July 7, 2025 • 25 mins
Pros who help you manage your money Tampa Wealth Management Tampa
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Ask The Experts Florida is broadcast live Mondays at 9AM ET and Thursdays at 5PM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Ask The Experts Florida is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Ask The Experts Florida Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,
explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or it's employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to the Ask the Experts Show on W four
CY Radio and Talkboard TV, where we bring you educational
information from top local experts in the fields of legal, health,
financial and home improvement. Now sit back and listen to
experts in family law, association law, hearing laws, business brokers,
(00:47):
home care, along with many other topics. Now Here are
your hosts, Spivo and Sophia.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, Good morning, Florida. Welcome to a finey show in
the United State. It's the best podcast with the best experts,
the Ask the Experts Show. I'm your host, Steve O.
This is the first Monday of the month and that
means provised management Group. I got to tell you the
most important word when it comes to money management is trust.
(01:20):
And Ray Ferrara's been with us for four years now,
and I got to tell you I have never had
so much respect for a company, especially when it comes
to handling money management as provised management group. I've always
thank God for them. Good morning, Ray.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Good morning Steve, and trust you had a wonderful holiday weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It was long enough, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Indeed, we had a pretty rainy weekend and ruined a
lot of plans for folks. But you know, all in all,
we can be very thankful that we're here in this
great country and celebrating our independence and the American free
enterprise system.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well, speaking of this weekend and rain, I know you
feel the same way. We want to send out prayers
to all those families down in Texas that went through
a horrific weekend with the floods, and we just want
to send them our prayers.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Absolutely, it's quite devastating and cannot imagine what all of
those families are going through at the moment.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Ray, I got to tell you our show, I think
it's been four years and it's amazing. Just last week alone,
I got three emails from people who said, Hey, I
never knew about the show. I was shocked after as
long as we've been on, but there's still new people
(02:52):
finding the show. Tell people about Provice Management Group.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Sure Provis was founded about the nine years ago. It
is a financial planning firm first and foremost. We look
at retirement planning, state planning, investment management, risk management, asset protection,
education planning, all of those different things as a subset
(03:16):
of a financial plan. And unlike a lot of companies
that call themselves financial planners or financial planning, most of
them are just asset gatherers. They just want to manage
the money and then go play golf and everything else.
The hard work is in doing the doing the planning work,
and it's a continuous and ongoing process. We have offices
(03:37):
in clear Water and Tampa, Florida, but we have clients
scattered over thirty plus states. We're working with about eleven
hundred families and something like about one point eight billion
dollars in assets under management on behalf of those families,
and we always offer a one hour complementary consultation with
(03:58):
any of our listeners. We'll happy to meet in either
our Tampa or clear Water office, and if those are
not convenient, we're happy to do it by zoom. Get
a one hour complimentary consultation. Get to know us, we
get to know you, and if we can't help you,
we'll be happy to refer you to someone who we
think can.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
You know, I got to tell people we always talk
about very serious topics. And I asked Ray this morning,
just so you know, Ray does have a sense of humor.
We got a lot of emails since Friday because people
saw the show was going to be playing today. And
I asked Ray, what do you think most of the
(04:38):
emails were, And of course he had it come up
with something that made me laugh. He said, Weather, well,
that's not true, and he knows that everybody wants to
know about this new bill. But I got to start
off with saying, Ray, you said that you didn't think
they would get it done by July fourth. Shock Ray,
(05:01):
that it was done by July fourth, They get it done.
