I save clients up to 88% in taxes. If someone is making $200K, they're probably overpaying $60,000 to $65,000. I teach high earners how to create wealth on a W-2 income. Talk to me about how that would work. There's four ways the government awards those on W-2 tax breaks. Number one is, this is what Warren Buffett and Grant Cardone do a lot of. Number two is, one of our presidents do a lot of this. Number three is, this is what Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk do a lot of. And number four is... Do you ever get pushed back to say, hey, I'm W2, you're just saying start a business. What if I'm busy? Most people, they take their W2s to their CPAs come March, cross their fingers and hope for a miracle. Let me tell you something, Caleb. After 2017, all miracles are done. I think it's easy to say you start a side business, but not everyone. is going to do that so i'm just curious if if someone didn't want to start a side business would it still make sense to set up an llc try to make money and still deduct some of that many people they know how to nine to five but they talk about they want to start getting rich if you want to start getting rich you got to start this particular person they made about 377k they paid in federal taxes 63 000 and state taxes they paid 28. i got him a refund back of 47 000. this particular person In taxes, they paid $29,000. I got him a refund back of $26,000. Stop trying to fight the government. So many people want to try to fight the government. No, you need to get into a relationship with the government. And when I say relationship, I mean- Wise. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Caleb. I greatly appreciate it. Man, I'm excited for you to be a part of this show. I'm excited to learn about different tax strategies. And I know a common theme when we even first met was like, hey, You tired of... your CPA or your tax professional saying, you can't do that, you can't do that, you can't do that. And it's like, lean into, help me understand how I can do some of these strategies. I know that you've worked with some pretty incredible people. I know you've gone through our process. You're a fan of life insurance. And so I'm excited to have you on the show. Why don't, before we jump into the presentation, why don't you just give a little bit of backstory on who you are, how you got in the tax space, and then what the theme of what you're going to be sharing today. Okay. Well, first let me start off with who I am, you know, um, So my name is Antonius Wise, and I'm a special agent with Secret Service, a tax strategist, former NFL player, and a founder of a nonprofit that assists domestic violence survivors with emergency assistance and financial literacy. So when I came into the knowledge of this, you know, it was, you know, when I got, you know, cut from the NFL, you know, I started studying our Western civilization and the money system, and I found out the truth about society. which is own nothing and control everything. You know, so I set up entities, a tax firm with former IRS auditors and former special agents, you know, to do most of the work in the background. And I said, also, I had a nonprofit that assists DV survivors. You know, so what I did was here's the solutions in society. So in going forward, I was like, well, I wanted to find me a spouse that can run the organizations, you know, while I go be a part of Secret Service. you know, so there's no conflict of interest. So I put her in a position where there was options. It could either be a stay-at-home wife or run the family business. And men ask me all the time, like, how do you get the most out of your spouse? You know, whether that's submission or, you know, just total, you know, support. I was like, you got to give ladies options. So that's the approach I took. And I said, the next crisis that we have in America, I'm going to come out rich. And what happened was I needed to raise money for our nonprofit. You know, SBA was taking forever to give us the funding. So from there, I was like, well, I want to say the critical part was when Trump released his tax returns. And everybody was like, how does he only pay $7.60 in taxes? Well, and I said, well, I pay $4.90. And everybody was like, what the hell? I was like, you know what? How about I teach people, take my financial literacy program, and I teach society? those that are high earners, how to create wealth on a W-2 income. So the next question you may ask, okay, well, what is a high earner? Well, I like to do it according to the IRS, right? So if you notice the BBB, the big, beautiful bill that just came out, those who are making 150 and below, there are going to be some great tax breaks for them, especially with the overtime. Then you have, of course, your wealthy is going to benefit. But there was no for the people in the middle, the upper middle class, according to the IRS, between that $150,000 and a million, especially on W-2, you're going to get hit the hardest in taxes. Really? Really? Yeah, man. Yeah. So I like to do my standards based off the IRS because there's no feelings, no emotions. Yeah. It's all based off numbers. And you're saying so talk to me a little bit about how it was working with the IRS because I find that that's a lot of people are afraid of the IRS. and you have like Do you find that you're a little less afraid because you know how they work? Or talk to us a little bit about your experience working for the IRS. Okay. So what I did was back in the day when I was in, I want to say in college, I used to temp for the IRS, right? You know, like process 1040s, things of that nature. So I was pretty familiar with the codes, you know, but not so much, but pretty familiar, you know. But most importantly, I had that entrepreneur spirit, you know. So from there, that's when the whole NFL thing took off. And once I started seeing that window ending, I was like, okay, I'm going to really take things on. Now, when it came to me joining Secret Service now, I'm still with Secret Service. I'm not going to talk a lot about Secret Service because I'm still in the bubble. But I am going to say this, that the skills that I had before, understanding taxes and executive protection, it did help me when I got to Secret Service. Now since I had a strong non-profit tax background. Now Secret Service would utilize me to help the IRS because most IRS agents they didn't understand the whole non-profit game. from that perspective. So there were AUSAs that would utilize me and was like, okay, well, Mr. Wise can explain this in 45 minutes where other people would take them three to four hours. So that was one of the things that with my special entrepreneur and philanthropy skillset, they were able to capitalize off of. Now, when it came to myself, when it comes to bringing value with a servant's heart, and that's what we're going to talk about today, that's when I utilized those skills to raise money for the family's nonprofit. from that perspective. Cool. And so would you, would you say that in this, in this presentation that you're going to share, it's for the high earner W-2 person that wants to save money on taxes? Yes. Yes. Because 92% of our people in our society are on W-2. Yeah. Right. And a lot of tax strategists just focus on entrepreneurs. I mean, we have a tax company with Deriva and Our main bread and butter is for entrepreneurs. We do tax analysis, and all of people are interested in learning more about that. We'll have a link down below. But it sounds like one of your specialties is if you're W-2, a lot of times, a lot of tax strategists, including us, it's not our specialty. And that's what you're saying is a lot of your clients are high-paying W-2. Yes. And the thing is it's a fear thing why many people don't want to be entrepreneurs. It's fear. So I teach people to utilize the tax codes that Congress wrote for U.S. citizens. That is the huge part about this. It is your patriotic duty to utilize the tax codes that Congress wrote to your advantage. So those who are not using the tax