Capitalist Investor

Harris's Unclear Tax Proposals & The Impact On Your Retirement, Ep. 279

• Strategic Wealth Partners

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In the latest episode of the Capitalist Investor, hosts Derek, Tony, and Luke dived into a series of hot-button topics that are currently shaping the financial landscape. Covering everything from tax policies to government spending, the trio provided their insights, analysis, and some rather intriguing conspiracy theories. Here’s a breakdown of the five hottest topics discussed in this week's episode.
1. Taxation of Tips
Derek kicked off the episode by discussing Kamala Harris’s recent pivot towards not taxing tips, a policy typically championed by Trump. The hosts were curious about her sudden adoption of this stance and discussed its potential impact on service workers. Tony pointed out the irony, given the IRS's recent hiring surge to tighten tax collections. The conversation broadened to question the broader implications of such a tax policy shift and its strategic political motivations.
2. Real Estate Taxes and Unrealized Gains
The hosts delved deep into the contentious topic of taxing unrealized gains. This policy could force individuals and business owners to liquidate assets to cover tax liabilities on "paper gains" that haven't been realized through an actual sale. Tony cited the example of Michael Jackson's estate, which took 12 years to settle its taxes due to the complexities involved. Luke raised concerns about the fairness and practicality of such a tax, suggesting it could lead to significant financial strain on many Americans.
3. The Democratic Party’s Platform
Luke expressed confusion about the current Democratic Party's platform, questioning its core principles. He argued that many of their recent policies seem to conflict with their traditional stances. The hosts noted that the Democrats appear to be adopting policies piecemeal to attract various voter groups rather than adhering to a consistent ideological stance. This segment was rounded out with an entertaining aside about Kamala Harris's seemingly contradictory statements on various issues like fracking and the border wall.
4. IRS Agent Surge and Government Spending
Tony raised the issue of the Biden administration's plan to hire 87,000 new IRS agents and the broader implications of government spending. The hosts questioned the return on investment (ROI) of this hiring spree and whether it would genuinely result in significant tax revenue increases. Luke highlighted the significant costs involved, suggesting that the added expenditure may not justify the potential tax collections.
5. The Bigger Picture: Government Size and Influence
As the episode wrapped up, the hosts returned to a perennial concern: the growing size and influence of the government in American life. They debated whether the United States might ever reverse this trend and restore more power and autonomy to the individual. Derek questioned the future of any administration’s ability to significantly reduce government size or spending, given the entrenched nature of bureaucratic expansion.
Conclusion
The episode provided a riveting discussion on topics that resonate with anyone keeping an eye on the intersection of politics and the economy. From the taxing of tips and unrealized gains to analyzing Kamala Harris’s multifaceted political statements, the Capitalist Investor crew ensured a well-rounded, thought-provoking conversation. Listeners interested in the nuances of modern tax policy and its broader implications will find this episode especially enlightening. Stay tuned for more from Derek, Tony, and Luke as they continue to tackle the pressing financial issues of our time.