How did they do it?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Well, the fact of the matter is I was wrong.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I didn't think I get done.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I didn't think it would get done until sometime later
this month. But there was enough arm twisting, cajoling threats
in some cases i'llment a campaign against you if you
don't vote for this. That the President was able to
round up a fifty to fifty vote in the Senate
(05:36):
with a tie broken Vice President in advance for it
to pass the Senate and then onto to the House
with some compromise language in their relative to the salt
that state and local taxes deduction, which we'll talk more
about in the minute. And at the end of the day,
(05:58):
they got it done, and you got to get credit
to both the Senate and the House for stepping up
again even though the margins were very small. That's what
the majorities are all about. Is even if it's by
one vote, as it was in the Senate, the majority wins.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, the I guess the number one question, Ray was
does this new bill only benefit millionaires and biillionaires? Does
it benefit the middle class or even the lower class.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
So certainly the Democrats have made a big deal out
of that this is a tax bill for billionaires. I
don't know that they mentioned those poultry millionaires, but just
the billionaires. The fact of the matter is is that
(06:51):
as you look at the bill, and we'll talk more
about all of these things a little bit later in
the show. You know, the the real winners in this
were well clearly the attinuation and the permanence of the
current tax brackets. It is to the benefit of those
(07:12):
that are wealthy. They would have seen a prebstantial tax
increase had this bill not been passed at the end
of by the end of this year. But you know,
we've had these tax rates for the last eight years,
we've gone through COVID, we've certainly had all of our
share of geopolitical events more recently Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, and
(07:39):
yet our economy has grown just as was projected back
when the twenty seventeen Tax Act was passed. There's some
special provisions in there for those that have lower incomes.
There are some pretty good tax breaks that are there
that phase out at different levels of income. So I
(08:03):
don't think that it favored one group over another. I
think it was tried to be very broad, broadbrush and
clearly in terms of dollars. Because the dollars are bigger
than the people who have significant wealth, they are going
to save more quote unquote because they have more. But
at the end of the day, we see the bill
(08:25):
as a relatively broad bill that is helping all classes
of folks here in America, and perhaps I should say most,
because somebody could always argue that there's somebody that wasn't
favored of me.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So there's something in it for everybody. There is. But
there isn't a perfect bill, that's for sure, no question. Now,
what about what was the final eight outcome on social
security benefits?
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Well, the president of the campaigned very hard on not
taxing social Security benefits, and as we have spoken before,
that was a really bad idea. And why was it
a bad idea? The reason it was a bad idea
had nothing to do with the concept being on social security. Myself,
(09:18):
I could certainly feel good about that. But the problem
is is that the amount of Social Security that is
taxed as income, that money does not go into the
General Fund of the United States. It goes back into
the trust Fund for Social Security. And if they had
(09:39):
not taxed, if they had eliminated the taxation on social
Security itself, then the trust fund would run out of
money even earlier than twenty thirty four or twenty thirty
thirty three. So we always thought that that was a
bad idea. What the President and the Congress came up
with as an alternative is that seniors defined as someone
(10:06):
aged sixty someone over age sixty four meaning sixty five
and above, would get a six thousand dollars additional standard
deduction are added to their standard deduction. And the net
effect of that is that instead of about sixty two
(10:29):
percent of those that are on Social Security having excuse me,
sixty two percent not having to pay any taxes, is
now projected to go up to eighty one percent who
isn't included in that. Well, there are phase outs on
that deduction based on the amount of money the income
(10:49):
that you have, so that those with a lot of
money and a lot of income will not get that
additional deduction. So the classic example of whether there's some
bout in our opinion that there was some balance that
was in the bill that says, okay, for those who
have smaller incomes, we're going to give an extra six
thousand dollars deduction, but we're not going to give it
(11:11):
to everybody if you're above above certain limits. And we're
writing up an entire piece right now in the bill
giving very specific information and ideas to consider, and certainly
by the time we meet in another two weeks, we'll
have that all completed and make it available to the listeners.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Now, let's talk about overtime and tips. There's no tax
on overtime and tips. Who is that going to benefit.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Well, again, one would think that for the most part,
that is going to benefit folks that are at the
lower end of the income scale. There are some caveats
on the tip side. It only exempts the first twenty
five thousand dollars of of tips, so that that money
(12:04):
is not going to be taxable. You know, if you
are working in a small, little restaurant somewhere here in
Florida and you're making forty thousand dollars a year and tips,
that twenty five thousand dollars exemption is going to be
very meaningful to you. On the other hand, if you're
(12:27):
working for tips, and maybe you're in a large city
like Los Angeles or New York or Chicago where very
conceivably you're making one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,
it's still going to be meaningful, but not nearly as
meaningful as it will be for those that have a
smaller income. Overtime pay is not paid to exempt employees.
