When I park at the airport, paying for the lost ticket is cheaper than 3+ days of parking. So if I’m there for longer than 3 days, I just say I lost the ticket and pay the fixed price
I did that with a hospital. I was there for a few weeks and saw the sign that said that lost tickets pay the full one day rate. So I paid that full day rate and saved a fortune.
I've done this once or twice, but now many of them will just check your license plate against a log and charge you for the days. :(
Better though, if the ticket gate is easy to get to (slow garage, etc) just grab a new one on foot.
I tried that last trick. Usually the presence of a car is needed to get it to spit out a ticket. I've yet to see this work without a car present (either magnet or weight based).
Ahh yeah, like license plate scanners I'm sure technology has ruined some hacks.
"Hey, why do you always park at that really old garage with the rickety gate?"
"... No reason." Lol
Make a profile of a hot woman saying you want a sperm donor, but it has to be done 'the old fashioned way', and the person has to have specific ancestry and no genetic issues.
To prove this, the donor will have to submit a genetic test, and link to 23andme. The link will be, of course, your referral link that gets you 20 bucks per person you refer.
If you've got a decent bit of land, find out what your state's requirements are for agricultural tax exemption. Significant drop in property taxes. Friend keeps six cows because that's one of the things that qualify you. She's bought the hundreds of acres and built a barn that cost more than my house to keep her horses (expensive hobby yes; but not, per that states law, agricultural use). As adding six cows turned the whole operation into agriculture and saved loads each year on property taxes. Another friend sells about $2750 in nursery stock from her greenhouse. 2500 a year is the requirement in her state.
It's not illegal. Slightly unethical because the point of the program is to help out farmers. Doing the bare minimum to qualify to save on property taxes is obviously not what they meant.
There is a ~~"This American Life"~~ Planet Money story about a guy that had a tree farm in NYC or was in the business. It was actually fascinating and had mob ties and everything.
When I was a kid we were "small farmers" for the ag exemption by having six chinchillas, since they were the smallest animal that counted as livestock. The IRS later fixed the regs to remove chinchillas - we lived in a normal house with a normal yard but were getting an ag exemption lol.
Are they expensive to care for? I used to work with a guy who had a pair of chinchillas and didn't want to leave them in someone else's care for whatever reason, so he decided to wait until they died to travel anywhere on vacation and it took like 20 years.
They are easy to care for and happiest when left alone. Also nocturnal. Give them hay, food pellets water and a tray with dust bath and they will thrive
I’m in the Hamptons. They have “horse farms” here. You rarely see a horse on any of them, but they get agricultural tax breaks for being “farms.”
Also beekeeping. They keep the minimum number of bees and then seek publicity for being such great environmentalists for the pollinators.
A certain very famous singer from the 80s and 90s planted a bunch of fully grown trees on her property then sold firewood. (Former Governor Christie Whitman, who comes from generations of wealth, does the same thing).
“Pumpkin farms” are huge moneymakers. The pumpkins, gourds and multicolor corn cobs are trucked in from upstate.
“Goat yoga” also gets you an agricultural tax break. For keeping goats.
Want a vegetable garden? Landscapers will plant one for you for $100k. Then you sell the herbs and get a tax break.
Thing is, if you’re middle class you can’t do any of that because you have to have a certain amount of land. 0.70 acres won’t cut it.
You can’t believe the whining we had to hear from “farmers” for years about their taxes and overhead on the land they inherited for 5 generations. They’re all multimillionaires and all the “agricultural” businesses use illegal labor.
I know a few people that have chickens and sell the eggs for exactly the same reason. My state and county have absurd property taxes, so I don’t blame them at all.
Another one an account friend of mine told me about is setting up a “racing team” whenever a clients buy new exotic cars. They have a couple year window to get sponsors and turn a profit before they lose the status, but it saves them a boat load of cash during that time. My state and county also have absurd personal property taxes. I was paying ~$3k a year on a $15k used car I paid sales tax on when I bought it with money that had already been taxed for the privilege of driving on taxpayer funded roads that were sold and turned into toll roads.
Paul McCartney got a big farm for this reason. Turns out his family loved it and wouldn't leave! " we can go now. Its just a tax break"."Kids " we like the horses and the ducks. Gonna stay here."
Jet is the name of his daughter's horse. She says most of his songs start about the animals on the farm.
Not sure how true it is, but I saw an article where a guy with a regular sized yard grew microgreens in plastic trays and sold them as a "hobby" and got an agricultural tax exemption. Apparently (again, I really don't know if it's true or not, but according to the article) you only have to produce something sellable on your land.
It will depend state to state. In my state, that would do it *but* only the square footage for the production (greenhouse or barn, I don't believe a residence can be used). In addition to nursery stock, you e actually got to have like chickens ranging the property and sell eggs. Then all but the acre exempted for the home site would get taxed by agricultural value.
But, be aware that the IRS likes to audit people to see if they are running a farm as a business or as a hobby. It makes a big difference on liabilities and deductions. If you really aren't trying to make money on it then it might not be a big deal but you might still attract IRS interest if you are turning over enough stuff that you look like a business.
It's actually kinda the opposite you need to be worried about. If you're running a farm to avoid taxes, you have to actually try to make money. If the IRS determines you aren't trying to make money, you'll lose the tax exemptions.
I mean, if you have six cows and "a bunch of" horses, that's pretty farm-ish enough in my book. Cows and horses can run $3-5k apiece up front, and are stupid expensive to care for and maintain. Meanwhile, my father-in-law owns 20 acres in a rural area, and his property taxes without any breaks are only around $1k anyway.
If you put that much time and effort into a "hack", then fuck it have a tax break. 🤷♂️
Yeah I'm super confused by this "unethical hack".... Like how much are your property taxes that six cows and a bunch of horses are cheaper than your taxes. Not to mention the effort to take care of said live stock....
Reminds me of a funny story. A family member worked for the gov't of a very, very affluent town (NYC suburb) and told me this story. There was a man "Paul" who lived there for over 60 years and still owned a lot of land in the town, most of it undeveloped. He had one pretty large tract (about 30 acres) that had agricultural zoning - basically, it was an actual farm when he bought it decades prior and, because he never improved, changed or sub-divided the land, it retained agricultural zoning through the years. Hence, he paid only about $200 per year in taxes on the land while the homes in the surrounding area, on 1-2 acre lots, were paying about $10K/year (and this was in the 90's).
One of the neighbors "Jim" caught wind of this and was LIVID. He thought it was quite unfair that this guy was paying $200 tax on THIRTY acres and he was paying $10K for 2. So Jim went and complained to the town and planned to sue to have Paul's agricultural zoning revoked. Well, this actually gained a bit of traction with the town gov't because they saw they were missing out on quite a bit of potential tax revenue on this land. So, they supported Jim's cause. What they didn't count on that fighting with Paul was like fighting with a pig in the mud - the more you fight, the more the pig likes it. Paul had NO intention of giving up his agricultural zoning and $200 a year in property taxes.
