Preparing for the American Families Plan

Hi I'm Laura Rotter of True  Abundance Advisors.

Like you,  sometimes my breath is caught  short when I look at my tax returns   or other filings and see how much of  my hard-earned money is going to taxes.   Given that, however, I am so taken aback  by the scarcity mindset that I feel like   is behind many of the articles I'm reading right  now about the potential tax increases from the   American Families Plan. Look, the tax code  has changed many, many times over the years. Not that many years ago, top taxpayers were  paying over 90 percent in a marginal tax rate. Today, that same tax rate is 37 percent and the American  Families Plan is talking about increasing it, of course, but to less than half of what  that tax rate was in the 1950s and 1960s.  

As taxpayers, we help finance the government  to provide services that you and I believe in: to provide education, to provide health care, to provide a basic   social safety net to the people that live  in this country. The tax code also works to encourage and discourage certain behaviors.  So, for example, the way the code is set up now encourages people to earn their wealth  through investments, because investments  are taxed at a lower capital gains tax rate.  The majority of the citizens of this country earn their money through their labor and that is taxed at a higher earned income tax rate.

Now, these incentives, which also incentivize  businesses frankly to move profit centers offshore   and to hire labor offshore (profit can be  taxed at a lower rate in a different country) so these incentives and disincentives right now I do not believe are working for us. They're working to   create a larger wealth gap in this country than we've ever had and this is leading to more social unrest and I think it's something  that we need to be aware of when we complain about being taxed at a higher rate.

So I'd like  to encourage you to bring an abundance mindset to your taxes, to recognize the privilege of earning enough money and having wealth that you can pay to help the government finance its services  both for yourself, services that you benefit from, as well as to help provide these services  for others less fortunate than you. Be happy to discuss ways for you personally to work to reduce your individual taxes. It's part of the services I provide to my clients and I'd be happy to discuss that with you. So please, go out there and  live your life on purpose!