codes, they're not being patriotic. So I try to get that switch into a lot of people's minds. Like, you're a U.S. citizen. Congress made these rules for you. you know, from that standpoint. And what separates me from other like CPAs and, you know, the firms, not only do we do this, I like to teach you. So that's where the education, the nonprofit piece comes in. All right. Well, with that, let's dive in and let's see what you got. Okay, cool. Let's start off by debunking myths, right? So the biggest myth out there right now is our government is based off two systems. It's not black versus white, man versus woman. are rich versus poor. It's EIN versus social security number. Those that are operating on the EIN, you have a tough 475 deductions. Those that operate on the social, you have eight, which is mortgage interest, a couple of kids, a TSP 401k health savings plan, about three others. So for every dollar you make, you get 60% and the government gets 40. And the reason why, because we're dead slaves. So, Our money is not backed by gold and silver at this point. You know who's the collateral? You and I. So everyone on the social, they weren't working. Now, if you want to experience financial freedom, now you got to get into a relationship with the government. And this is where we teach a lot of people. So I tell them, look, stop trying to fight the government. So many people want to try to fight the government. No, you need to get into a relationship with the government. And when I say relationship, I mean this. So if you're just operating with your. social security number, you're just surviving. You need to be thriving. So utilize your W-2 to start your side business or your nonprofit, because this not only opens up opportunities for you to do business with the government and the communities offering goods and services, it is your key to financial freedom. So when I say types of EIN structures, you got your 501c3, you got your sole proprietorship, your single member LLC, your partnership, your LSE taxed as an S-Corp and C-Corp. So we'll talk more about those later in which one should you start based off income. Now, here's another gem for you guys right here, right? So as of 2017, there's four ways the government awards those on W-2 with tax breaks, right? If you want to be close to zero taxable income. Number one is investing. This is what Warren Buffett and Grant Cardone do a lot of. Number two is real estate depreciation. You know, one of our presidents, you know, do a lot of this. You know, I want to say a name, but you know. Number three is create new jobs entrepreneurship. This is what Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk do a lot of. And number four is nonprofit. If you're a founder of your own public operating nonprofit, you're allowed to donate 60% of your AGI. With a private foundation, you can do 30% of your AGI. And the reason why IRS allows you to do this is because they know nonprofits need seed money to get started. So if you legally want to avoid taxes, you need to be doing a combination of those four things. It's just that simple. There's no loopholes, no tricks, none of that stuff, whatever. It's just those four things right now. And this is the time where people, if they really want to get rewarded with tax breaks for bringing value to society and create economic growth, they need to put themselves in position right now. So you probably said to yourself, okay, wise, you told me the four ways to get tax breaks for bringing value to society. How do I know which type of business entity to start? I tell people you want to start the business based off your overall household income that's coming in. It's going to be reported to the IRS. So many people come to me, say, I got an EIN, you know, which is a sole proprietorship. And I tell them like, oh, yikes. And I'm going to be honest with you guys. The reason why I don't like the sole proprietorship, because it's the most audited entity. And the reason why, straight up, because you don't pay the state no fees. It's just that simple. Now, if you have total household income between zero and $50,000 coming in, I advise you to be a single member LLC. Just be legally set up and pay the state their fees. You know, you got to pay the play. Now, for many people, you know, that fall between that $50K and $300K, I advise them to be an LLC taxed as an S corporation. And I'm going to tell you why. Number one, you get to save on a 15.3% self-employment tax. Number two, there's the material participant portion where you do the work. And number three, with the S-Corp, you get to have multiple years worth of losses. And number four, my favorite, it's the least audited entity. Now, excuse me, for a lot of my professional athletes that have business income over 300K, I advise them to be an LLC taxed as a C-Corporation. And the reason why, because when you have this tax bracket, you're taxed at the 37% tax rate. But with a C-corporate, it locks you in at a 21% tax rate. Now, it locks you in, but then isn't there double taxation if you want to pull that money out? That's when you get the borrowing strategies and things of that nature. You get pretty creative. That's when it comes to having a good CPA or a tax preparer from that standpoint to start. Go ahead. Can we go back to the other slide? is... And then do you ever get pushed back to say, hey, I'm W2. You're skipping over, like you're just saying start a business, but what if I'm busy? Is there a mindset aspect to just say, hey, everybody should do something on the side to be able to make some money? Or are you setting up a business and even if you do a single member LLC and you try to make money and you don't, there's still ways to save money on your W2? So that's a two-part question. So the first part, that will be answered in the next slide. Okay. But the second part, if someone is just starting a business, and depending on what their income is, that's why I mentioned the whole income brackets. So once you start getting over that 50K-ish, 60, 70, the S-Corp is much better for you. Yeah. I guess okay. So then go to the second slide then, the next slide. I guess. The big thing is I think it's easy to say you start a side business, but not everyone is going to do that. So I'm just curious if someone didn't want to start a side business, would it still make sense to set up an LLC, try to make money, and still deduct some of that? Because now that you have a business, you can potentially write some of that stuff off of your W-2 income. I would say, for one, you need to set up a business. you know, in the pursuit of making income. You know, you don't want to do it, you know, ooh, let me just try to hide some stuff. But now you can kind of mess yourself up. So in reality, it's a mindset, you know, and that's what I want to get in in the next slide, right? Escaping a middle-class trap. So many people, they know how to nine to five, but they talk about they want to start getting rich. So if you want to start getting rich, you got to start five to nine. That's where it starts when you're on that W-2. And the first stage of that is getting rid of bad habits. You got to stop spending your discretionary time like poor people. And when I say poor people, I'm talking about in the mind, like stop gossiping, overeating, running the streets, watching a bunch of porn, et cetera. You know, you got to utilize those two to four discretionary hours to study things like real estate, taxes, IULs, whole life insurances, and seek out strategies and life coaches and mentors that can teach you this stuff. Because think about this, Caleb, every grown functional adult, we all get four discretionary hours. When you get married, you have two discretionary hours. And when you have kids, you have one discretionary hour. And if you're a single parent, you only have 30 minutes. That's all the time you got to think. So it is very important to seek out a strategist or a coach or mentor that can do this stuff for you and teach you. And if you do this between 90 and 120 days, it'll