. And then I have to believe I think some know exactly what they're doing. yeah we're scared to death that when any id or when when the usa id comes out with the real story of who's got paychecks under the table it's going to be ugly it is going to be crazy and i think there's going to be republicans as well on that list for sure and so i why was elizabeth warren can get up how she can get up and say we don't want those to figure this why why not he doesn't have check writing ability holy crap he just wants to go in there and go let's see where all the money Anyway, I love that James Stewart was doing an interview the other day.

12:53And even the Democrat talking heads are like, let's get to the bottom of this. Holy crap. What's there to fear? And I just think it's unauthentic. Absolutely. Or just they're brainwashed. Continuing down the USAID path and Doge, like how does the work that Doge is doing, finding these things, like how will that trickle back down for someone who is Main Street? You know, they own a coffee shop. They own some rental properties in town. How does that work in all these stories? How does that trickle down and actually impact us on Main Street? Okay, this is probably my biggest message. And I held a live on this last week and it blew up.

13:30And this is so super important. Okay, so let's just, just for a minute, if you can, folks, let's assume whether you love Trump style or not. We can go there and all that crap. But with the Tax Cups and Jobs Act, we all kind of felt some cool stuff. If you're a business owner or a real estate investor, man, that tax bill has some sweet provisions in it. Okay. Let's say he's going to propose this again, which he is up at the Hill right now. His team is talking with GOP leaders. They're crafting a bill. It's going to be a monster. I'll be breaking it down back here with you, Ryan, when it comes out, man.

14:06Yeah, yeah. But it's going to be sweet. Okay. How in the hell this gets to the payment? How is he going to pay for it? he's already cut he's already got so much of the corporate revenue back on shore how is he going to pay for well he said this is super cool we're going to use tariffs and we're going to use doge it it's it's kind of like we all have a house we all have a household and what are we spending our money on i spend way too much money on doordash i mean i i should not spend as much as i do on doordash i think it's the coolest app ever in two or three minutes i can get whatever the hell i want.

14:42I'm like, I'll pay the 10 bucks. That saves me an hour. I don't want to drive over there. I love it. But it is way too bad on my budget. It is not good. It is inefficient. Now, no one's, I'm not ripping off anybody, but there's some inefficiency there. So if we can create some efficiency in the government, and so that's how these USAID issues really play out. Because if we can find billions of dollars over here that's being wasted or spent in areas we don't want it, and we can turn around and pay for a tax cut for not taxing Social Security? Because it's going to cost us. There's a couple billion dollars a year that comes in on tax revenue by taxing Social Security.

15:19So if we say we're not going to tax it, we've got to make up for that$200 billion. So how do we do it? Well, we're going to tariff a country that has an unequal trade balance with us. And we're also, and I love this was in his proposal, and I'm going to give a tax cut to U.S.-made product. So, yeah, you might go to Walmart and your favorite razor just doubled in price because it was made in China. But then the shave club, theirs just went down 20%. Well, maybe we start buying U.S. made, benefit those companies. And if the country out there wants to push their crap in our country and they won't take our goods, then we're going to tax it.

15:58And we're going to take that revenue and give it back to Main Street America. That's the plan. Now, whether you like Trump or not, and there's a lot of disinformation out there that our tariffs are bad. By the way, I was just in Davos at the World Economic Forum three weeks ago. We can talk about that. But the countries that are worried about this are the ones that are upside down with us. Germany, they don't take our cars, but they're going to push their Mercedes and BMWs on us. And so we're like, what? Okay, let's make this a little fair here. The countries that have an equal trade balance with us, they're not worried.

16:30They're like, that's cool. We're not on Trump's radar. And so we're going to use that revenue to help our economy. Anyway, that's how it's supposed to happen. We'll see how it goes. Yeah, no, and I think you just made a wonderful point. And I think a lot of people are unaware of is, you know, taking Germany as a use case, taking China as a use case, right? There are a lot of countries that we import a tremendous amount of their goods. And it's not that, and I think this is what maybe someone who doesn't spend as much time in this information wouldn't realize. it's not that they just don't buy our stuff.