(12:48):
What is an exempt employee that's somebody who's on a salary,
not on an hourly rate, and overtime is paid to
people who work more than forty hours in any given
work week, and that income as well is going to
be exempt from taxation under the bill. And again, however,
(13:09):
there are limitations on who's going to be able to
take advantage of it. That there's a lot of conversation about, well,
I'm going to change my salary and instead of calling
it a salary, I'm going to just say that I'm
getting tips. Well, they covered some of that by again
putting income limitations in that up to a certain level
(13:31):
you get the benefit, then it fases out, and above
a certain level there's no benefit whatsoever. Again, so a
rather measured and balanced approach, and it allowed the President
on both the senior piece, the overtime piece and the
no tip no tax on tips, the promises made and
he will say promises kept.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I heard a talk show the other night someone was saying,
you know, they put all their tip money in cash,
they don't declare it anyway. But I don't think that's true.
Or I think a lot of people now pay by
credit card or are their debit card or Apple card
and they have to declare those tips. Is that true?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
When a customer uses a credit card and adds the
tip to the credit card, it runs through the business,
and the business then provides a ten ninety nine to
the waiter or the waitress at the table if it's cash.
The answer to that is, it's supposed to be included, maybe,
but maybe sometimes you know it isn't. So you know,
(14:42):
if you're in a restaurant in New York City, in
most places, you're gonna pay by credit card. But I
do remember an experience, Stephen, when I was at Peter
Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
And my favorite place. Ray.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Uh, well, then you know what I'm about to say.
My friend, who who was taking me to dinner along
with one other associate, pulled out his credit card at
the end of dinner and I told him. I said
to him, I said, Kevin, this is owned by good
Italian people. They like cash, they don't like credit cards.
(15:19):
So unless you have enough cash or a check with you, you're
not going to be able to pay for dinner tonight.
So's his invite of taking me to Peter Luger's. It
turned out to be my buying for all of them
because I had the cash to pay for it.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Oh my god. Yes. In fact, I've actually had their
family on my restaurant show, probably the finest steakhouse in
the United States. I got so many questions here for you.
What about the new tax brackets, Ray, what do they
look like?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Well, interestingly, they're not new. They're just an extension of
the old ones. And under the twenty seventeen Bill steven,
they had a sunset that in them. The top tax
bracket was reduced from thirty nine roughly thirty nine percent
down to thirty seven percent, but it was temporary and
(16:12):
it would sunset at the end of twenty twenty six,
excuse me, the end of twenty twenty five, and we'd
go back in twenty twenty six to the higher level. Well,
they kept those same brackets, but what they did this
time is they made it permanent. Now one, what does
that mean. Well, what it means is there's no sunset
provision on those tax brackets, and the brackets themselves will
(16:38):
be adjusted for inflation as time goes forward, but the
percentages will stay the same. Now, Yeah, appreciate that any
legislative piece coming out of Congress is just as permanent
is the current legislature. That's there because when there's a
turnover in the legislature, they can rewrite the law, and
(17:02):
therefore it's permitted until it's not. But at least there's
no sunset provision. Top tax rate is thirty seven percent.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Now a program it is going to be new is
where the child gets a believe it's a thousand dollars
at birth. Can you explain that one? Sure?
Speaker 4 (17:19):
And that is exactly what is being proposed here. That
each child born in the United States beginning this year
is going to have an account opened up for them
with through the Treasury, and that thousand dollars must be
invested into a index of some type. It can't be
(17:42):
into a mutual fund or individual stocks. It has to
be into an index. Anyone who wants to add money
to it can up to five thousand dollars, so additional
money could go in that. They tried to name this
particular savings plan after Trump, calling them Trump accounts, but
(18:04):
that didn't make it into the bill. Maybe they'll still
be dubbed that by the Treasury. We'll have to wait
and see. The money can't be touched until the child
is eighteen years of age, and then they can take
it out at that point for certain things without having
to pay income taxes on it. But if it's taken
(18:28):
out just to go buy a shiny red car, they'll
have to pay income taxes on whatever they take out.