increase your chances of matching your success. So to answer your question, it's a mindset, you know, from that perspective. So you got to want to put yourself in like, hmm, I want to be able to create wealth while I don't know. on a W-2 income. So let me utilize the tax codes where if I don't make any money, right, I'm able to, you know, take these losses because there are expenses that come with starting up a business. Now, if you do the single member LLC, that's why the IRS allow you like three years for you to try. And if it's not making any money, they can come to you and say, is it a hobby? Start questioning you. But with the S corporation is different. Now with the S corporation, is it a little bit more tax filed and stuff like that? Yes. but to me it's well worth it because it's going to give you two tax returns, you know, and it's going to spit out that K-1, which may have losses on it, and that's going to offset some of your W-2 income. It's almost like a cheat code in a sense. Now, I want to talk about the nonprofit piece. Nobody really talks about the nonprofit, right? So let's do a deep dive with this. So why you should start a nonprofit? Of course, mission-driven, tax exempt status, eligible for grants, community support, bringing value to society, student loan forgiveness. Now, this is a big one right here, the student loan forgiveness. We've got to get into that. And employee family generational wealth. Now, check this out, Caleb. I started my nonprofit when I was in grad school, right? you know And I utilized my student refund check instead of buying it on what rims and clothes and what most college students do. I was like, you know what, let me start my nonprofit. So fast forward, you know, last year, you know, they sent me a letter and they said, Mr. Wise, you had $160,000 worth of student loans forgiven because you was working for a nonprofit. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So you're saying you have, you can set up your own nonprofit. And if you have student debt, that could be a way to have the debt forgiven because you're working for your own nonprofit that you started? Yes. You ought to be doing it for 10 years. Yes, correct. 10? 10? Yes. Okay. So this is not a short-term strategy, but you could be paying the minimum on your student debt for 10 years and then get it forgiven. Yes. Wow. Okay. I don't have student debt, but I feel like I should. All right. I'm listening. I love it. I love it. But see, and the reason why, but see, I always understood the government gives away money in programs, you know, and I'm going to, I'm going to talk about that a little later in the section without, but this is very huge, you know, and I want to say there's a president, uh, Obama, you know, used to talk about this, uh, you know, it was in his, a lot of his speeches where, um, he would just be casually talking, you know, and he was like, if people want to make a difference, students want to make a difference, start a nonprofit, you know, but. People just let it go over their head because he has that charisma and everything else. Yeah. You know, so if you just listen to a lot of, and this is just a gem I'm going to give people, you know, just even in men's secret service, if you just really listen to a lot of the president, they give so many gems, you know, but people have their certain biases, you know, so it amazes me a lot of time, you know, being on the house. It's like when Trump said, hey, today would be a good time to buy. And then the crypto and stock market went, like some, some. Some people are a little bit more in your face than others, but yeah, definitely it pays to just listen to what they're saying. Yeah, that's it. Tell people all the time, just listen, you know. So and if you're going to start, you know, to create wealth, you're going to have to listen to a lot of influential people, you know, because people ask me all the time, how did you gain all this information? You know, I would when I was before I got to see your service, I would protect a lot of wealthy people for free. You know, to be in those rooms to get that knowledge, you know, from that standpoint, I understood how to bring value at an early age. Right. A question, question for you. I could be going in the weeds here, but how old do you have to be to start a nonprofit? 18. So you technically at 18 could start a nonprofit while you're going to college. Yeah. And then, and then technically at 28 and you're, I'm sure there's. Probably hoops you have to jump through that you'll explain. But at 28 or so, you have the opportunity to have your student loans forgiven? Yes. Yeah, because you have to be working for a qualified nonprofit. As long as it's 501c3. Any nonprofit? Any nonprofit. Okay. I'm not sure why I had never known that this was a thing. But all right, continue. That's news to me. See, this is the gym that people... A lot of people don't talk. You got to think about this. Most wealthy people have nonprofit. How many wealthy people? I have a private family foundation. I have a private family foundation that we do. And I would love to know the difference between a private family foundation and nonprofit. But so I agree. A lot of wealthy people that I know have either nonprofits or private family foundations or both. And there's reasons for that. Yeah. And I'll explain those reasons. So most of them, I would say this, if you have a ton of money, I would go the private foundation route, you know, because you really do. You're saying that you don't want no one in your business. You want to do what you want to do, pretty much. And with the public, what you're saying is you want funding coming in from everywhere, you know, from that perspective. So if someone is starting their nonprofit off the ground, I would start with the public one, you know, first, you know, because you want funding from the state, federal, you know, people walking down the street. You want funding coming from everywhere. You know, and even from yourself. from that perspective. So I would start with the public and I would structure it in a certain way from that standpoint as well. So I understood because I got my master's in public administration in some nonprofit, I understand how to get into the weeds of it where most people just decided, okay, well, I just want to be grateful to society and just start a nonprofit where I learned the ins and outs of it. And what school taught me when it came to the nonprofit piece was they didn't teach me how nonprofits made money. It taught me how politicians move money, you know, so I was just like, hmm, this is very interesting. So basically, you know, the government will allow the nonprofits to do the work and incentivize them. So in theory, you really want the government to just protect the borders because, you know, who knows best about the communities that they're in? It's the nonprofits. They're boots on the ground. So in a perfect world, this allows so many people that make a lot of money. I want to help this cause. I want to do this or do that. So you can have more control over your tax dollars, you know, doing that instead of giving it to the government and hope they do the right thing or whatever. Yeah. But this is the intricate parts of the tax codes that people don't really get to study and look into from that perspective. The tax code is a set of incentives, as Tom Wheelwright said in his book. And if you understand those incentives and not try to fight the government, as you said, it can be really powerful. Let's continue, but this is awesome. Okay. All right. So ways nonprofits can make money. All right. Number one is grants. So give an example. So I got a grant from the IRS last year. And I'm going to tell you, let me be honest with you. The reason why I took that grant from the IRS, because I'm a black man talking about taxes. And I wanted them to fine-tooth comb my books. Because if your books are messed up, the IRS is not going to give you no money. And also, I use it as advertising. Because, Caleb, let's be honest. How many