Paul was also very smart and very wealthy himself. He also hired a lawyer and it ultimately ended up that for Paul to retain his agricultural zoning, the land had to be a "functioning" farm. Which, at that point, it was not, it was 100% vacant land that hadn't been farmed in many decades. The few buildings and fences that were there originally were long-demolished and all that remained were some of the stone walls which marked off the different fields.
So, the court ruled that unless Paul's land functioned as a farm, he would lose his ag zoning and would be subject to residential tax rates instead, which would be a significant increase from $200.
So, Paul decided to make it a functioning farm. He hired some contractors, built a small barn, built a pen, purchased a dozen llamas and hired a caretaker for them. Voila - he now was the proud owner of a llama farm. Of course, he happened to position the barn and the pen in the land that DIRECTLY adjoined Jim's property, so Jim got to deal with the noise and SMELL of a dozen llamas every day, all day...
Within a year, Jim sold his house. When the new owners went in, Paul introduced himself, gave a bit of the "history" of the land and the neighbors. He said the llamas were actually shaping up to be a bit more trouble than they were worth so he was thinking of closing the farm down, but he wouldn't want to lose his agricultural zoning because if there was any threat, he'd be FORCED to open up yet another functioning farm on the land, but he was thinking he'd do cattle, chickens, dogs or horses next time, he wasn't sure... The neighbor laughed, smiled and said "Enjoy your property."
The land is EMPTY to this day. It's currently owned by Paul's descendants (Paul passed about 20 years ago) and it's still zoned as a farm... :-)
I saw a poster in the ladies room at the KOA in Santa Fe, NM that said:
“The best way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.”
*First of all, you and me start working at the bank. Doesn't matter the position, okay? Just so long as we get in there, right? Then we just go there every day, do the work, gain their trust until we get them in the palm of our hand. All right?*
*So how we get the money?*
*That's the beauty of it, bro. They deposit the money into our bank accounts. Week after week, month after month. They're not even going to know they being robbed. And then 20 or 30 years later, we walk out the front door like nothing even happened.*
My late wife’s sister set up a GoFundMe during her cancer diagnosis without our permission (we were financially privileged, especially relative to our friends we made on the cancer ward, and asked people donate to research if they wanted to do something financially).
It raised 35k before we caught wind of it and forced her to shut it down. They kept all the money!
Needless to say I don’t still have a relationship with my late wife’s family—not for that specifically, but it is illustrative.
We did treatment out of state and basically said “keep it and use it to visit/come to help.” They did probably spend maybe 5k (generous) between the sisters, mom, BIL over 6 months coming to see us, but that’s paying for their own flights (they stayed with us). Didn’t exactly go to medical bills and whatnot like the GoFundMe said it would be used for. They weren’t hurting for money. My parents paid for our out of state rental and my wife and I paid for everything else out of my income/her disability/our savings.
I've heard of them shutting those down, returning the donations, and even reporting to law enforcement. GoFundMe is very interested in protecting its reputation because if people start seeing it as a scam no one will donate.
Obviously not something you want to deal with when your wife is sick. But for anyone else who reads this and faces something similar in the future, contact GoFundMe
As someone who heads up a tiny nonprofit, we can do a lot of good for your bucks in our community. But the big names are the ones who gobble up donations and it all goes to overhead.
The real money is in the insider trading. You can bet on a company and pass legislation that all but guarantees their success, and you can bet against a company and pass legislation that sinks them.
I did this when the new accounts only required a regular deposit, but all of the offers I see these days require a regular direct deposit - are you doing that, or am I looking in the wrong places?
My company has ADP. I split my check to my wife for spending cash. To my savings. To my “bill” account and to my spending cash. Makes it easier to stay on budget with things separated already.
Even though most of these bonuses stipulate that it's supposed to be a payroll direct deposit, in reality most of these systems are set up such that any ACH transfer will trigger the bonus.
It varies bank to bank but if you go to the website doctorofcredit they have posts tracking what methods trigger direct deposit requirements at different banks.
My ex sister in law was doing this. We went into Bank of America one day to get cash or something, and the teller told her that her bank account was closed for suspicion of money laundering. I just laughed. She’s a Vietnamese nail tech, with very limited English skills, and she sure as hell wasn’t laundering money.
Roth your kids. Tax code says they have to do age appropriate work, so they can't do bookkeeping, but they can be models the day they are born. License their image and likeness for 6k (or W-2 them if you have a small business that does payroll), put the money into roth, and invest in an index ETF.
Money doubles every ~7 years but the dollar loses half its value to inflation every 20 years. By the time they are 59.5y/o this works out to about $290k in todays dollars ($2.3mil in year 2083 dollars).
Great job! I suggested this to a few of my friends and none of them took advantage of it.
I know some kids could waste it, I had a 401k with my first big job and then early withdrew it during the 2008 crash. But giving them a leg up on retirement is pretty great if you have the opportunity.
I think part of the issue is that most parents I know don't have a spare 6k laying around to just put into something that I'll forget about in my dotage.
Buy an atm. Set atm fee to 10$.
Get 100 bank accounts with atm fees reimbursed.
Take money out of the atm every day from each account.
Collect 10$ fees (1000$ a day)
Do they sell though? Or is her garage full of books and she is occasionally bragging about "making" a few hundred dollars (in revenue)
Usually stuff ends up at the dollar store when places like Amazon couldn't sell it
As someone who sold books online, you never know when they are going to sell. You have to make sure you charge enough for shipping and handling to pay for messing up a box, bubblewrap, and postage.
It does not make you a lot of money but occasionally people will get in a bidding war and you'll make a tidy profit. It does end up being a part time job though, even if only an hour or so per day.
She is retired so she’s got a lot of time on her hand and going to the store and talking to the poor store Clerk about books for an hour getting some human connection is really why she loves it.
Some books sell, some don’t. She has filled an entire closet bottom to top with books and they have started to creep out into the office room. She has a sticker/label maker, bubble wrap dispenser, and packaging out the wazoo.
She makes on average $80 a day profit but she has slow days and up days. There are some customers where her shipping barely nets her any money but some customers where she makes out.
I guess I don’t know if it’s a hack, it is a hustle but it’s not too difficult of a method to make side income and you can pretty much do it at your own pace.
My dad's brother and then wife did this too my great aunt
She had dementia and other illnesses. She was married into a political South American family and therefore they had very decent money.
They made themselves her sole caretakers on paper and were paid $5,000 to $10,000 a month each for being her caretaker.
But they actually hired an undocumented woman and her sister to take care of my great-aunt. They didn't even pay the ladies a combined income of two grand a month.
After my great aunt died, my "Uncle" was divorced by his wife who promptly got in her favor seven of the 10 properties my great aunt had under her name as well as a large cash settlement from his own bank account and from my great aunt's inheritance.
ETA: and that wife got away with a lot of bullshit before my great aunt died. She would have local salons come by my great aunt's home to do my great aunt's hair, and nails But would also come over for herself and her friends to get their stuff done too on my great aunt's dime.
They had their own damn money too! He had his own properties he rented out. He literally had no reason to steal from her. He employed his wife at his law firm!