Plus it's ten percent penalty for quote unquote taking an
early withdrawal unless it's for one of those one of
those exceptions that exists, and that would include a college education,
it would include the purchase of a the first new home,
(18:52):
et cetera. My analysis on that, Steve is that it's okay,
it's a good deal. I mean, one thousand dollars you're
going to give from the government, that's great. You can
add five thousand dollars to it. But given a choice
for a parent to add five thousand dollars to that
or to fund a five twenty nine education plan which
accumulates tax deferred and then is tax free when the
(19:16):
money is taken out, I would tell most clients to
seriously consider putting the money into a college education fund first,
and then if they still have money left over, sure,
why not one time put that five thousand dollars in.
But it's going to be very interesting to see how
(19:38):
financial planners embrace that concept of actually adding money to
this particular fund.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
We just got a text from Greg and Tampa Ray.
I always enjoy listening to your show. Thank you so
much for giving your time and your knowledge. Have you
heard much more about the Gold card and will it
bring in enough money to make a difference?
Speaker 4 (20:07):
So I assume he's referring to those who can pay
money to basically immigrate into the into the United States.
Can it bring in a significant amount of money? I
guess it depends on your definition of significant. Can it?
(20:27):
You know, I think it's five million dollars was the
number I remember hearing. I heard that somebody had to
pay and they would be able to get this Gold
immigration card. So when you think about that, for every
twenty people who do this, that's a million dollars. Or
putting it in the context of two hundred people doing this,
(20:51):
it's a one hundred million dollars. And that sounds like
a lot of money. But you know, Stephen, in the
Great end scheme of things, when you're talking about trillions
of dollars, it's a it's not that significant. Certainly, there
will be those that will want to buy their way in,
(21:12):
but not something that we think will bring in a
lot of money to the treasury.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Well, we've only got a couple of minutes left. How
do you think this is going to affect the twenty
twenty six in which will be midterms and the twenty
twenty eight election.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Well, without question, this will be a place where the
Democrats are going to try to speak to the electorate.
You know, it was very interesting you go back to
President Obama. His signature legislation was Obamacare. He was able
to get that through Congress when the Democrats controlled the House,
(21:56):
the Senate, and the White House. And then there was
a turnover in the following election in the House that
turned it republican. You had the signature legislation of President Biden,
which was the so called Inflation Reduction Act, and that
was used by the Republicans, and there was a turnover
(22:20):
in twenty twenty two the Democrats lost control and the
Republicans took control of the House. The Republicans only have
an eight member margin. That traditionally there is whatever the
majority party is loses seats, is it likely that they
(22:44):
will lose nine Really only have to lose five seats
for the Democrats to get control. I think so history
says people have a tendency to turn over the House,
you know, after one has had the control for the
(23:05):
first two years of a new presidency. So I think
it's highly likely that the House will turn over. And
that's why it's important from the president's perspective, whatever legislation
he wants to get through, he needs to do it
between now and January of twenty twenty seven, when the
new members of the House will be seated.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Ray, I'm amazed you run a very large company. How
you stay so knowledgeable with everything changing, It's amazing. But
we're so appreciative to have you tell people how they
can reach your office.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
They can reach us by simply calling seven two seven
four for one nine zero two two. That's seven two
seven for one nine zero two two, or simply shoot
us an email at info I NFO at Provice dot com.
And again, just want to remind everybody you are as
(24:05):
a listener, you're entitled to a one hour consultation in
our Clearwater or Tampa office or by zoom, So please
just reach out to us and we would be delighted
to have an opportunity to.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Visit with Ray, you're the best, and the great news
is Ray We'll be back with us in two weeks
with more SC experts. Thanks Gray, thank you.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
As well.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Thank you, thank you. That's Ray for our provide money management.
We're going to go to a sharp break. We'll be
right back.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Thanks for tuning in today to be Ask the Expert
Show on W four CY Radio and Talk for TV.