people? in your phone right now that gets grants from the IRS? You. You and probably I know a few other people that do grants, but they're not doing it for their own nonprofits. They work for nonprofits and that's their job is grant writers. But most important, it's getting it from the IRS. If the IRS can give you money. Yeah, you're the only one. I think you're the only one. To me, I looked at it and I was like, that is a super flex because most people are. or an irs the irs is paying you yeah exactly yeah so i looked at it you know like that it's like why not get into a relationship with the irs yeah do you mind how how much did they get you in a grant yeah it was about i want to say about 45 000 something like that 45 000 oh my goodness man okay well i'm i'm paying attention i'm paying attention 45 000 because because you're a black man talking about taxes? I would say because um I wanted to bring value, you know, and help like seniors, you know, with taxes, you know. So I looked at it as a way because here's the deal. I'm going to be honest with you, right? So being a former NFL player, you know, and special agent, all that good stuff, whatever. People look at me a lot of times and maybe not, but I hear it, you know, in a sense. Like, is he real? There's no way, you know. So but I don't feed into it. You know, I just stack the credentials. Because I knew at some point I'm going to get back in society, in the private sector, and really take off. Because there is no one out there at this point that is doing it like I am. You know, that is moving with a servant's heart. Because I'm not greedy or needy. You know, I'm seedy. I like to plant the seeds and educate people on this stuff. You know, and if you want my services and things of that nature, whatever, you know, you donate to the nonprofit. You know, just that simple. And I want to talk about something next. We should talk about that because it sometimes feels like self-dealing could be a problem in that. I'm sure you know you probably have an answer to that. But that's where I'm really careful, like in private family foundations, you've got to be really careful not to do self-dealing. I know that nonprofits can pay salaries. That's not an issue. but I don't like yeah I guess I guess what happens if someone wants to like set up a charity, donate 60% of their income, and then live out of that charity? That might sound good on this interview, but wouldn't that be really frowned upon from the IRS standpoint? And like the purpose of a charity is to give, not to have it necessarily benefit the person that's not. So I guess these are all questions that I would have that I would ask you that you can answer now, or if you have a slide, sometimes I jump ahead. I apologize for that. Well, I'm going to say this, right? Because I don't want to give too much away, you know, because you're going to have to pay for that information. Okay. Donate to your foundation or donate to your charity for that. I know, right? So think about it like this. Think about operations. So keep that. I want you to think about operations and how the expenses come out of operations. So if you focus on the mission, it will work itself out. I promise you. So think operations. You know, I'm giving an example. So your business, you have to pay, you know, rent, right? You have to pay lights, you have to pay gas, correct? Correct. So just think operations. Think about your mission. Think about operations from that standpoint. Now, what I like to do with a lot of people is I like to have an LLC right beside it. So if they do start to go after grants, you know, you can have that LLC inside the grant to be able to do the work from that standpoint. So you can say that part of this LLC we're going to be paying this or part of this grant we're going to be hiring this LLC for $30,000 a year for consulting to help us X, Y, and Z. Yes. Yep. And just say if I wanted to buy like a Bentley or something, right? We just keep it like that. If I wanted to buy a Bentley or a Cullinan or whatnot, you know, and I got this grant for probably $2 million or some sort, you know. So I would have the LLC do some work for, you know, the nonprofit that is in the grant so the LLC is going to get paid. So I would use that LLC to buy that vehicle, you know, what it needs from that standpoint. I understand. The LLC, does the RSC, like you're saying LLC, but LLCs, like they're all passed through. So would it matter to them if the LLC was passing through to the same person that was running the charity? No, not at all. Not at all. Not at all. Because no one person owns the nonprofit. I understand that. It's who controls the nonprofit. So you can have any LLC to do the work. It's on you. And then another thing is... I wouldn't even take a salary. I wouldn't even take a salary. If I'm already on W-2, I would not take a salary. No, not at all. Now, what I would do is one of the things that you guys offer, which is key man insurance. Okay. So you would have the charity by insurance on the employee, which would be you. And then talk to me about how that would work. Okay. So just say I'm the founder, right? and I donated a crap load, you know, I get this nonprofit fund, I get it going and everything, right? Yep. So that means I'm an important piece, you know, from that standpoint. So the board would be like, you know what, he's an important piece of this nonprofit, you know, so let's get a key man insurance policy out of him, you know, from that standpoint. And this is another thing, this is another thing that can answer your question too. For expenses or anything to be, you know, paid out of the charity, the board has to agree upon it. Not just one person. Yeah. That is huge. How many people, the board needs to be a minimum of three people? Most, yes. Most states require a minimum of three people. So it could be you, your spouse, and your 18-year-old kid? There you go. I don't know. I don't know why. I don't make up the rules, bro. Yeah, I don't know how I like this. But, okay, so let's go back to the key man. So the board needs to approve key man. they The charity puts money, buys a life insurance. Technically speaking, because it's a charity buys a life insurance. So there's they're not having to pay taxes. You're getting a deduction donating the charity. Charity buys life insurance. There's really no tax problem there. The life the money goes into the life insurance policy. It's owned by the charity, I would imagine. But the insured is the individual. And then. What happens if the individual wants to use that capital for personal stuff? They're not able to use it? Because I would imagine the death benefit would get paid back to the charity. Could the individual use that policy for personal use and not have it run through? Talk to me about how you would structure that. And I want to be really clear that this is a beautiful thing about this YouTube channel. I'm interviewing wise. I'm not necessarily endorsing. I'm not saying that you can do all this. obviously do your own research and we'll have access to what you can talk to wise yourself from from that standpoint i'm just asking this in real time so how would that how would that go how would your interpretation of that be so i wouldn't use it for personal use i would use it for the purpose of a mission now this is now here's another key part too this is why i like setting up the non-profit based on your life things that happen in your life right so my three causes are domestic violence. You know, obesity and health with kids and also assisting those of, you know, HIV, right? So. My cause was DV. And let me tell you how I got that cause anyway. Right. So when I was on the shortlist for the Green Bay Packers, you know, which I love. That's my team, by the way. Really? I'm an owner of the Green Bay Packers. I'm a diehard Green Bay Packer fan. So, wow. I knew it. Yeah. No, but during that Super Bowl run, I was on the shortlist, you know, so when I was engaged, you know, to a young lady, you know, and she cheated on me, she kicked me out. Right. And