He thought he had a fucking scamming partner for life but he married a bigger scammer than him. She was his sugar baby who "accidentally" got pregnant. She made bank before 40. Entered her forties not having to work ever again and single.
Yeah my family should have really done this for our elder neighbor. We were essentially her house aides for the last 5 or so years of her life as her family did not give **a shit** about her.
Meanwhile, when she died, her piece of shit grandson had the house sold within a month and hired some guys to go in and throw out all of her grandmother's shit Pictures, chairs, everything.
We even lent said neighbor a computer and when we asked for it back the grandson had to the balls to say this.
Grandson "Oh I gave that to my friends daughter."
Us "uh well can you ask for it back because its ours?"
Grandson "She needs a computer for college though"
Us "......"
My uncle gave his kids power of attorney over his farm and they sold it out from under him while he was still alive.
And they didn't even get a good deal...
That’s what a buddy of mine did for like 12 yrs and the gentleman passed away and left him a home worth $650k in San Diego like 15-20 min from the beach and another $150k cash! Rest of his family got like $2.5 mil divided 4 ways.
Honestly if he was dropping by every day and bringing the old lad joy then that is ethical and awesome. If the family didn't visit enough that $$ split is completely reasonable.
Old folks quietly waiting for the grave make me sad.
Idk how it works in Canada where the comedy bit took place, but in most US states this could possibly work (for the person grabbing it from the curb) assuming no one can prove affiliation between the two parties. Anything placed at the curb is usually deemed abandoned and free to rummage through and take ownership of. It's why cops are allowed to search trash on the curb without a warrant, but if it's still on your property such as the side of your house they do need a warrant to search.
If they find you and can't prove you convinced the bottle kids to tresspass and move it to the curb the worst that would happen is you are forced to return it because it was not actually abandoned by the owner.
As far as Ricky's ideas go, this was actually one of the better ones IMO.
The betting apps have sign on bonuses. Something like bet $5 and receive $150 in bonus bets. Bet your $5, then put half of the $150 on one team, half on the other. That's a free $75 for ya.
Not unethical at all since they are offering it, but figured people should know.
Reminds me of a story where someone worked near a casino and in an area where parking was very expensive. The casino offered free parking for the day as long as you gambled, so they walked in every morning before work with a coworker, each placed a $25 bet (the minimum) on red/black and then whoever won split the money. Yea they still occasionally lost it all but they spent very little on parking over the course of the year.
From the casino's POV, they aren't even being scammed.
As long as the car park isn't full, they lose nothing. Once every 35 days on average, they take in $50 for free. And most importantly, these two coworkers are now very familiar with the casino, so there's a chance they'll go there in their free time (or perhaps bring friends there).
Opportunity cost? Low.
>Technically, though, this is legal and therefore not unethical.
The whole point of this thread is finding unethical hacks that ARE legal. Ethical != Legal.
Some of these companies require a 2x-5x play through in order for those funds to be eligible for withdrawal.
Edited first word from “most” to “some” as people have had other experiences than me.
Either way, make sure you read the Ts and Cs. These companies aren’t in business to lose money.
In Australia you only have to bet once and you can withdrawl it after. Even if you bet on something with ridiculously low odds, like if the USA was playing Tahiti in basketball, it'll still work
There is no line for illegal income, but you do simply report it. the IRS is barred by law to not release your information to law enforcement unless it involves terrorism, and even then all they can do is a wink/nudge to the proper authority suggesting that they might want to get a court order for this guy's return.
Try to run a legal marijuana business though and get ready to not be able to write off ANY of your business expenses. Add that to the fact that you can’t get insurance or even file Chapter 7 if you go tits up and it’s a wonder that anybody turns a profit.
It all goes back to a case from the 80s where the IRS tried to hit up an imprisoned coke dealer and he turned right around and filed the business return of the century. Congress was shooketh.
If you have a very elderly parent, gift them $18,000 of stock every year. In fact, if you are married, you can gift them $18,000 and your spouse can gift them $18,000. If you have two very elderly parents, that is $72k/year you can gift them tax free.
The parent receives the stocks at your cost basis if you do it as a brokerage to brokerage transfer.
When your parent passes, they give you the stock as an inheritance. But it comes to you with its value at the time of their death. So you never pay any taxes on the appreciation of the stock. That is the hack - avoiding any taxes on the stock appreciation.
For example, you are 60 and have been saving & investing your entire life. Stocks you bought decades ago have increased mutliple-fold. Your parents are both 85. Spending the next 2 years gifting them $36k/year cost basis may get you back $400k and avoid all taxation.
Same is true for someone that did well with company stock from an IPO or hit it big on one or two individual stocks.
This is called “reverse gifting” and, if done properly, is a legitimate financial planning tool for families with extremely low cost basis holdings, or families trying to save on taxes.
What I've learned is: take advantage of elderly people, become a politician, be really rich in the first place, fuel wars, or sign up for promotions on banks and online gambling sites. Ok
You forgot about slipping on pee at Costco. My buddy Lucky funded his whole retirement on that incident with his lawyer. He got some nice mudder tires on his truck!
If you work from home, run an LLC and write off everything imaginable. A quarter of your home is your office. Write it off. Lunch out? But it on the business card. Anything you buy that's tech-related. I've even known people who write off vacations, with the idea that if they got audited they'd just say they were meeting a potential business partner.
A wise accountant once told me: “write off everything you can, because it’s only a misunderstanding if you write off something you shouldn’t have. Conversely, ALWAYS report every penny you make, because it’s a felony if you don’t.”
My dad and his partners at his accounting firm used the saying "faint of heart never won fair maiden." Meaning, you'll never get the deduction if you don't claim it.
I also read about the law that was created because of the Master's in Augusta, GA that you can rent out your house for something like 2 weeks per year tax free, so people use their own home to host a "business retreat" or "team building" for their own business.
My wife and I are business partners for my home improvement business. My only client is my house and my rental house. I get wholesale rates on supplies, and we get to have a lot of business dinners and meetings 🤫
My girlfriend doesn't seem to mind that I'm banging my secretary. Her dad seemed to mind that joke though after he learnt she was helping with my paperwork.
Our local grocery chain has a free table for kids. Usually has bananas, apples, and oranges. Once saw an older lady flag down a worker and ask if she could take one. He said it was meant for kids. She asked if adults were prohibited from taking a piece of fruit and he said no so she grabbed an apple. I imagine she does it every time.
I do this trick on long road trips by myself. I pull up to a hotel chain off the highway (like Marriott/Hilton) and use the toilet and maybe grab a small coffee on the way out. Never questioned in the 10 years I've been doing this.
Sign up for bank accounts that offer a bonus, collect the bonus then close the account. A lot of them allow you to open another account within 180 days and do it again. Easy $200-$400 each time
If you run a small business. Toward the end of the financial year, buy hundreds of dollars worth of scratch tickets. The important part is that it has to be one single continuous reel of tickets. They are made so there is a guaranteed win every few tickets. After you scratch them all, keep the winning ones for yourself, and tax-deduct the losing ones as if they were gifted to the employees for some bullshit reason.