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Capitalist Investor. As always, you have me, diamond hands D, and we got the whole crew here. Cool hand Luke, Tony the tiger. What's going on, guys? The three amigos. Finally. We are back. It's been a while. They're back. Alright, great. We got lots of good stuff to talk about this week. So something that kind of caught my eye this week was obviously a lot of the presidential election stuff going around and I found it very curious. It was probably about a week or so back when Kamala Harris kind of jumped right on the Trump plan of not taxing tips, pretending to be, hey, let's not tax everyone so much. They just hired a bunch of IR's agents so that they can hunt down people. 87,000 at the beginning. I don't know where they are on that hiring process. Maybe that's what during our supposedly job creation. It's part of the opportunity economy. Yeah, that's what she cops keeps on saying. There's two words we're building opportunity economy. Awesome. Can't wait. This is, dude, this is so, it's so funny. You said like I was reading. Yeah, you're reading because she ain't talking. She has not said a peep about anything. About anything. Like, she's just out there. I don't know. I don't even know if she's out there. She on vacation too? Just like Joey was most of. Anyway. Her tax plan sounds like there's a lot of people, I don't even know if a lot of people are really aware of the consequences of some of the things that they're rolling out. Yep. You know, they have higher taxes on corporate rates, they have higher taxes on capital gains. They want to tax unrealized gains. So let's lock everything in today, pay the tax on it. And if it goes down, oops, sorry. Like, you still had to pay tax on the, on what it used to be. And people are going to have to liquidate a lot of things to pay these taxes. That is the high level. I mean, it could go several again. Look at, look at what happened with that, that carry trade. Yeah. You know, this was something where it was interest rates of a half a percent or a quarter of a percent. Juggernaut at the market to go down five, six, 7% because people have their money tied up. They don't. No one's liquid, right. No one's liquid. I mean, if you're liquid, it's, I mean, I don't know, like, no, no one is. Especially like business owners, it's wrapped up into their business because there's a fictitious number that maybe your land or your business is worth. So for example, like this taxing of the unrealized of gains is kind of like he said, she said thing. So it's like, hey, I think my business is worth $10 million and the government says, I think it's worth 20. You owe us more tax. They said it took almost twelve years to settle the taxes on Michael Jackson's estate because a lot of this stuff has not, hasn't been sold or it doesn't maybe even have a necessary monetary value because it's going to stay in the family. Like, all right, you guys take over. But like, I'm just so hot on this. Like what a, what a, I just want to know all effect this could be. I just want to know what today's democratic party really stands for because I don't, I don't know what they stand for anymore because they only say things to try to get a certain minority or certain group of people to vote for them. It's all a voting game. So like the $25,000 tax credit for houses, but it's only for first generation. Well, that targets illegal immigrants. So it's literally trying to get the illegal immigrant or first, or immigrants in general to vote for them. Right. And then you have the no tax on tips. Well, that was Trump's thing. They stole, but now they're running with it and they're trying to get every service worker to now vote for democratic as well. So. And then you have all, well, the rich will pay more in taxes. Well, that targets 99% of America. But that being said, 99% of America always pays for the policies that they do. So they actually don't help. The Democratic Party has been the sole party of helping the rich over the past couple of decades. Like, if you look to any policy that's democratic, it makes the rich richer. So everything they say is completely opposite of what they actually do. So what I want to know is, if you're not taxing tips, like, what's the next step? Are we not gonna tax income at all? Sorry. Just a side note. My son, my one buddy posted something on like, Facebook and he goes, man, she is just stealing everything. You know, it's all made up when she starts saying, drill, baby, drill. Seriously, they just said yesterday, I think, that she supports the border wall. Well, she said fracking's cool in Pennsylvania. Like, she's just all over the place. She says everything. She is saying. Whatever people want to hear? That's exactly. I'm gonna go to Pennsylvania. Oh, it's a, it's a, it's a kind of a, you know, like a steel state, oil state. Hey, I'm for all that stuff. And then goes, God knows, go to the border. Hey, I love the border. I haven't been here. It's the first time in three and a half years. What's up? How you doing over here? Electric cars. To complete 180 on the electric cars. Of California and says, I love electric cars, dude. I'm. I don't know. That's what I'm saying. What do they even stand for? I don't think America really knows what. They don't like Trump. That's really the only thing that they talk about. But it's crazy. He won all the republican primaries to. Be the person, and she didn't win any democratic primary because there wasn't a primary. So one of the things I wanted to point out in here was because we talk about it quite a bit with the tax piece. You know, if. If Kamala Harris gets elected, like, you can kiss the Trump tax cuts goodbye, and the best that you can do will be the Obama tax rate. Yeah. And that's going to increase taxes on. It was either 62 or 64% of Americans, is what I read in that article. Well, all the marginal brackets are going to change, and everyone will feel at least a 15% to 