she got with a guy that started beating on her, you know. So I had my, you know, asset protection company, you know, with bodyguards and, you know, and doing taxes and whatnot. And, you know, and I almost shot the guy. And on my way home, I was like, I used emotional intelligence, you know what I mean, because I didn't do it, you know. So when I got home, Obama had a commercial that said one hit is too many. So I immediately wrote my bylaws and articles and submitted to the IRS, you know, and they approved it. So I would use my asset protection company with bodyguards and local law enforcement to help ladies go back from the shelters, you know, to get their things. So that's how I originally started. So I already had my protection company, which was the LLC, whatever, right? So that portion. So then we had the health and obesity. I'm a former NFL player, all that good stuff. And then my mom had passed away of AIDS, you know, when I was younger, whatever. So I had those three causes. So I had already pretty much. Had my lifestyle wrapped around those businesses. And you're saying that LLCs, like, for example, you could have your charity could be really open ended. And let's say health is really important to me. And like the charity could contract out an LLC that helps you with health and wellness. Which could be yours. Your LLC. Yes. It could be my LLC, and we could happen to buy. equipment that the charity could pay for. So, yeah, I mean, a question I would have is what are the rules for self-dealing and where does it become disallowable? That's a hard word for me to say, disallowable. And where, I mean, I'm sure you've had, I mean, you've been doing this for a while if you've had things. I mean, I know that charities in itself aren't audited that much. But that doesn't seem that's for me, that's not necessarily a thing that like checks the box. Sometimes people give me tax strategies and they're like, the good news is this is barely looked at. Well, I'm like, I always assume that I'm going to get looked at. Let me say where people really screw up at. How about that? Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about let's talk about that. Yeah. OK, this is where people really screw up. Right. So when they get grant money, they start tricking off the grant money. Be honest with you. That's when it gets. you know, messed up because you got to report back to whoever gave you that grant. So this is why a lot of people don't like going after federal state grants or whatnot, because they're going to be on you. You know, who got this, who got that, whatnot, things of that nature. And there's certain percentages within that grant. You can allow for staff and such and such. So this is where that LLC comes into play, you know, because they can't control your LLC, but they can control the grant. If your LLC is written into that grant to do some work, that $50,000, that LLC takes that $50,000. Right, but you're saying it would be a problem if you didn't write that into the grant to then pay. No, I'm saying if you want to get money from the grant instead of personally take it, that LLC needs to get it because there's yeah. Oh, and that's like the IRS could pay or the government could pay directly the LLC on behalf of the charity. No, so... So, okay, when the grant is awarded, it's going to go to the nonprofit, right? Yes. Because the nonprofit already wrote in there who's going to do the work. I understand. Yeah. Yeah. So you got that LLC in there. We'll just use mine, right? So Wise Protective Service LLC, it's going to do some work within the nonprofit because it does security and I got a domestic violence, you know, nonprofit, right? I hear you. So it's going to be allocated whether it's $100,000 or whatever the case may be. So instead of me trying to take money, personal money out of the nonprofit. I got my whole LLC over here. I hear you. They got $100,000. Yeah. You know, throwing whatever- You're saying an LLC is different than them writing a check directly to you. Yes. Yes. OK, let's let's move on, because I'm sure the the people at home are rolling their eyes like, Caleb, stop asking questions. Let's move. What other things when it comes to I mean, we just we just talked about grants to grants. Oh, well, here's a big one, too, because let's get into programs. Right. Because this is huge for a lot of nonprofits. Right. So at this point, you know, when the new administration came in, they basically cut off the water for a lot of nonprofits. Right. So a lot of nonprofits are struggling. And this is where I have. where I advise a lot of nonprofits to create fee-based programs. When I say fee-based programs, meaning that within the mission of your nonprofit, you know, whatnot, you know, it's got to be, like I said, within the wheelhouse. You know, so you can have a fee-based program and you can charge the public. You don't have to pay any taxes on it. You know, they'll allow you to do that. Like I say, it's called fee-based programs. Right. But then, and then, but the same, the way that you would actually benefit from that is. by either the charity buying something or the charity paying money to an LLC that you own because you know what I'm saying like it you can you could make millions of dollars with your charity but you somehow have to figure out if you paid yourself that in w-2 you would still have to pay tax on that yes yeah if you did it that route if you wanted to pay yourself from the non-profit yeah you put yourself on a w-2 you know thing of that nature right you know uh I don't like I don't really like that in a sense. I would rather put that money in a whole life insurance policy. Okay. So talk to me about how the whole life insurance works. I don't want to give away too many secrets, but I do. I, our audience really does like details. And I would just say like, I don't think anyone's going to be doing this on them by themselves. Well, this is where people like you guys come in, right? With the whole key man issue. And this is, this is what attracted me to you all, you know, because instead of me taking a, a, a salary in a sense, I was Let's get a key man insurance policy. And if the board decides if I need monies to utilize for something, because my lifestyle is the nonprofit, the board will decide, okay, Mr. Wise, whatever, we think since you're a key person, you need to be able to drive this kind of vehicle, or you need to be able to do this, you need to be able to do that. The board has to decide from that standpoint. So I'd rather the board dictate what goes on. you know, and say, this is Mr. Wise, you know, what you need. Now, if I need something that's exotic, that's not in the wheelhouse of the nonprofit, whatever, you know, I better get it from the LLC. I understand. So if you were like, hey, I want to fly private via the charity, the IRS could say, listen, Wise, I don't think that's really reasonable with the charity. And so they could disallow that. But you're saying if you really wanted to fly private, there would be a way for you to potentially get the policy. What? No, let's talk about that part. There's a way where you can justify it. Okay, or you just justify, yeah. Yes. So if you're a founder, guess what you're doing when you're flying private? What are you doing? You're working on your charity. You're running your mouth. You're trying to get other donations. Easy. But see, this is where your strategies, your high-level CPA comes into play. Okay. From that standpoint. You know, that's why I say strategies are very important. And you don't know what not. Yeah. And this is why they cost. You know, I'm going to be out by Carlton Dennis and all those guys. This is why they cost. And I don't blame them. You know, because the normal, you know, CPA or tax preparer, they can't think outside the box or whatever. But people who are criminal investigators, you know, people who are IRS auditors, they got this certain type of knowledge. Yeah. Is there a case? case law like is there tax law case law like is there examples maybe we do a