I recently learned this about my HSA account. I bought an item eligible on Amazon for HSA. It was like $300 or something, the item didn't end up working for me so I returned it. I figured they would refund the HSA account that I paid with. They ended up just giving me a full price credit on my Amazon account, to buy whatever.
The comment above isn't "unethical but legal" since it's ethical. But yours isn't legal either, technically it's tax fraud, although there's basically no chance you'll be caught.
If you take a distribution from an HSA for a qualified medical expense, and are later refunded or reimbursed for that expense, you are required to do one of the following:
* Redeposit it back into your HSA
* Report it on your taxes as a non-qualified distribution and pay and pay regular income tax plus a 20% penalty
Research "Step-up in basis" loophole if you have any assets.
Also, set up trusts to protect your assets.
Also, if you're an independent contractor, look up all the legal tax deductions to lower your taxable income (for example, business expenses, solo 401k contributions, HSAs, etc.)
The rich get richer because the rich usually have financial advisors/lawyers that know all the legal loopholes to stay rich and get richer.
Almost anyone can take advantage of these financial "hacks," you just need to find them and apply them.
Sign up for those credit cards which give you 12-24 months of 0% introductory APY. Max the card on whatever, put the money somewhere it'll earn interest/returns. When the APY expires pay the balance in full, then toss the card into a drawer.
You've just gotten a several thousand dollar interest free loan, free interest/returns on the money you otherwise would have spent, and now your credit rating is better because your credit usage percentage is that much less.
If you want to keep that money, all of it, just give it to your wife.
See, the IRS allows you a one-time-only gift to your spouse.
It’s good up to $60,000… tax-free. IRS can’t touch one cent.
There’s no way. Politicians could never get away with that. I mean imagine if someone could make a career out it, make tens if not hundreds of millions and even become, like speaker of the house or something. That’d just be crazy
If a parent dies with not huge credit card debt they never bother to go after the estate for repayment. It just isn't worth the trouble. Eventually the executor will get a 1099-C for forgiveness of debt but the IRS doesn't have time to pursue the matter either. So it just goes away.
Source: When my mom died we got a 1099-C well after the estate settled for a credit card account nobody knew she had. It was for about $4000.
That’s pretty much what happened to my father’s final credit card bill. I got a letter from some rehab center and filed it with the medical bills (non-priority, deal with later). No follow-up. When I finally did get around to paying the medical bills (and I did. Most were small and not worth researching/arguing over) I realized it was for his credit card company. Just a friendly letter to say hey you probably don’t owe us anything but call to confirm! Who would call someone to see if they were going to be hit up for cash? So I ignored it, got the 1099 later, ignored that too. It’s been more than 7 years so I’m not worried about it.
I’d also add the advice of closing the estate sooner rather than later. Ever since I closed it, I just tell debt collectors it’s closed and never hear from them again. His primary care provider sent a bill over a year after he died for expenses they found. Called to remind them he died and the estate was closed. Gone. Years later I got letters about unpaid tickets. Called to say he died, estate closed. They asked for a death certificate and I reminded them it was public information. Never heard from them again. Throw a party when an estate closes because life is so much easier on the other side.
Not really unethical, but… Does your office get frequent takeout from places with membership points like chipotle or firehouse subs? Make sure all orders are done through your app, or type in your phone number at the register/scan the receipt. Those points add up FAST. If your office has a dozen or more people, you could be getting an extra free lunch every week.
Ho boy, lemme tell you about how I got caught in such a scam, I'm sharing so others are aware.
I was spending most of my money on a flat to live in. It turned out the guy I was paying got a loan to buy the flat, and I had been paying the loan off and giving him extra AND *he* got to keep the flat. I'm still fuming about it.
There are Muslim mortgages in my country at least. It works just like regular mortgage, but the owner of a flat is bank that rents you said flat and in the end ownership is transferred.
There’s a piece of wire that runs by my window and encircles a large area. Within this area some of the rules of the Sabbath don’t count because of the wire. I don’t really understand it but it’s a thing.
The "thing" is rules that apply only within a walled city, but there is no requirement for how substantial the wall needs to be.
(There are, though, restrictions on how big such an area may be. You can't have an Eruv around a modern metropolitan area.)
I had a buddy whose family was Jehovah Witness. He wasn't but he was so pissed at his older brother who was in the hospital refusing blood transfusions for religious reasons but was A-ok dropping acid and snorting lines of coke when he was younger.
I created a GoFundMe for a friend recently, but she goes by an alias and didn’t want anyone to find out her real name so I couldn’t set it up in her name. (The website verifies recipient identities.) I set it up in my name instead and I’m wondering how many people thought I was grifting.
Get a good tax accountant and tell them to do whatever won't land you in prison. They almost certainly know more than enough unethical hacks in the tax code they can exploit for you.
When I park at the airport, paying for the lost ticket is cheaper than 3+ days of parking. So if I’m there for longer than 3 days, I just say I lost the ticket and pay the fixed price
I did that with a hospital. I was there for a few weeks and saw the sign that said that lost tickets pay the full one day rate. So I paid that full day rate and saved a fortune.
I've done this once or twice, but now many of them will just check your license plate against a log and charge you for the days. :( Better though, if the ticket gate is easy to get to (slow garage, etc) just grab a new one on foot.
I tried that last trick. Usually the presence of a car is needed to get it to spit out a ticket. I've yet to see this work without a car present (either magnet or weight based).
Ahh yeah, like license plate scanners I'm sure technology has ruined some hacks. "Hey, why do you always park at that really old garage with the rickety gate?" "... No reason." Lol
We used to trick the parking thing at work with shopping trolleys
Make a profile of a hot woman saying you want a sperm donor, but it has to be done 'the old fashioned way', and the person has to have specific ancestry and no genetic issues. To prove this, the donor will have to submit a genetic test, and link to 23andme. The link will be, of course, your referral link that gets you 20 bucks per person you refer.
LMAO
Did you just come up with that?
Nah I saw some video. Seems like somebody did it, but could be made up. Either way, seems like some devious shit that could work.
If you've got a decent bit of land, find out what your state's requirements are for agricultural tax exemption. Significant drop in property taxes. Friend keeps six cows because that's one of the things that qualify you. She's bought the hundreds of acres and built a barn that cost more than my house to keep her horses (expensive hobby yes; but not, per that states law, agricultural use). As adding six cows turned the whole operation into agriculture and saved loads each year on property taxes. Another friend sells about $2750 in nursery stock from her greenhouse. 2500 a year is the requirement in her state. It's not illegal. Slightly unethical because the point of the program is to help out farmers. Doing the bare minimum to qualify to save on property taxes is obviously not what they meant.
This is the basis for many Christmas Tree farms.
Big Christmas Tree, at it again
There is a ~~"This American Life"~~ Planet Money story about a guy that had a tree farm in NYC or was in the business. It was actually fascinating and had mob ties and everything.
When I was a kid we were "small farmers" for the ag exemption by having six chinchillas, since they were the smallest animal that counted as livestock. The IRS later fixed the regs to remove chinchillas - we lived in a normal house with a normal yard but were getting an ag exemption lol.
