Digital Social Hour
Maximize Crypto Gains with This Tax-Free Strategy | Mark Kohler DSH #1296
Fri, 04 Apr 2025
Ready to maximize your crypto gains while keeping Uncle Sam at bay? 💰🔥 In this episode of the Digital Social Hour, Sean Kelly sits down with tax and financial expert Mark J. Kohler to uncover the ultimate tax-free strategy for crypto investors: the Crypto Roth IRA! 🚀 Whether you're a seasoned crypto trader or just starting out, this powerful tool lets you trade and grow your investments—completely tax-free. Yes, you read that right! 🙌 But that's not all. We’re diving into why proactive tax planning is a game-changer, how to protect your assets with smart strategies, and why understanding the tax code could be your secret weapon to building wealth. From leveraging Roth IRAs to stay ahead in crypto to making sense of Trump's proposed tax cuts, this episode is packed with valuable insights and actionable tips you can't afford to miss. 💡 Mark also shares his mission to transform the accounting industry, explains how AI is shaping the future of tax strategy, and reveals the key mindset shifts that separate successful entrepreneurs from the rest. It's relatable, practical, and inspiring—saving money has never been this fun! ✨ Don't miss out on this must-watch episode. Hit that subscribe button and join the conversation now! 📺 Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets, only on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:26 - Mark Kohler in Vegas 02:10 - Is the Accounting Industry Broken? 04:32 - Trump and the IRS 06:28 - BOR is Dead 08:45 - Importance of Privacy 09:29 - Asset Protection Strategies 12:10 - Trump's Crypto Tax Plan Explained 16:30 - No Tax on Tips Discussion 17:59 - Interest Rates Decline 22:57 - Matt's Shocking Discoveries 24:20 - What's Next for Matt? 26:58 - Where to Find Matt Online 27:13 - Mark’s Recommended Books 27:28 - Outro APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: jenna@digitalsocialhour.com GUEST: Mark Kohler https://www.instagram.com/markjkohler/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ #crypto #bitcoin #moneyguyshow #financialeducation #bitcoinira
Chapter 1: How can a Crypto Roth IRA maximize your gains?
billion now of self-directed money of business owners that we don't we don't manage their money that's why it's self-directed you tell us what you want to invest it in we just are the portal for that as a trust company but we have a crypto roth product where you literally have an app on your phone with your through roth ira and you're just trading crypto it's and it's a gemini platform it is great so
All right, guys, got Mark here out here in Vegas. We're going to talk taxes and crypto. Exciting, right? Yeah. Let's do it. Sexy topic, I bet.
Yeah, super sexy. Well, it is tax season. Yeah, yeah. Everybody comes to Vegas to talk about taxes and now just... Yeah, it's tax season and... It's an exciting time of the year. I'm sure every day this week, this month, you'll be working 14 hours a day. You know, it's interesting you say that.
If you're, and this is a little controversial point, is that if you're busy during tax season, you're not a tax advisor. Really? My busiest time and my tax advisors is December. Because you're trying to get all your strategies in before year end. You're planning, what do I need to pay due? You know, what are my deposits and la, la, la. But April 15th, those are the people that...
they're just doing the easy returns, knocking them out. 70% of our clients extend. You actually reduce your chances of an audit. So anyway, we're not as busy at this time. October 15th is crazy. I didn't know extensions reduce the risk of audit. That's interesting. Yeah. It's good. The IRS is kind of like first come first serve.
So the more, you know, when returns get filed, they're already assigning their audits in the regional offices. So by July, all their auditors have been assigned their projects. I'm filing my tax return in October. So I'm like, you know, let all the other cows go through the cattle shoot before I get there. You know, I love that.
Yeah. That's a good point though. If you're, if you're freaking out in March, April, it's too late to incorporate strategies, right?
Yeah. It's you're looking in the rear view mirror. And so what I've been trying to do is help accountants around the country. Let's look out the front windshield. You know, what can we do more proactively and strategize? And so when you're doing tax advisor, you're busy all year long. You're like, you're still going to report taxes, but we're going to spread that out.
File extensions, send in deposits. Let's take our time. Do it right. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: Why is the accounting industry considered broken?