part two um this is me asking for a part two where we can go through like this is an example because i know i know we're not talking about churches but the more i learn about starting churches that's like even that's like charity on steroids yeah yeah it is you know but also there's so i mean i yeah i'll I'll put my of biases aside i think some of what's happening under the church label is a little bit i don't necessarily agree with because it's it's like you look at some people and they're essentially profiting massively off of a church entity and using certain scripture and all that stuff to push their agenda but but it's besides the point it's fully legal there's been people that have tried to like get at them but they're they're under the they're they're not doing anything wrong from uh from the law standpoint so you're saying the charity-wise is like that i just my only pushback and this is how i am for everything so it's not just you is i've known people that have said something similar to this about on charitable llcs and i've i've heard people that have said similar things to like private family foundations and at the end of the day some of them have not have gotten in trouble because they push the limits i'm not saying that's what you're doing i'm just saying like they're saying one thing it sounded really good and then And then when it all came down, you know, one person out, he will be nameless, that was doing some things on the private family foundation side is indicted right now. Why? Well, it was because he was doing self-dealing and saying that it was about the nonprofit and not nonprofit, the private family foundations and trust planning and all that stuff. And it sounded amazing. He even quoted the oh, nothing, control everything kind of deal. And it sounded great until it didn't. And so that's where that's where that's like fresh in my mind. That's why I I just am like I want to like know details because I think this is different, by the way. I'm just letting you know like that that my perspective coming into this. I get it. And that's the fear part about it. And what most people don't focus on is doing the work. Yeah, I agree. There's to do this right. It's not something you just sign a piece of paper like you got to live it. Yes. And you do. And that is where we preach and educate people. you know, focus on doing the work, you know, because you're going to have expenses. But the thing is, most people are afraid to utilize the nonprofit for, you know, the expenses. It got to have expenses. This is why the IRS allows you, you know, for the whole C money. And then also, too, they allow you, I want to say maybe close to five to seven years to be the only one donating to your nonprofit. And then they can subject you to the public test. you know, to find out if anyone else is donating to your nonprofit. Now, if you're telling me within five to seven years, you ain't found no one to donate to your nonprofit. Yeah, I know. That seems like a pretty easy bar to, uh, I'll call, I'll call up my friends and family and, and, uh, have them donate something. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? But the punishment of that, if you don't have no one donate to your nonprofit, you will go down to a private foundation, you know, from that standpoint. So that's why I tell people, like I said, there's a lot of fear. That's why I said, I want to debunk a lot of myths. Okay, cool. And just have people to just focus on doing the work. So you were talking about programs. Programs is another way that a nonprofit can make money. Yes. Yes. So they got to create a program that's in their wheelhouse of their mission. Yeah. And they can charge the public for it. But let's say I could take a charity that could be on health and financial wellness. And in that charity, I could charge I could sell courses, books, and programs and people could get a full deduction on uh they could donate to the the charity and as a result get the get the courses and all and you're saying like that's totally allowable uh under the charity umbrella yeah so give me an example for like dv survivors right so with my charity so dv survivors are gonna get it you know for free you know because that's what the cause is you know from that stand. They're going to get 500 minutes here for free. Now, if Caleb or Vinnie, somebody else want it, you're going to have to pay. Now, that fee, that depends on, you know, whatever is reasonable from that standpoint. Right. You know, so that's what that goes into play, where the knowledge and the credentials, and this is why I stack my credentials, right? Yeah. Because my credentials are so high, whatever, and my time is very valuable. If you want me to coach you, whatever, from that standpoint, you know, I'm going to try. I basically look at it like the church. What is the church, you know, what is, you donate 10% of your AGI? So I would say, look, if you want me to teach you this stuff forever, okay, donate 10% of your AGI, you know, from that standpoint, and I'll be able to, you know, teach you this. You know, you probably say to yourself, okay, why is 10%? That's a lot. Think about it like this, right? So if someone is making 200K, they're probably overpaying in taxes, I want to say, maybe about $60,000, $60,000 to $65,000, right? So I may charge them $28,000 to teach them to get back up to $60,000 to $65,000, a one-time fee. So look at the ROI on that from that standpoint. So you're getting someone to teach you how to create wealth, and they're going to, you know, do it, you know, set up everything for you, tax filings and things of that nature, right? A one-time fee. And then going forward for the literacy to keep going, it's just a... like 7k membership, you know, from that standpoint. So it's almost like going to school, you know, you have to invest in yourself. And this is why I like the whole being a strategist, you know, where, you know, I can, you know, ask for these types of prices if you want this type of knowledge, you know, from that standpoint. Talk to me, land the plan on key man insurance, and then talk to me about anything else like real estate or anything else that is beneficial to potentially do under a charity. Well, let's do contract. I'm going to go from contract sponsorship, you know, just real quick. Yeah. So with contracts like so for every survivor and abuser we see Medicaid, we have a contract with them. So they pay us. Do you have sponsorships? You know, where I have, you know, like NFL commanders and like Secret Service give me hundreds of laptops every year to pass out the kids in the community. I send them back pictures, you know, so they look good. Do you have fundraisers, as you know? And then you have endowments. That's another way nonprofits, you know, make money. So you remember the older people on the wall when we went to school, you can see, they give endowments. So they get to control the literature. And people would always ask me, they were like, okay, why was I never taught how to create wealth or do your own taxes in school? And I simply tell them, why would the lion teach the gazelle how to get away? It's not logical. You know, do you have donations? You know, we know what those are. Do you have real estate? So nonprofit can buy real estate and don't have to pay any taxes. That's another way to raise money. And then the whole key man insurance policy. So I like it when I came across you guys and you guys were talking about key man insurance with the nonprofit. I was like, this is brilliant. You know, instead of me trying to take a salary, no, I don't need to take a salary. No, no, no. Let's invest this money. You know, me being the, like I said, the one who donated, I'm definitely going to keep the nonprofit, you know, running or whatever from that standpoint. You know, so I'd rather for you guys to do a salary, go towards, you know, the key man insurance policy. And if you guys need it for anything, nonprofit related, stuff like that, whatever, okay, cool. Let's go ahead and get that done. But it's up to your