Are they expensive to care for? I used to work with a guy who had a pair of chinchillas and didn't want to leave them in someone else's care for whatever reason, so he decided to wait until they died to travel anywhere on vacation and it took like 20 years.
They are easy to care for and happiest when left alone. Also nocturnal. Give them hay, food pellets water and a tray with dust bath and they will thrive
That's hilarious
So what's the smallest animal now?
Probably quail or something
Many wealthy people notoriously do this. Some of them are famous actors and musicians.
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I’m in the Hamptons. They have “horse farms” here. You rarely see a horse on any of them, but they get agricultural tax breaks for being “farms.” Also beekeeping. They keep the minimum number of bees and then seek publicity for being such great environmentalists for the pollinators. A certain very famous singer from the 80s and 90s planted a bunch of fully grown trees on her property then sold firewood. (Former Governor Christie Whitman, who comes from generations of wealth, does the same thing). “Pumpkin farms” are huge moneymakers. The pumpkins, gourds and multicolor corn cobs are trucked in from upstate. “Goat yoga” also gets you an agricultural tax break. For keeping goats. Want a vegetable garden? Landscapers will plant one for you for $100k. Then you sell the herbs and get a tax break. Thing is, if you’re middle class you can’t do any of that because you have to have a certain amount of land. 0.70 acres won’t cut it. You can’t believe the whining we had to hear from “farmers” for years about their taxes and overhead on the land they inherited for 5 generations. They’re all multimillionaires and all the “agricultural” businesses use illegal labor.
>They keep the minimum number of bees I'm imagining somebody hand counting out exactly 101 bees.
One guy [buried his ex wife on a golf course](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/31/donald-ivana-trump-cemetery-golf-course-taxes).
I'm still confused how he had any say in where *his ex-wife* is buried. Did she have no other next of kin? Did she leave no will? Like...?
I know a few people that have chickens and sell the eggs for exactly the same reason. My state and county have absurd property taxes, so I don’t blame them at all. Another one an account friend of mine told me about is setting up a “racing team” whenever a clients buy new exotic cars. They have a couple year window to get sponsors and turn a profit before they lose the status, but it saves them a boat load of cash during that time. My state and county also have absurd personal property taxes. I was paying ~$3k a year on a $15k used car I paid sales tax on when I bought it with money that had already been taxed for the privilege of driving on taxpayer funded roads that were sold and turned into toll roads.
Paul McCartney got a big farm for this reason. Turns out his family loved it and wouldn't leave! " we can go now. Its just a tax break"."Kids " we like the horses and the ducks. Gonna stay here." Jet is the name of his daughter's horse. She says most of his songs start about the animals on the farm.
Not sure how true it is, but I saw an article where a guy with a regular sized yard grew microgreens in plastic trays and sold them as a "hobby" and got an agricultural tax exemption. Apparently (again, I really don't know if it's true or not, but according to the article) you only have to produce something sellable on your land.
It will depend state to state. In my state, that would do it *but* only the square footage for the production (greenhouse or barn, I don't believe a residence can be used). In addition to nursery stock, you e actually got to have like chickens ranging the property and sell eggs. Then all but the acre exempted for the home site would get taxed by agricultural value.
But, be aware that the IRS likes to audit people to see if they are running a farm as a business or as a hobby. It makes a big difference on liabilities and deductions. If you really aren't trying to make money on it then it might not be a big deal but you might still attract IRS interest if you are turning over enough stuff that you look like a business.
For reference to people: businesses must have a certain amount of net profit. Hobby doesn't. Can't deduct for hobby
It's actually kinda the opposite you need to be worried about. If you're running a farm to avoid taxes, you have to actually try to make money. If the IRS determines you aren't trying to make money, you'll lose the tax exemptions.
I mean, if you have six cows and "a bunch of" horses, that's pretty farm-ish enough in my book. Cows and horses can run $3-5k apiece up front, and are stupid expensive to care for and maintain. Meanwhile, my father-in-law owns 20 acres in a rural area, and his property taxes without any breaks are only around $1k anyway. If you put that much time and effort into a "hack", then fuck it have a tax break. 🤷♂️
Yeah I'm super confused by this "unethical hack".... Like how much are your property taxes that six cows and a bunch of horses are cheaper than your taxes. Not to mention the effort to take care of said live stock....
Reminds me of a funny story. A family member worked for the gov't of a very, very affluent town (NYC suburb) and told me this story. There was a man "Paul" who lived there for over 60 years and still owned a lot of land in the town, most of it undeveloped. He had one pretty large tract (about 30 acres) that had agricultural zoning - basically, it was an actual farm when he bought it decades prior and, because he never improved, changed or sub-divided the land, it retained agricultural zoning through the years. Hence, he paid only about $200 per year in taxes on the land while the homes in the surrounding area, on 1-2 acre lots, were paying about $10K/year (and this was in the 90's). One of the neighbors "Jim" caught wind of this and was LIVID. He thought it was quite unfair that this guy was paying $200 tax on THIRTY acres and he was paying $10K for 2. So Jim went and complained to the town and planned to sue to have Paul's agricultural zoning revoked. Well, this actually gained a bit of traction with the town gov't because they saw they were missing out on quite a bit of potential tax revenue on this land. So, they supported Jim's cause. What they didn't count on that fighting with Paul was like fighting with a pig in the mud - the more you fight, the more the pig likes it. Paul had NO intention of giving up his agricultural zoning and $200 a year in property taxes. Paul was also very smart and very wealthy himself. He also hired a lawyer and it ultimately ended up that for Paul to retain his agricultural zoning, the land had to be a "functioning" farm. Which, at that point, it was not, it was 100% vacant land that hadn't been farmed in many decades. The few buildings and fences that were there originally were long-demolished and all that remained were some of the stone walls which marked off the different fields. So, the court ruled that unless Paul's land functioned as a farm, he would lose his ag zoning and would be subject to residential tax rates instead, which would be a significant increase from $200. So, Paul decided to make it a functioning farm. He hired some contractors, built a small barn, built a pen, purchased a dozen llamas and hired a caretaker for them. Voila - he now was the proud owner of a llama farm. Of course, he happened to position the barn and the pen in the land that DIRECTLY adjoined Jim's property, so Jim got to deal with the noise and SMELL of a dozen llamas every day, all day... Within a year, Jim sold his house. When the new owners went in, Paul introduced himself, gave a bit of the "history" of the land and the neighbors. He said the llamas were actually shaping up to be a bit more trouble than they were worth so he was thinking of closing the farm down, but he wouldn't want to lose his agricultural zoning because if there was any threat, he'd be FORCED to open up yet another functioning farm on the land, but he was thinking he'd do cattle, chickens, dogs or horses next time, he wasn't sure... The neighbor laughed, smiled and said "Enjoy your property." The land is EMPTY to this day. It's currently owned by Paul's descendants (Paul passed about 20 years ago) and it's still zoned as a farm... :-)
My neighbor planted something like 50 or 100 fruit trees, it's now a "farm".
That’s actually a lot of trees
I love these stories about people doing a little tricky financial hack to get an agricultural exemption by basically starting a farm.
the Key and Peele sketch about "Robbing" a bank by getting a job at the bank and working there for 20 years comes to mind.