Tune in next week and every week to hear more
from our experts on personal injury, insurance, air condition repairs,
estate planning, medicare, and many other topics in the areas
of legal, health, financial and home improvement. See you next week.
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,
explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or it's employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to the Ask the Experts Show on W four
CY Radio and Talkboard TV, where we bring you educational
information from top local experts in the fields of legal, health,
financial and home improvement. Now sit back and listen to
experts in family law, association law, hearing laws, business brokers,
(00:47):
home care, along with many other topics. Now Here are
your hosts, Spivo and Sophia.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, Good morning, Florida. Welcome to a finey show in
the United State. It's the best podcast with the best experts,
the Ask the Experts Show. I'm your host, Steve O.
This is the first Monday of the month and that
means provised management Group. I got to tell you the
most important word when it comes to money management is trust.
(01:20):
And Ray Ferrara's been with us for four years now,
and I got to tell you I have never had
so much respect for a company, especially when it comes
to handling money management as provised management group. I've always
thank God for them. Good morning, Ray.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Good morning Steve, and trust you had a wonderful holiday weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It was long enough, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Indeed, we had a pretty rainy weekend and ruined a
lot of plans for folks. But you know, all in all,
we can be very thankful that we're here in this
great country and celebrating our independence and the American free
enterprise system.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well, speaking of this weekend and rain, I know you
feel the same way. We want to send out prayers
to all those families down in Texas that went through
a horrific weekend with the floods, and we just want
to send them our prayers.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Absolutely, it's quite devastating and cannot imagine what all of
those families are going through at the moment.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Ray, I got to tell you our show, I think
it's been four years and it's amazing. Just last week alone,
I got three emails from people who said, Hey, I
never knew about the show. I was shocked after as
long as we've been on, but there's still new people
(02:52):
finding the show. Tell people about Provice Management Group.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Sure Provis was founded about the nine years ago. It
is a financial planning firm first and foremost. We look
at retirement planning, state planning, investment management, risk management, asset protection,
education planning, all of those different things as a subset
(03:16):
of a financial plan. And unlike a lot of companies
that call themselves financial planners or financial planning, most of
them are just asset gatherers. They just want to manage
the money and then go play golf and everything else.
The hard work is in doing the doing the planning work,
and it's a continuous and ongoing process. We have offices
(03:37):
in clear Water and Tampa, Florida, but we have clients
scattered over thirty plus states. We're working with about eleven
hundred families and something like about one point eight billion
dollars in assets under management on behalf of those families,
and we always offer a one hour complementary consultation with
(03:58):
any of our listeners. We'll happy to meet in either
our Tampa or clear Water office, and if those are
not convenient, we're happy to do it by zoom. Get
a one hour complimentary consultation. Get to know us, we
get to know you, and if we can't help you,
we'll be happy to refer you to someone who we
think can.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
You know, I got to tell people we always talk
about very serious topics. And I asked Ray this morning,
just so you know, Ray does have a sense of humor.
We got a lot of emails since Friday because people
saw the show was going to be playing today. And
I asked Ray, what do you think most of the
(04:38):
emails were, And of course he had it come up
with something that made me laugh. He said, Weather, well,
that's not true, and he knows that everybody wants to
know about this new bill. But I got to start
off with saying, Ray, you said that you didn't think
they would get it done by July fourth. Shock Ray,
(05:01):
that it was done by July fourth, They get it done.