17:05They don't allow our stuff in or they're tariffing us to sell our materials, whatever those be, in their country. So it's this idea and the pushback around the tariff. And I get that it scares people, right? It's different. It's not what generations of Americans today are used to, et cetera. However, it is a tool that is actively used against us around the world today. They're all completely used to it. It's how they make revenue is tariffing goods that would come in from the United States. We just haven't done it in return. So it's, it's not like we're this bully who just decided to all of a sudden start pushing tariffs on everyone.

17:41This is what's been happening to our manufacturers in our country, which is why so many of our manufacturing plants moved. I mean, it's not the only reason, but it is part of the reason is if they then move their manufacturing operations into foreign entities, now they can actually sell at a reduced rate in those countries. So it's, it's, and then we wonder where the jobs go, right? It's like, but there's so many layers to this that I think it becomes very confusing for people. And I want to get to the World Economic Forum in a minute, because I did not know you went there, and I'm incredibly interested.

18:13But I guess my last question on this topic before we move is like, if you're a Main Street business owner, or, you know, you're just interested, and you're trying to become more informed, besides coming and following your content, which guys, I would highly, highly recommend. I am not just stroking Mark's ego. It is incredible. Tax, general business, business formation, all this kind of stuff. Wonderful, wonderful content. So we're gonna direct everyone to you. Thank you. Where else, how else do people start to set up information filters in their life so that they can get information that isn't necessarily biased one way or the other, or maybe has the least amount of bias that they can start to download and understand these issues on their own?

18:55Well, here's what I, a great question. Here's what I'd offer to your listeners. And please hear me out here. Let's take the NFL for a moment. Let's say Jalen Hurts. You're like, don't really, let's just hypothetically say, you're like, I really don't like him as a quarterback. Now I took you to the Superbowl. Cool. But early in the season, he was getting a lot of heat. He was getting a lot of heat for the way he'd run the ball or not or pass the ball or not. I mean, Stephen A. Smith beat the crap out of him. I just love that. I love that guy. Okay. So, but you're an Eagles fan. And you're like, you know what?

19:28I'm going to get behind Jalen. Because, holy crap, he's all we got. He is our quarterback. So, I mean, I love the guy, but he might pull it off for us. And he did. All right. So, here's my offer to all of you out there. Yeah. Trump style, it can be a little abrasive. He may not have the personal lifestyle choices that you would like. Or whatever the case. and there's a lot of accurate information and misinformation out there. You go find a politician that's lived a squeaky clean life besides J.D. Vance, and good luck. So go out there and find that perfect politician. You know what? Why don't we find a politician that's going to go kick ass for us?

20:06You may not like him, and you may have not voted for him, but guess what? He's your quarterback now. And you know what? So here's what I'd offer to those listening. there is a lot of rhetoric out there. There's a lot of people afraid of what he's uncovering. He's going in there kicking ass, and it was like too big to rig. He's like, hey, the majority of the country said, all right, Trump, go for it. Many people voted for him. They're like, I don't really like the guy, but I love his message. He didn't blow up the country before, so let's get behind him. And I think we just all need to take a chill pill.

20:42Let's just give him the shot and he's not doing anything now that he didn't campaign on. There's no, there's been no big surprise except he's just doing what he said. So if Elizabeth Warren is freaking out, maybe because she's worried about something or someone's tell her to be worried about something. So I would just offer people, worry about your own economy, worry about your own entity, your own bookkeeping. What's your market mix? What's your sales mix? What are you doing this year to expand and grow? The economy is looking so good. Real estate markets are starting to climb again. I just bought two parcels of real estate in the last three months.

21:24I'm in crypto. I'm doing small business. I'm hiring employees. I'm like, game on, you know, let's get behind our quarterback. And so I just think that's what I'd offer people is getting caught up in all the rhetoric isn't healthy it's not worth it i want to watch the news i want to see this train crash the usa id train wrecks coming but but watch it for fun and just be patient i really really believe it's going to be a hell of a ride and we're all going to come out on the back end of this blown away of how strong our country is going to be whether you're a democrat or not it's okay just let's win the super bowl yeah how about we do that let's get behind your quarterback Yeah, I think that's a really good point.