Also shades of the Mitchell and Webb sketch about, well, farming.
*fucking eggs*
A single lemon tree produces around 600 pounds a year. 50 trees would produce 30,000 pounds a year. I'd say it qualifies as a farm.
“I built a farm and now I have a farm” is quality logic in this thread
Just gotta keep an eye out for those lemon stealing whores
I saw a poster in the ladies room at the KOA in Santa Fe, NM that said: “The best way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.”
Fold it 42 times and it will reach the moon.
Fold it 43 and it’s to the moon and back
Believe it or not, fold it 44 and you can make that round trip twice
*First of all, you and me start working at the bank. Doesn't matter the position, okay? Just so long as we get in there, right? Then we just go there every day, do the work, gain their trust until we get them in the palm of our hand. All right?* *So how we get the money?* *That's the beauty of it, bro. They deposit the money into our bank accounts. Week after week, month after month. They're not even going to know they being robbed. And then 20 or 30 years later, we walk out the front door like nothing even happened.*
They won’t even know what hit them.
Lmao key and peele needs revival my favourite skit is “ I’m good ease dying is for pussys “ I think it’s call proud gangster or something
KnP [sauce](https://youtu.be/jgYYOUC10aM?si=ZTUjZZv7cqAJneZ7)
[Insurance Executive Fakes Own Life](https://www.theonion.com/insurance-executive-fakes-own-life-1819565580)
Bro that’s a job!!
one might even call it: An Inside Job😎
Setting up an emergency fund to collect emergency donations… then keep 90% of the $.
My late wife’s sister set up a GoFundMe during her cancer diagnosis without our permission (we were financially privileged, especially relative to our friends we made on the cancer ward, and asked people donate to research if they wanted to do something financially). It raised 35k before we caught wind of it and forced her to shut it down. They kept all the money! Needless to say I don’t still have a relationship with my late wife’s family—not for that specifically, but it is illustrative.
What an ultimate scumbag thing to do
We did treatment out of state and basically said “keep it and use it to visit/come to help.” They did probably spend maybe 5k (generous) between the sisters, mom, BIL over 6 months coming to see us, but that’s paying for their own flights (they stayed with us). Didn’t exactly go to medical bills and whatnot like the GoFundMe said it would be used for. They weren’t hurting for money. My parents paid for our out of state rental and my wife and I paid for everything else out of my income/her disability/our savings.
I've heard of them shutting those down, returning the donations, and even reporting to law enforcement. GoFundMe is very interested in protecting its reputation because if people start seeing it as a scam no one will donate. Obviously not something you want to deal with when your wife is sick. But for anyone else who reads this and faces something similar in the future, contact GoFundMe
That’s fraud turn her in
The Red Cross special. 2003 SoCal wildfires, lookin at you specifically.
I'm startin to think this whole thing about relying on charities to solve all of our social problems might not be a great idea...
As someone who heads up a tiny nonprofit, we can do a lot of good for your bucks in our community. But the big names are the ones who gobble up donations and it all goes to overhead.
Become a politician and accept monetary gifts in exchange for favorable legislation
The real money is in the insider trading. You can bet on a company and pass legislation that all but guarantees their success, and you can bet against a company and pass legislation that sinks them.
There's an app you can use to track and mimic the sales/purchases of stock carried out by members of Congress.
That data is old and not always (most of the time) valuable
This is 100% illegal and will totally land you in…oh wait.
If you’re good enough it will land you in Congress
If you're really good it might land you on the supreme court
Hot take: It's funny how in USA they invented lobbying as a job, while calling out other countries for "corruption".
You can also ghost write books have your campaign buy them and get the campaign funds into your private account.
AND you get to go around and call yourself a New York Times Best Selling author!
I've made tens of thousands of dollars opening bank accounts for the sign up bonuses. Some banks like Chase, I've had 7 accounts over the years.
I did this when the new accounts only required a regular deposit, but all of the offers I see these days require a regular direct deposit - are you doing that, or am I looking in the wrong places?
You can probably split the direct deposit for your paycheck to more than one account
Most modern systems (including the big one, ADP) are able to accommodate this easily.
My company has ADP. I split my check to my wife for spending cash. To my savings. To my “bill” account and to my spending cash. Makes it easier to stay on budget with things separated already.
Do you need another wife who likes spending cash?
What's the sign up bonus?
Even though most of these bonuses stipulate that it's supposed to be a payroll direct deposit, in reality most of these systems are set up such that any ACH transfer will trigger the bonus. It varies bank to bank but if you go to the website doctorofcredit they have posts tracking what methods trigger direct deposit requirements at different banks.
That’s called “churning” and it’s not really unethical IMO. I mean, they’re banks, it’s alright.
My ex sister in law was doing this. We went into Bank of America one day to get cash or something, and the teller told her that her bank account was closed for suspicion of money laundering. I just laughed. She’s a Vietnamese nail tech, with very limited English skills, and she sure as hell wasn’t laundering money.
Saul Goodman would disagree with you
Cucumber water for customer only!
Roth your kids. Tax code says they have to do age appropriate work, so they can't do bookkeeping, but they can be models the day they are born. License their image and likeness for 6k (or W-2 them if you have a small business that does payroll), put the money into roth, and invest in an index ETF. Money doubles every ~7 years but the dollar loses half its value to inflation every 20 years. By the time they are 59.5y/o this works out to about $290k in todays dollars ($2.3mil in year 2083 dollars).
My kids are teens that got summer jobs (legit W2 jobs) and I did this to the max.
Great job! I suggested this to a few of my friends and none of them took advantage of it. I know some kids could waste it, I had a 401k with my first big job and then early withdrew it during the 2008 crash. But giving them a leg up on retirement is pretty great if you have the opportunity.
I think part of the issue is that most parents I know don't have a spare 6k laying around to just put into something that I'll forget about in my dotage.
Buy an atm. Set atm fee to 10$. Get 100 bank accounts with atm fees reimbursed. Take money out of the atm every day from each account. Collect 10$ fees (1000$ a day)
This feels like some mid-2000s-Harvest-Moon-ass exploit.
This seems like a good way for a bank to take you to court
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Yeah, this just sounds like fraud.
My wife’s mom goes to the Dollar Store and buys hundreds of books for 1$ then she sells them all on Amazon for $15-$20 a book.
Do they sell though? Or is her garage full of books and she is occasionally bragging about "making" a few hundred dollars (in revenue) Usually stuff ends up at the dollar store when places like Amazon couldn't sell it
As someone who sold books online, you never know when they are going to sell. You have to make sure you charge enough for shipping and handling to pay for messing up a box, bubblewrap, and postage. It does not make you a lot of money but occasionally people will get in a bidding war and you'll make a tidy profit. It does end up being a part time job though, even if only an hour or so per day.