How did they do it?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Well, the fact of the matter is I was wrong.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I didn't think I get done.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I didn't think it would get done until sometime later
this month. But there was enough arm twisting, cajoling threats
in some cases i'llment a campaign against you if you
don't vote for this. That the President was able to
round up a fifty to fifty vote in the Senate
(05:36):
with a tie broken Vice President in advance for it
to pass the Senate and then onto to the House
with some compromise language in their relative to the salt
that state and local taxes deduction, which we'll talk more
about in the minute. And at the end of the day,
(05:58):
they got it done, and you got to get credit
to both the Senate and the House for stepping up
again even though the margins were very small. That's what
the majorities are all about. Is even if it's by
one vote, as it was in the Senate, the majority wins.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, the I guess the number one question, Ray was
does this new bill only benefit millionaires and biillionaires? Does
it benefit the middle class or even the lower class.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
So certainly the Democrats have made a big deal out
of that this is a tax bill for billionaires. I
don't know that they mentioned those poultry millionaires, but just
the billionaires. The fact of the matter is is that
(06:51):
as you look at the bill, and we'll talk more
about all of these things a little bit later in
the show. You know, the the real winners in this
were well clearly the attinuation and the permanence of the
current tax brackets. It is to the benefit of those
(07:12):
that are wealthy. They would have seen a prebstantial tax
increase had this bill not been passed at the end
of by the end of this year. But you know,
we've had these tax rates for the last eight years,
we've gone through COVID, we've certainly had all of our
share of geopolitical events more recently Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, and
(07:39):
yet our economy has grown just as was projected back
when the twenty seventeen Tax Act was passed. There's some
special provisions in there for those that have lower incomes.
There are some pretty good tax breaks that are there
that phase out at different levels of income. So I
(08:03):
don't think that it favored one group over another. I
think it was tried to be very broad, broadbrush and
clearly in terms of dollars. Because the dollars are bigger
than the people who have significant wealth, they are going
to save more quote unquote because they have more. But
at the end of the day, we see the bill
(08:25):
as a relatively broad bill that is helping all classes
of folks here in America, and perhaps I should say most,
because somebody could always argue that there's somebody that wasn't
favored of me.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So there's something in it for everybody. There is. But
there isn't a perfect bill, that's for sure, no question. Now,
what about what was the final eight outcome on social
security benefits?
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Well, the president of the campaigned very hard on not
taxing social Security benefits, and as we have spoken before,
that was a really bad idea. And why was it
a bad idea? The reason it was a bad idea
had nothing to do with the concept being on social security. Myself,
(09:18):
I could certainly feel good about that. But the problem
is is that the amount of Social Security that is
taxed as income, that money does not go into the
General Fund of the United States. It goes back into
the trust Fund for Social Security. And if they had
(09:39):
not taxed, if they had eliminated the taxation on social
Security itself, then the trust fund would run out of
money even earlier than twenty thirty four or twenty thirty
thirty three. So we always thought that that was a
bad idea. What the President and the Congress came up
with as an alternative is that seniors defined as someone
(10:06):
aged sixty someone over age sixty four meaning sixty five
and above, would get a six thousand dollars additional standard
deduction are added to their standard deduction. And the net
effect of that is that instead of about sixty two
(10:29):
percent of those that are on Social Security having excuse me,
sixty two percent not having to pay any taxes, is
now projected to go up to eighty one percent who
isn't included in that. Well, there are phase outs on
that deduction based on the amount of money the income
(10:49):
that you have, so that those with a lot of
money and a lot of income will not get that
additional deduction. So the classic example of whether there's some
bout in our opinion that there was some balance that
was in the bill that says, okay, for those who
have smaller incomes, we're going to give an extra six
thousand dollars deduction, but we're not going to give it
(11:11):
to everybody if you're above above certain limits. And we're
writing up an entire piece right now in the bill
giving very specific information and ideas to consider, and certainly
by the time we meet in another two weeks, we'll
have that all completed and make it available to the listeners.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Now, let's talk about overtime and tips. There's no tax
on overtime and tips. Who is that going to benefit.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Well, again, one would think that for the most part,
that is going to benefit folks that are at the
lower end of the income scale. There are some caveats
on the tip side. It only exempts the first twenty
five thousand dollars of of tips, so that that money
(12:04):
is not going to be taxable. You know, if you
are working in a small, little restaurant somewhere here in
Florida and you're making forty thousand dollars a year and tips,
that twenty five thousand dollars exemption is going to be
very meaningful to you. On the other hand, if you're
(12:27):
working for tips, and maybe you're in a large city
like Los Angeles or New York or Chicago where very
conceivably you're making one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,
it's still going to be meaningful, but not nearly as
meaningful as it will be for those that have a
smaller income. Overtime pay is not paid to exempt employees.