board, though. And that's why I said your board makes all the decisions in your nonprofit. And Caleb, who's on your board? I'll let you answer that one. Your wife, your 18-year-old son, and you, which, again, feels, I guess if it's legal, it's legal. Can the IRS ever say, hey, this is a nonqualified board? Is that a thing? No. No, no, no, not at all. Not at all. No. Like I said, they got their stipulations, you know, who can be on the board. You know, you can have family on the board, you know, look at all our look at the I won't say I won't say certain presidents because I'm still, you know, but just look at everybody around. Yeah. You know, now I can't have a nonprofit. Of course, the huge tax deductions, you know, and the free labor and asset protection. Here's a big one for a lot of people, especially guys that make money and think about getting married. Give you a scenario. So someone, you know, one of the clients we set up, you know, we set him up as nonprofit, put his three board members on, you know, he's going to have his, you know, his brother, sister, things of that nature. So it puts assets into the nonprofit. So he goes and find love. Right. So about two years later, you know, wife says, I want to divorce you for irreconcilable differences for the assets to get out the nonprofit. The three people on the board got to vote. You think those three people on the board are going to vote? No. So, yeah, that's an interesting thing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Very much. And I guess if you're sued and all like it's another asset protection is solid there. Yeah. Yeah. So the nonprofit is a very powerful tool. I advise people focus on doing the work. How much does it cost to get a nonprofit started and operate? Like if someone wasn't to work with you and they're just to run their nonprofit, like how much are we talking annually to get it? nonprofit. I would say totality wise, if you just want to get your nonprofit is to have one, it's about 2k give or take, you know, uh, but here's the deal. Most people don't have the strategy. That's why they're stuck. They get a nonprofit. They don't know what to do. Yeah, no, I hear you. I just, I just think it's, it's from person at home. Like it's setting up a nonprofit might not make sense if you're making 30 grand a year, but if you're a high W2 or a high, you know. non-w2 this could be a strategy that you would want to know that it's available let's uh let's move on but this is this uh thank you for breaking that down and i appreciate you being okay with my pushback because i um yeah i appreciate that no it's okay man and let's talk about the 30k person right remember i said i started my non-profit when i was basically broke yeah using my student loan refund checks or what's right yeah i forgot the 10 year Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. If you're really about the work, you know, no matter what income you're making, you know, especially if you're a college student because you're broke. Why not start a nonprofit and really focus on doing the work? Yeah. And I would also just say from raising your family and experience and it just like there's something really is powerful about saying, hey, we as a family, we're going to be running a charity and we're going to. we're going to be intentional about serving people that you know so i i from uh like from our private family foundation that we have the the intent is i want to be able to be extremely generous and give like crazy and this is getting us set up to be able to do that and even though when we first set it up maybe i didn't necessarily need to do that i probably could have done a donor advised fund and all. I wanted to start thinking. like someone who could you know totally justify a private family foundation and so i'm a big fan of like maybe even if you're not feel like you're worthy today put yourself in the scenario to get yourself to be that and you'd be amazed where your mind would go so um there's another gem too because i think your audience may ask this what if i don't feel like doing anything for my non-profit meaning are you yeah yeah If they literally say that, because some people, you know, okay, I get it. Maybe lazy, whatever. How about you partner with another nonprofit? Oh, that's interesting. You know, you give money to another nonprofit, you know, that you donated to. You know, and the government, they allow you to do this. They love this type of stuff. Don't just sit and hoard the money. Yeah. Use it for a good cause, you know. So, yeah, let's go to the next. Oh, talk about tax brackets. Here we go. Just for a split second. So many times people don't understand tax brackets. Right. So give you an example here for like a single fowler that's making one ninety seven. anything after this is taxed at the 32%. That's how it works, you know, from that standpoint, you know. So I like to show people, they'd be like, oh, well, I'm in this tax bracket. Well, it's the money you make after that is what's taxed, you know, from that standpoint. Let me see, go to the next. Oh, tax planning versus tax prep. This is a big one too, right? Most people, you know, they do tax prep. When they take their W-2s, you know, a mortgage interest statement to their CPAs come March, cross their fingers and hope for a miracle. Let me tell you something, Caleb, after 2017, all miracles are done. You know, there's very little, very little that you can do, you know, come tax time. And if CPA is someone is advising you this and that, you know, that's a, that's a tough one right there, buddy. You know, But if you're, when you start making over that $150, $200, $300, $400, you really need to start tax planning, you know. And that's getting with the strategist, setting up business, nonprofits, you know, for IRS to approve it so you're able to come use it come tax time. Oh, so let me show you a couple numbers, right? You know, so people are like, okay, where are some people with some tax returns going on? So let me show you a couple, right? So this particular person, you know, on W-2. you know they made about 377 377k and they paid in federal taxes 63 000 and state taxes they paid 28 let me show you the results so as you can see here they paid 63 000 i got them a refund back of 47 000 right federal statewide they paid 28 i got them back 18 let me tell you what's more most important on this return the total tax This is what the IRS is saying you're responsible for right here. This is huge. People don't understand this portion, whatever, you know. So I'm going to show you someone, I'll show you another one here too. Okay. Now here's someone, you know, that made about, you know, 130 ish or whatnot. And, and keep in mind too, you guys, they're doing a combination of the four things I mentioned earlier, investing, real estate depreciation. create new jobs, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit. So this particular person in taxes, they paid $29,000. I got them a refund back of $26,000. So their total tax was $3,162. You're saying you did that a combination of LLCs? Nope. Combination of investing, real estate, depreciation, create new jobs, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit. Which is LLC. yeah and then non-profit yeah yes got it so it's not just llc so i don't want you to just on llc you know yeah it's those four yep yep and this is someone this is someone that makes less than 100 000 yes i want to say total because they had a lot of losses on their on their escort okay you know so maybe what do you what it was this person's gross about one maybe about 130 140 no more than that okay okay yeah So total, they really left $3,000 on the table, you know, pretty much. I think most people that are making over six figures would be super happy to pay less than 4%. Big time. So, and like I said earlier, you have to say to yourself, do you want more control on your tax dollars or you rather for the government to have control of your tax dollars? Yeah. So you got to get into a relationship with the government. That's what