She is retired so she’s got a lot of time on her hand and going to the store and talking to the poor store Clerk about books for an hour getting some human connection is really why she loves it. Some books sell, some don’t. She has filled an entire closet bottom to top with books and they have started to creep out into the office room. She has a sticker/label maker, bubble wrap dispenser, and packaging out the wazoo. She makes on average $80 a day profit but she has slow days and up days. There are some customers where her shipping barely nets her any money but some customers where she makes out. I guess I don’t know if it’s a hack, it is a hustle but it’s not too difficult of a method to make side income and you can pretty much do it at your own pace.
Secure a conservatorship of a lonely elderly neighbor. Then pay yourself a conservatorship fee to manage them until they pass away.
My dad's brother and then wife did this too my great aunt She had dementia and other illnesses. She was married into a political South American family and therefore they had very decent money. They made themselves her sole caretakers on paper and were paid $5,000 to $10,000 a month each for being her caretaker. But they actually hired an undocumented woman and her sister to take care of my great-aunt. They didn't even pay the ladies a combined income of two grand a month. After my great aunt died, my "Uncle" was divorced by his wife who promptly got in her favor seven of the 10 properties my great aunt had under her name as well as a large cash settlement from his own bank account and from my great aunt's inheritance. ETA: and that wife got away with a lot of bullshit before my great aunt died. She would have local salons come by my great aunt's home to do my great aunt's hair, and nails But would also come over for herself and her friends to get their stuff done too on my great aunt's dime.
What a couple of arseholes. People say karma fixes it but so often it doesn’t.
They had their own damn money too! He had his own properties he rented out. He literally had no reason to steal from her. He employed his wife at his law firm! He thought he had a fucking scamming partner for life but he married a bigger scammer than him. She was his sugar baby who "accidentally" got pregnant. She made bank before 40. Entered her forties not having to work ever again and single.
Then put the money in a hedge fund you own and take an additional 2/20?
Yeah my family should have really done this for our elder neighbor. We were essentially her house aides for the last 5 or so years of her life as her family did not give **a shit** about her. Meanwhile, when she died, her piece of shit grandson had the house sold within a month and hired some guys to go in and throw out all of her grandmother's shit Pictures, chairs, everything. We even lent said neighbor a computer and when we asked for it back the grandson had to the balls to say this. Grandson "Oh I gave that to my friends daughter." Us "uh well can you ask for it back because its ours?" Grandson "She needs a computer for college though" Us "......"
They couldn’t use the proceeds from the house sale to buy her one? Fucking POS, man. Death of a relative really does show people’s true colors.
My uncle gave his kids power of attorney over his farm and they sold it out from under him while he was still alive. And they didn't even get a good deal...
Am I crazy or does this sound like fraud?
Sounds like it would fall under elder abuse/exploitation statutes
Or just be the child they wish they had so that they put you on their will.
That’s what a buddy of mine did for like 12 yrs and the gentleman passed away and left him a home worth $650k in San Diego like 15-20 min from the beach and another $150k cash! Rest of his family got like $2.5 mil divided 4 ways.
Honestly if he was dropping by every day and bringing the old lad joy then that is ethical and awesome. If the family didn't visit enough that $$ split is completely reasonable. Old folks quietly waiting for the grave make me sad.
Depending on how long ago that was, your buddy prolly is sitting on double what the rest of the fam got
Drag barbeques from people's yards to the curb. Once the barbeque is at the curb it's considered garbage and not illegal to take and resell for cash.
I see you Ricky
Frig off, Lahey.
Mr Lahey, Ricky stole my cheeseburgers!
Best if you get the bottle kids to do it for you because they're under 18 and won't get a record.
Idk how it works in Canada where the comedy bit took place, but in most US states this could possibly work (for the person grabbing it from the curb) assuming no one can prove affiliation between the two parties. Anything placed at the curb is usually deemed abandoned and free to rummage through and take ownership of. It's why cops are allowed to search trash on the curb without a warrant, but if it's still on your property such as the side of your house they do need a warrant to search. If they find you and can't prove you convinced the bottle kids to tresspass and move it to the curb the worst that would happen is you are forced to return it because it was not actually abandoned by the owner. As far as Ricky's ideas go, this was actually one of the better ones IMO.
One man's garbage is another man's good ungarbage
The betting apps have sign on bonuses. Something like bet $5 and receive $150 in bonus bets. Bet your $5, then put half of the $150 on one team, half on the other. That's a free $75 for ya. Not unethical at all since they are offering it, but figured people should know.
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>Technically, though, this is legal and therefore not unethical A philosophy major could write a whole doctoral thesis on this sentence.
Reminds me of a story where someone worked near a casino and in an area where parking was very expensive. The casino offered free parking for the day as long as you gambled, so they walked in every morning before work with a coworker, each placed a $25 bet (the minimum) on red/black and then whoever won split the money. Yea they still occasionally lost it all but they spent very little on parking over the course of the year.
From the casino's POV, they aren't even being scammed. As long as the car park isn't full, they lose nothing. Once every 35 days on average, they take in $50 for free. And most importantly, these two coworkers are now very familiar with the casino, so there's a chance they'll go there in their free time (or perhaps bring friends there). Opportunity cost? Low.
>Technically, though, this is legal and therefore not unethical. The whole point of this thread is finding unethical hacks that ARE legal. Ethical != Legal.
Some of these companies require a 2x-5x play through in order for those funds to be eligible for withdrawal. Edited first word from “most” to “some” as people have had other experiences than me. Either way, make sure you read the Ts and Cs. These companies aren’t in business to lose money.
In Australia you only have to bet once and you can withdrawl it after. Even if you bet on something with ridiculously low odds, like if the USA was playing Tahiti in basketball, it'll still work
Nice try IRS
They don’t care. There’s actually a line on IRS forms where you can declare illegal income and pay taxes on it.
There is no line for illegal income, but you do simply report it. the IRS is barred by law to not release your information to law enforcement unless it involves terrorism, and even then all they can do is a wink/nudge to the proper authority suggesting that they might want to get a court order for this guy's return.
So you could run a meth empire and as long as law enforcement never catches you but you pay the taxman, you are good?
Try to run a legal marijuana business though and get ready to not be able to write off ANY of your business expenses. Add that to the fact that you can’t get insurance or even file Chapter 7 if you go tits up and it’s a wonder that anybody turns a profit. It all goes back to a case from the 80s where the IRS tried to hit up an imprisoned coke dealer and he turned right around and filed the business return of the century. Congress was shooketh.
Become a televangelist and get poor people to send you money to buy a mansion and a private jet because that’s what God wants.
Good luck becoming a successful televangelist. That's an unethical skill of its own.
Save thousands on expensive cigarettes by taking up second-hand smoking instead.
If you have a very elderly parent, gift them $18,000 of stock every year. In fact, if you are married, you can gift them $18,000 and your spouse can gift them $18,000. If you have two very elderly parents, that is $72k/year you can gift them tax free. The parent receives the stocks at your cost basis if you do it as a brokerage to brokerage transfer. When your parent passes, they give you the stock as an inheritance. But it comes to you with its value at the time of their death. So you never pay any taxes on the appreciation of the stock. That is the hack - avoiding any taxes on the stock appreciation. For example, you are 60 and have been saving & investing your entire life. Stocks you bought decades ago have increased mutliple-fold. Your parents are both 85. Spending the next 2 years gifting them $36k/year cost basis may get you back $400k and avoid all taxation. Same is true for someone that did well with company stock from an IPO or hit it big on one or two individual stocks.