(12:48):
What is an exempt employee that's somebody who's on a salary,
not on an hourly rate, and overtime is paid to
people who work more than forty hours in any given
work week, and that income as well is going to
be exempt from taxation under the bill. And again, however,
(13:09):
there are limitations on who's going to be able to
take advantage of it. That there's a lot of conversation about, well,
I'm going to change my salary and instead of calling
it a salary, I'm going to just say that I'm
getting tips. Well, they covered some of that by again
putting income limitations in that up to a certain level
(13:31):
you get the benefit, then it fases out, and above
a certain level there's no benefit whatsoever. Again, so a
rather measured and balanced approach, and it allowed the President
on both the senior piece, the overtime piece and the
no tip no tax on tips, the promises made and
he will say promises kept.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I heard a talk show the other night someone was saying,
you know, they put all their tip money in cash,
they don't declare it anyway. But I don't think that's true.
Or I think a lot of people now pay by
credit card or are their debit card or Apple card
and they have to declare those tips. Is that true?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
When a customer uses a credit card and adds the
tip to the credit card, it runs through the business,
and the business then provides a ten ninety nine to
the waiter or the waitress at the table if it's cash.
The answer to that is, it's supposed to be included, maybe,
but maybe sometimes you know it isn't. So you know,
(14:42):
if you're in a restaurant in New York City, in
most places, you're gonna pay by credit card. But I
do remember an experience, Stephen, when I was at Peter
Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
And my favorite place. Ray.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Uh, well, then you know what I'm about to say.
My friend, who who was taking me to dinner along
with one other associate, pulled out his credit card at
the end of dinner and I told him. I said
to him, I said, Kevin, this is owned by good
Italian people. They like cash, they don't like credit cards.
(15:19):
So unless you have enough cash or a check with you, you're
not going to be able to pay for dinner tonight.
So's his invite of taking me to Peter Luger's. It
turned out to be my buying for all of them
because I had the cash to pay for it.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Oh my god. Yes. In fact, I've actually had their
family on my restaurant show, probably the finest steakhouse in
the United States. I got so many questions here for you.
What about the new tax brackets, Ray, what do they
look like?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Well, interestingly, they're not new. They're just an extension of
the old ones. And under the twenty seventeen Bill steven,
they had a sunset that in them. The top tax
bracket was reduced from thirty nine roughly thirty nine percent
down to thirty seven percent, but it was temporary and
(16:12):
it would sunset at the end of twenty twenty six,
excuse me, the end of twenty twenty five, and we'd
go back in twenty twenty six to the higher level. Well,
they kept those same brackets, but what they did this
time is they made it permanent. Now one, what does
that mean. Well, what it means is there's no sunset
provision on those tax brackets, and the brackets themselves will
(16:38):
be adjusted for inflation as time goes forward, but the
percentages will stay the same. Now, Yeah, appreciate that any
legislative piece coming out of Congress is just as permanent
is the current legislature. That's there because when there's a
turnover in the legislature, they can rewrite the law, and
(17:02):
therefore it's permitted until it's not. But at least there's
no sunset provision. Top tax rate is thirty seven percent.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Now a program it is going to be new is
where the child gets a believe it's a thousand dollars
at birth. Can you explain that one? Sure?
Speaker 4 (17:19):
And that is exactly what is being proposed here. That
each child born in the United States beginning this year
is going to have an account opened up for them
with through the Treasury, and that thousand dollars must be
invested into a index of some type. It can't be
(17:42):
into a mutual fund or individual stocks. It has to
be into an index. Anyone who wants to add money
to it can up to five thousand dollars, so additional
money could go in that. They tried to name this
particular savings plan after Trump, calling them Trump accounts, but
(18:04):
that didn't make it into the bill. Maybe they'll still
be dubbed that by the Treasury. We'll have to wait
and see. The money can't be touched until the child
is eighteen years of age, and then they can take
it out at that point for certain things without having
to pay income taxes on it. But if it's taken
(18:28):
out just to go buy a shiny red car, they'll
have to pay income taxes on whatever they take out.