it is. It's not you hiding and doing all this stuff. You got to get into a relationship with the government. and most people When I hear most strategists talk, they talk about real estate, they talk about the oil and gas, you know, and the LLC, whatever. No one talks about nonprofit. They don't want to touch it. I agree. You know, I yeah, I don't I don't disagree. Yeah. And statewide, this person, they paid in eight and we got them back seven. So they had a nice, and here's another thing too. So once people get this refund, now they can take it and invest it into something. I'm always proponent of either invest it back into your nonprofit or invest it back into your business, buy equipment, whatever you need to create economic growth. Or you can take it to a financial advisor. It's on you. That's when people like who you were speaking with earlier come into play from that standpoint. So a lot of financial advisors, if they had people that handled the tax planning in the beginning, They can take those refunds and invest it, you know, wherever they need. So what we do, man, we do a life audit approach, you know, so as a life strategist, I take the time to have that diagnostic conversation about your mindset and your financial habits. And if your mindset is ready to be calibrated to create wealth, like I said, it's a mindset now. I'll teach you how to get tax breaks for bringing value to society and create economic growth. And next, we'll set up legal entities to show the government this is the value that I want to bring to society. And this will allow you to take those deductions and credits to offset your W-2-1099 income to get your entity off the ground. That is the big portion right there. Utilize your W-2 to get your business or nonprofit off the ground. So and according to Section Code 162A in the IRS handbook, is this expense ordinary and necessary for my business to make money? And we call this justification. So we're doing a complete overall of your financial mindset and your AKA tax surgery. So I'm going to show you some examples, right? So, you know, the tax return I showed you earlier, this is what they were before they came to us in that first year. You remember that total tax of $15,964? Yep. The second year, look what they did. You see? I see that. Third year, $346,000. They got close to a Donald Trump tax return, you know. Now, that other client I showed you, you remember their first year was 3,162? Yep. That next year, they figured it out. They got that goose egg. Yeah. And people are like, oh, there's not yes, it is possible. And the big thing is I like working with people that have a servant's heart. Right. If you don't have a servant's heart, I really don't want to work with you from that standpoint. and that following year, you know, I'll say they slacked off or whatever, but, you know, maybe they didn't do as much, you know, so I'm going to go to a couple more and then we'll go. This particular person, I was kind of upset with them because they didn't utilize the strategies. You know, prior they came, you know, their total tax was 157K. That first year they got to 135 and the second year they got to 96,000, as you can see here. So They were kind of slow motion. Like some people be kind of lazy with the strategies. No big deal. That's if you want to do that, whatever, you know. But if you want to have control, you're set up where you have the option where you let the government do what they want to do with your tax dollars or you can. So let me see. And this is my last one for you right here. This is a high level person. Right. You know, one of the big companies, Fortune 30 companies. Right. So they made about 400K and federal taxes they paid 70 and state taxes they paid 20. The thing I like about this particular person, they did it to the T. They used those four things. They went head on, man. And here are the results. So you see here, they paid in taxes 73,000. We got them a refund back of 69,000. And when I say got them a refund back, it's not that we. We went and got it for them. We taught them the strategies and they actually implemented it during the year and come tax time when it was time for us to file, you know, they had the deductions and credits and things of that nature. So they got a refund back of $69,000 federal and $19,000 state, you know. So you see that they end up getting close to a $90K check back from the IRS. Yeah. Most people... Oh my gosh! Yeah, that's a big day. You're knocking at my door. It's like, bro, guess what? We got justification. Here's the stuff that I did. Here's what I did for the nonprofit. This is what I did in the community and things of that nature. How do people have the money to donate to the foundation? Because W-2, this money is getting taken out already. Whereas a business owner might have that money that they can donate. But is that... is that ever an issue or some of your clients where they just don't have the money to donate? No, they do. It's just how their life is structured, you know, from that standpoint, you know, and this is where the strategies come into play where you got to pay for, you know, from that standpoint. And that's why I say, think operations. Okay. You know, from that standpoint. Yeah. So it's, it's great, you know, but if you think operations, you know, you'll be able to figure it out. But if not, you know, go ahead and pay, you know, and we'll do a deeper dive into it. Well, let's, let's definitely have you back on. And I'm sure there's going to be questions on on this. This is this is great. And I would love to see some case case studies like when it comes to the tax courts or like in like tax law kind of deal of like hey guys this is this is like how this is legit these these are people that have been you know have gone through the court system and and this is allowable because i find that this has been really educational i i've always known the power of private family foundations and and that but i've not leaned into the power of starting charities and this talk for me has really got me to start thinking more about that. So I don't know if you'd be willing to come back on sometime to have a part two, but this is, and we'll definitely have links for your stuff down below if anyone is watching this or listening to this and wants to learn more and connect with you. We'll have links down below. Is there anything else you want to say as we wrap this up? I know that this was a fun conversation, especially as part one. Yeah. So, I mean, this is where, like I said, many times we separate ourselves from others, you know. with having former IRS auditors and criminal investigators, you know, from that standpoint, because we, we think we see things, you know, a little different, you know and also to, you know we preach that doing the work is the most important part. And I think that's where that kind of separates others. You know, when I say others, people that get nonprofits where they just have a nonprofit and not something that is really within their life that happened to them, where They function every day, even from an LLC standpoint as well. You know, people should, if you had a certain hobby, whatever, how can you profit from that hobby? So we call that living the corporate lifestyle. So it's just much more how your overall corporate structure is set up, you know, from that standpoint, you know. And when you get grants, you know, you do what, you know, the grants, what you're supposed to do with it. And don't, you know, trick off the money. and that's where, like I said, for those who... That's where most people, they kind of mess up at. When you start getting that grant money and you're not doing, you know, what they want you to do with that money. I'll say this. Thank you for your time today. You're the first IRS auditor slash Secret Service agent that understands tax. So you definitely have a very interesting background and appreciate your perspective. We'll have info down below. And thank you. Thank you for your time.
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