It is. And it's sad because on one hand, you've got... baby boomers are just walking away from practices. They're burned out. You know, accounting industry is a tough industry because they made it tough in enrollments down in universities around the country and accounting programs. Kids see it as a, not the most, you know, lucrative or fun practice. And then business owners have made it hard too.
They're like, you know what? I want to pay the least amount for my tax preparer. I don't want to sit down and talk about it. And so we have this broken system. So I've been on a mission of, The building's on fire. I'm running in. I want to say, hey, accountants, be an advisor. Bring strategies to the table. And business owners, get to the table and captain your own ship.
You're never going to find the accountant that just does it all for you. You've got to be involved in the process. You don't have to do the return, but let's have a conversation. And it doesn't have to be boring or complex. Freaking saving money is fun. You know those wealthy people? They love to talk about saving taxes, right?
They geek out on it because they know it's easier to save money than make money.
Much easier. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you pay the regular tax, you know, 40% or whatever it is, plus state tax. Adds up. Over 50% if you're in Cali. Yeah.
And you put in self-employment tax in that. And there's nothing wrong finding a loophole, using a strategy. The tax code's built to motivate us to do things. Buy something important, take a tax write-off, you know, so.
When I found out Trump paid zero in taxes, I knew I was doing something wrong. Yeah.
Yeah. I've still got his tax return on my laptop. I've got Joe Biden's and Donald Trump's from 2016, but they were both using good strategies. Yeah. But Donald Trump used the real estate pro strategy perfectly.
What did Biden use? I didn't hear about his tax return.
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Chapter 3: What are Trump's views on the IRS and how do they affect taxpayers?
Elon?
Yeah. Elon was just like, I don't know if I wanted to see what I did. Yeah.
Well, he said on Rogan, if he exposed everything he knew, he would get killed. Yeah, that's right. I mean, the corruption goes deep. It does.
I mean, he's got more death threats than Trump, I'm sure.
Wow.
It's just too bad.
And so, but I'm with you. Transparency is always good in life with everything. Right. And, and with the tax code, the more we can learn about it and understand it, um, It empowers us because so many people are afraid of the idea, oh, we got to get rid of it. And just know how it works. Just don't hate the game. Just learn the rules of the game.
And that's what wealthy, successful people do is they spend time on it and they're like, it's not that bad. It's fun. You know, saving money is fun. Absolutely. BOI reporting is officially dead, right? Officially dead. I tweeted that out yesterday. And what a roller coaster ride too. Up and down. It's been crazy. Yeah, it's dead.
And for those out there that still think you need to file this business owner information report, on the FinCEN website, they haven't changed anything, but the treasury department has said, we're not going to enforce the penalty. And so that's what, if you, if you're nervous out there, people just go to the treasury department side, it'll tell you they're not enforcing it.
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Chapter 4: How important is privacy in asset protection?
like infinite money glitch there's always a creative way of spinning something that's been sold forever and yeah that's hard i actually yeah i just got life insurance i guess that's a form of asset protection right it is life insurance um it's very interesting i was doing a workshop a week or so ago on it and life insurance um
is it can be used in so many different ways and properly it's just making sure the you're buying it the right type of insurance at the right time in your life right the sad part is is there's life insurance agents that um because it's commission-based they're motivated to everybody should have it and they sell policies to people that shouldn't be buying it
And then there's people out there that get apathetic and don't buy it at all, and they should be. But there's bad players in every industry. And so I think people need to look at life insurance. I don't sell it, but we help consult a lot of our clients on it. You want to look at it and make sure you get a second opinion from someone not selling it to you. And so I'm proud of you.
That's good. You're right, though. There are a lot of MLMs in that space. It's kind of scary. Yeah. It's easy to fall for those.
It is. And, you know, MLM for those multi-level marketing statement for people that don't know what that is, it's a sales strategy for compensating. I get it. They don't want to pay for mainstream advertising, so we're going to compensate our salesmen more. But it's weird how it does attract kind of crazy products.