Plus it's ten percent penalty for quote unquote taking an
early withdrawal unless it's for one of those one of
those exceptions that exists, and that would include a college education,
it would include the purchase of a the first new home,
(18:52):
et cetera. My analysis on that, Steve is that it's okay,
it's a good deal. I mean, one thousand dollars you're
going to give from the government, that's great. You can
add five thousand dollars to it. But given a choice
for a parent to add five thousand dollars to that
or to fund a five twenty nine education plan which
accumulates tax deferred and then is tax free when the
(19:16):
money is taken out, I would tell most clients to
seriously consider putting the money into a college education fund first,
and then if they still have money left over, sure,
why not one time put that five thousand dollars in.
But it's going to be very interesting to see how
(19:38):
financial planners embrace that concept of actually adding money to
this particular fund.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
We just got a text from Greg and Tampa Ray.
I always enjoy listening to your show. Thank you so
much for giving your time and your knowledge. Have you
heard much more about the Gold card and will it
bring in enough money to make a difference?
Speaker 4 (20:07):
So I assume he's referring to those who can pay
money to basically immigrate into the into the United States.
Can it bring in a significant amount of money? I
guess it depends on your definition of significant. Can it?
(20:27):
You know, I think it's five million dollars was the
number I remember hearing. I heard that somebody had to
pay and they would be able to get this Gold
immigration card. So when you think about that, for every
twenty people who do this, that's a million dollars. Or
putting it in the context of two hundred people doing this,
(20:51):
it's a one hundred million dollars. And that sounds like
a lot of money. But you know, Stephen, in the
Great end scheme of things, when you're talking about trillions
of dollars, it's a it's not that significant. Certainly, there
will be those that will want to buy their way in,
(21:12):
but not something that we think will bring in a
lot of money to the treasury.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Well, we've only got a couple of minutes left. How
do you think this is going to affect the twenty
twenty six in which will be midterms and the twenty
twenty eight election.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Well, without question, this will be a place where the
Democrats are going to try to speak to the electorate.
You know, it was very interesting you go back to
President Obama. His signature legislation was Obamacare. He was able
to get that through Congress when the Democrats controlled the House,
(21:56):
the Senate, and the White House. And then there was
a turnover in the following election in the House that
turned it republican. You had the signature legislation of President Biden,
which was the so called Inflation Reduction Act, and that
was used by the Republicans, and there was a turnover
(22:20):
in twenty twenty two the Democrats lost control and the
Republicans took control of the House. The Republicans only have
an eight member margin. That traditionally there is whatever the
majority party is loses seats, is it likely that they
(22:44):
will lose nine Really only have to lose five seats
for the Democrats to get control. I think so history
says people have a tendency to turn over the House,
you know, after one has had the control for the
(23:05):
first two years of a new presidency. So I think
it's highly likely that the House will turn over. And
that's why it's important from the president's perspective, whatever legislation
he wants to get through, he needs to do it
between now and January of twenty twenty seven, when the
new members of the House will be seated.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Ray, I'm amazed you run a very large company. How
you stay so knowledgeable with everything changing, It's amazing. But
we're so appreciative to have you tell people how they
can reach your office.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
They can reach us by simply calling seven two seven
four for one nine zero two two. That's seven two
seven for one nine zero two two, or simply shoot
us an email at info I NFO at Provice dot com.
And again, just want to remind everybody you are as
(24:05):
a listener, you're entitled to a one hour consultation in
our Clearwater or Tampa office or by zoom, So please
just reach out to us and we would be delighted
to have an opportunity to.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Visit with Ray, you're the best, and the great news
is Ray We'll be back with us in two weeks
with more SC experts. Thanks Gray, thank you.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
As well.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Thank you, thank you. That's Ray for our provide money management.
We're going to go to a sharp break. We'll be
right back.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Thanks for tuning in today to be Ask the Expert
Show on W four CY Radio and Talk for TV.
Tune in next week and every week to hear more
from our experts on personal injury, insurance, air condition repairs,
estate planning, medicare, and many other topics in the areas
of legal, health, financial and home improvement. See you next week.
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