22:06It is OK to not like him, not have voted for him, but still engage in his economy in a way that's productive for everybody. Like it's it's the way that it is. And I agree with you. I mean, I just look at the Super Bowl advertisements, the the the way that it was displayed. I mean, you have, you know, Kendrick Lamar out there with red, white and blue everywhere. You know what I mean? like it was a very different super bowl than we've seen the last YMCA in the crowd and chanting USA I'm like yes where are we you know like this is like freaking awesome yeah it really it really was fun to like I mean I just remember I'm sitting there with my kids and some friends and I just going like I just kept whacking everybody like are we back like are we back like I just it was like are we is it okay to like you know be pro-america again I mean I always have isn't It's not weird that we ask that, but it's true.

22:59Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's funny. I'll give you this anecdote. I want to get to the WEF. But so I live in New York State very, very well. My area, I live in upstate, so it tends to be more red, but it's blue in general, right? Yeah, right. And during the first Trump presidency, if you had a Trump campaign in 2016, if you had a Trump sign out, there were people driving around, ripping them out, et cetera. So in August of this year, I put out two signs. I put out, you know, Trump sign and then I put out presidents are temporary, but Wu Tang is forever. And I spaced them about 10 feet apart. And the best part was even my Democrat friends that were walking by my house and they're walking their dog or whatever, like, oh, I like your signs.

23:39They're like, I wish I could, you know, I wish I could put them out. But like no one ripped them down. No one, no one stole them. And like that was like a sign for me very early that I was like, something is changing because there was so much energy. I think people are starting to realize that being America first, focusing on Main Street, coming back to our communities, you know, really dialing into our day to day lives and getting out of all this, this kind of, you know, except we're focusing on these exceptions instead of what really the core of growing our country is. It's an exciting time.

24:10And I'm with you. I think it's time to, you know, if you've got capital on the side, you know, now's the time to have your antennas up, be looking to deploy, be looking to see what's going on, because I think opportunity is going to be everywhere over the next four years. So coming off of that, let's talk about the World Economic Forum. One, very cool you're there. Like, tell what is it like? Like for someone who's, you know, obviously never been. I'm very interested. What's it like? And then maybe why you went and what you took away. Oh, you bet. Thanks for asking. And it was kind of unexpected about four or five months ago, one of the houses that sponsors some of the presentations and panels and events asked me to come speak and represent small business.

24:51But can you do that, Mark, and come on your own dime? See, so many people there are sponsored by governments or big corporations and, you know, big NGOs, like we're trying to deal with climate control and AI. I mean, if I hear the word sustainability and AI in the same sentence again, I'm going to like punch someone in the face. But anyway, it was a really unique opportunity because I got to speak on behalf of America's small business and really world small business. So many other countries, you walk into a little pizza shop in Italy, and it's a mom and dad trying to pass on a legacy to their kids.

25:27And it's everywhere. Everywhere, every country is built on that small business mindset and they get forgotten. So that was my opportunity. So I talked about having a family office, having your own family business, having your own board meeting with your little family offices, three doors down the hallway on the left with a couch in it. You don't need to be a billionaire. And sometimes I speak about all the time and love. And so I go over there and I expected, you know, to like have be invited to crazy parties where they were planning black swan events or, you know, sort of like what's going on.

26:01You know, am I going to get on a jet and head to some island in the Caribbean? What's going to happen here? You get your bunker assigned to you at that time. It's like, here's your card. If you ever call a jet, we'll call and pick you up. So anyway, I, you know, you have all these conspiracy and the biggest shocker was, um, and of course I knew we were going to go to Switzerland in this beautiful little town with snow and all these little Swiss villages. It was just gorgeous. But I got there and, oh my gosh, everybody I met was just another business owner. Yeah, there were some corporate representatives and some diplomats and this and that.