Yeah. Well, when money's the main incentive, they don't care what they're selling. Yeah. They'll sell whatever they want as long as they get paid. Yeah. So that's the downside of it. It is, yeah. You know, a lot of them end up being scammy products or whatever. Yeah. Crypto stuff, let's talk that because the new administration is really pro-crypto. They're saying they might waive some taxes.
Well, the crypto community says that, hoping it's going to get some traction. And bless your heart, I love crypto. I love the crypto community. We hold crypto taxation summits that are understandable and fun. But now, there's nothing in Donald Trump's tax plan or in – we're right now in the House and Senate committees are working on the new tax legislation –
Again, Trump will throw things out there like, oh, we're not going to tax this. We're not going to tax that to get the conversation started. But there's plenty of great tax strategies with crypto. But to think that there's a special crypto tax or not going to be any tax. Why? Sign me up. Why is something else not taxed?
Yeah, I'll take no cap gains tax on crypto.
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Chapter 5: What are effective asset protection strategies?
I didn't know there was a Roth crypto. Yes. I'm going to look into that. Yeah. So our trust company directed IRA, we have over two and a half billion now of self-directed money of business owners that we don't, we don't manage their money. That's why it's self-directed. You would tell us what you want to invest it in.
We just are the portal for that as a trust company, but we have a crypto Roth product where you literally have an app on your phone with your through Roth IRA, and you're just trading crypto.
And it's a Gemini platform, and it's great. Gemini just did a big change, right, with Exodus. Did you see that? I did not. I think it came out last week. You can't buy on Gemini anymore. You have to buy on Exodus. They just partnered with them. I think some legal stuff. I don't know what happened exactly.
Nice thing about Gemini is they've been definitely a leader. They're trying to be very, very careful, very reliable. It's hard with exchanges. I know the crypto community, that's... wants to get off exchanges, but they make the trading so simple.
Yeah. Well, the problem is they don't know if it's a security or not. Each coin is different, right?
Yeah. And now we're seeing the SEC back off of that argument too. Yeah. And that's the powerful thing about crypto. And by the way, I know how it's taxed. I can save you money with tax. Talking to me about the blockchain, this could be scary. Someone's going to be listening and go, this guy's an idiot. So I got to be careful. But yeah, I love that. The SEC is backing off a lot of those arguments.
The thing that people need to know, the first question on the 1040 tax return is to do buy, sell, trade, or earn any crypto. That's the first question. The IRS has task force on this. And by the way, everybody, the blockchain is public. It's open source. So you're not going to hide your transactions. And there's no, oh, I didn't know, ignorance is bliss argument.
The IRS, they're going to. It could come three years from now. I mean, they know. You upload a photo of your ID when you buy crypto on Coinbase or whatever. Yeah.
And the day will come where you're like, well, they don't know where it's at. Well, someday you're going to sell it.
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Chapter 6: What is Trump's Crypto Tax Plan?
Hopefully he'll carry it through. What's next for you, man? Are you speaking at any events or any conferences coming up?
Yeah, well, I'm on a mission, as I referred to a little earlier. I'm trying to help accountants around the country. If you go, I'm a lawyer, I'm a CPA, I've checked all the boxes, and you don't learn how to be a tax strategist by going to school. You learn how to think as an accountant, but you have to get out on the streets and learn tax strategy, and hopefully you get with a good firm.
And so many accountants are frustrated, and the business owners out there, I'm trying to impact more business owners, not with my own firm, but helping thousands of accountants get certified tax advisors, learning how to build a practice and communicate. So that's, I've got a couple of conferences a year.
I train every week and my podcast and shows are about helping accountants catch that vision because they're starving for it too. They want to have it. And they're scared of AI. They're thinking, okay, AI is going to do my job. Well, a strategist, AI can't do strategy. AI can do the tax return. That's cool. But people can go to TurboTax for that. Yeah. Holy crap. They want a conversation.
And so that's my mission.
AI replacing tax strategy will take some time, I think.
Yeah, because the strategy is so, I mean, AI is amazing. Who can envision?
I use it daily. It is amazing.
Yeah. But when you start to apply, what I like AI for is it gives me inspiration. I can say, write me an article on this, write me a this on that. What should I do with this? Okay, then I see it. And then there's that human spirit that looks at it and goes, all right, here's how I'm going to twist it.
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