20% increase in taxes. So they're not going to pay 20% more. It's like, whatever you're paying, you're going to pay 20% more. And I know that for a fact because the county of, you know, Cuyahoga county came back and told me my houses were 10% more. So I know my taxes are going up 10%. I gotta hang on, though. But you said something. I have a deep, deep, deep conspiracy theory. All right, let's hear it. Hear it. Trump won because I said it. Trump won the republican primary to be the nominee. Right? Right. What if that was fixed by the Democrats? Like, let's get Trump back in there. Cause America hates him so much that we have a chance. You can't get somebody else in here. Speaker one now. So here, here's actually. All right, that went over. Here's exactly what happened is Trump never made it out of the news the past four years. Right. He remained in the news cycle. And really the democratic news cycle as well. Like CNN, MSNBC, like, they still talked about Trump the past three or four years. They kept him relevant. So I'm blaming him. So your conspiracy theory is actually kind of accurate in the fact of, I don't know if it necessarily happened with the primaries. I think it happened with the left wing agenda of them keeping him relevant over the past four years when they didn't have to say a single thing about them. But the fact that he kept him relevant means that he's, he's gonna be the nominee because you don't stop talking about him. They kept him relevant. Cause they weren't doing anything with their administration. Right. Yeah. There was literally nothing positive to talk about. It's happening now because of him. Right. Exactly. Three and a half years later. And I think it was like, it, was it like four out of the last 16 years. Right. I think the way the Democrats have had the president of the United States kind of seat for the last twelve of the last 16 years, and they're blaming everything on the four that they. Right. It makes no sense. I'm just flabbergast. Unbelievable. Anyway, so what, real quick. I know what, yeah, we got two more minutes before he wraps, short and sweet. But I. What happens, like, down the road? Like, does it matter? Like, if, whether or not Trump or Kamala is elected, really? The fact that government's too big, I always go back to that fact. Like, you know. Yeah. That we might lower taxes under Trump, but we still have record, essentially, like tax revenue. And the fact the government keeps on getting bigger, will we ever take a step back and actually give power back to the people? Well, I mean, but, like, so if we hired these supposedly 80,000 IR's agents under this administration, the biden administration, and then Trump wins, does he go in and fire everyone on day one? I don't think, I don't think he can. I, I don't know. I don't know if these people have, you know, five or ten year olds. What'S the opportunity cost? You hire those agents and that costs you, I don't know, what, $500 million between the salaries and everything else. Salaries, million dollars. And how much actually money you're going to collect from that? Like, I don't know. Like, is the, is the ROI, no, no. Government thinks, like, Roi in business, right? There was no Roi on paying all those people to hunt down tax dollars. Yeah. I mean, just look at what, $60,000 salary times 870, thousand times 80,000. I mean, that's a lot of money. Yeah, I never understood that. 80. I mean, I don't know, 500 million. Is that kind of like the salaries. Estimated for, I don't know. Do the math on top of my head, 80,000 times 70, which thousand? Like, whatever that is probably about 560 million. Yeah, sure. That sounds about right. Maybe it's 5 billion. I don't know. I don't know. It depends on the zeros. Yeah. All right. I don't even can't even, I can't even add all those zeros. All right, we're out of time. Again, this up. I just want to know, and this is not even like a criticism. Like, I just want to know what the democratic party of today stands for. It's just so up in the air. And I, again, I just wish Americans took a step back. And it's like they're only saying things because this is what we want to hear. Like, I just wish people would understand that in a lot of ways. And Trump does it, too. I was listening to his speech and I'm like, half the things he's saying, I'm like, okay, well, your tariffs are actually inflationary. Like, actually won't lower inflation. Your tariffs, if it actually comes happen. So, like, I don't know. Democratic Party's just way worse than that. One of the other things it's, I just saw this is that, you know, one of the other taxes, if the Democrats come out and say, hey, we love this crypto stuff, they're full of it because they said that there's going to, they're looking at putting a 30% excise, excise tax on digital mining, electrical costs. They're going to suffocate it. I mean, it's just hard to do it in general because of the having. Right. The having part of digital currency where it's twice as hard to get to create a coin. Now they're going to tax the energy that it takes. I don't know. So. All right, well, we shall see how it plays out. Hot button today. So, and, you know, this isn't a political show. We're just trying to talk about taxes. But, man, it is, it is bad. It's gonna, it's, it's really bad. So keep, keep that in the back. I think it's unfathomable. Like, it is really hard to comprehend these drastic tax changes that are being talked about. Drastic. Every election cycle. They talk about a bunch of B's and it never actually happens. All right, well, thanks for listening this week, folks. If you guys have any questions or comments, show ideas, hit us up at info connect.com and we'll talk to you next week. The opinions expressed in the podcast are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any investment, legal, financial or tax strategy. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. Please consult a qualified professional about your individual needs.