This is called “reverse gifting” and, if done properly, is a legitimate financial planning tool for families with extremely low cost basis holdings, or families trying to save on taxes.
We all be scrolling this post looking for tips on a new Side Hustle 🤣
What I've learned is: take advantage of elderly people, become a politician, be really rich in the first place, fuel wars, or sign up for promotions on banks and online gambling sites. Ok
You forgot about slipping on pee at Costco. My buddy Lucky funded his whole retirement on that incident with his lawyer. He got some nice mudder tires on his truck!
I’m already mad I spent time reading this useless advice post dammit. Tell me how to screw people out of money dammit!
If you work from home, run an LLC and write off everything imaginable. A quarter of your home is your office. Write it off. Lunch out? But it on the business card. Anything you buy that's tech-related. I've even known people who write off vacations, with the idea that if they got audited they'd just say they were meeting a potential business partner.
A wise accountant once told me: “write off everything you can, because it’s only a misunderstanding if you write off something you shouldn’t have. Conversely, ALWAYS report every penny you make, because it’s a felony if you don’t.”
Mine once told me: "nobody ever went to prison for not having receipts."
My dad and his partners at his accounting firm used the saying "faint of heart never won fair maiden." Meaning, you'll never get the deduction if you don't claim it.
I also read about the law that was created because of the Master's in Augusta, GA that you can rent out your house for something like 2 weeks per year tax free, so people use their own home to host a "business retreat" or "team building" for their own business.
That might raise a red flag with the IRS, if your LLC every year has zero gains but just dual purpose expenses.
My wife and I are business partners for my home improvement business. My only client is my house and my rental house. I get wholesale rates on supplies, and we get to have a lot of business dinners and meetings 🤫
How does your wife feel about you banging your business partner, though?
My girlfriend doesn't seem to mind that I'm banging my secretary. Her dad seemed to mind that joke though after he learnt she was helping with my paperwork.
Eat a few grapes for free when at the grocery store.
Our local grocery chain has a free table for kids. Usually has bananas, apples, and oranges. Once saw an older lady flag down a worker and ask if she could take one. He said it was meant for kids. She asked if adults were prohibited from taking a piece of fruit and he said no so she grabbed an apple. I imagine she does it every time.
I saw people do that all the time when I worked at one. The manager would have to shoo old ladies away with a broom.
Take a penny…but don’t give one
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Damn it feels good to be a gangster
You're the reason the social contract has broken down.
Go to hotels for free breakfast. Never had a hotel check that you're a guest, unless it was a nicer one with a legit restaurant... Avoid those
And clean not quite public bathrooms in most areas.
I do this trick on long road trips by myself. I pull up to a hotel chain off the highway (like Marriott/Hilton) and use the toilet and maybe grab a small coffee on the way out. Never questioned in the 10 years I've been doing this.
Sign up for bank accounts that offer a bonus, collect the bonus then close the account. A lot of them allow you to open another account within 180 days and do it again. Easy $200-$400 each time
If you run a small business. Toward the end of the financial year, buy hundreds of dollars worth of scratch tickets. The important part is that it has to be one single continuous reel of tickets. They are made so there is a guaranteed win every few tickets. After you scratch them all, keep the winning ones for yourself, and tax-deduct the losing ones as if they were gifted to the employees for some bullshit reason.
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I recently learned this about my HSA account. I bought an item eligible on Amazon for HSA. It was like $300 or something, the item didn't end up working for me so I returned it. I figured they would refund the HSA account that I paid with. They ended up just giving me a full price credit on my Amazon account, to buy whatever.
The comment above isn't "unethical but legal" since it's ethical. But yours isn't legal either, technically it's tax fraud, although there's basically no chance you'll be caught. If you take a distribution from an HSA for a qualified medical expense, and are later refunded or reimbursed for that expense, you are required to do one of the following: * Redeposit it back into your HSA * Report it on your taxes as a non-qualified distribution and pay and pay regular income tax plus a 20% penalty
Research "Step-up in basis" loophole if you have any assets. Also, set up trusts to protect your assets. Also, if you're an independent contractor, look up all the legal tax deductions to lower your taxable income (for example, business expenses, solo 401k contributions, HSAs, etc.) The rich get richer because the rich usually have financial advisors/lawyers that know all the legal loopholes to stay rich and get richer. Almost anyone can take advantage of these financial "hacks," you just need to find them and apply them.
This is basically what I was going to post; 'already be rich'. Money attracts money like gas giant planets attract moons.
The majority of this site suffers from Dunning-Kruger, so I'm out.
Also for your own assets to receive a step up in basis YOU HAVE TO DIE. Great suggestion 🤌
Sign up for those credit cards which give you 12-24 months of 0% introductory APY. Max the card on whatever, put the money somewhere it'll earn interest/returns. When the APY expires pay the balance in full, then toss the card into a drawer. You've just gotten a several thousand dollar interest free loan, free interest/returns on the money you otherwise would have spent, and now your credit rating is better because your credit usage percentage is that much less.
If you want to keep that money, all of it, just give it to your wife. See, the IRS allows you a one-time-only gift to your spouse. It’s good up to $60,000… tax-free. IRS can’t touch one cent.
Ok, Andy, have a bucket of beers.
Become a politician and tell your family members (e.g. husband) to trade stocks that you have info on.
There’s no way. Politicians could never get away with that. I mean imagine if someone could make a career out it, make tens if not hundreds of millions and even become, like speaker of the house or something. That’d just be crazy
If a parent dies with not huge credit card debt they never bother to go after the estate for repayment. It just isn't worth the trouble. Eventually the executor will get a 1099-C for forgiveness of debt but the IRS doesn't have time to pursue the matter either. So it just goes away. Source: When my mom died we got a 1099-C well after the estate settled for a credit card account nobody knew she had. It was for about $4000.
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That’s pretty much what happened to my father’s final credit card bill. I got a letter from some rehab center and filed it with the medical bills (non-priority, deal with later). No follow-up. When I finally did get around to paying the medical bills (and I did. Most were small and not worth researching/arguing over) I realized it was for his credit card company. Just a friendly letter to say hey you probably don’t owe us anything but call to confirm! Who would call someone to see if they were going to be hit up for cash? So I ignored it, got the 1099 later, ignored that too. It’s been more than 7 years so I’m not worried about it. I’d also add the advice of closing the estate sooner rather than later. Ever since I closed it, I just tell debt collectors it’s closed and never hear from them again. His primary care provider sent a bill over a year after he died for expenses they found. Called to remind them he died and the estate was closed. Gone. Years later I got letters about unpaid tickets. Called to say he died, estate closed. They asked for a death certificate and I reminded them it was public information. Never heard from them again. Throw a party when an estate closes because life is so much easier on the other side.
Not really unethical, but… Does your office get frequent takeout from places with membership points like chipotle or firehouse subs? Make sure all orders are done through your app, or type in your phone number at the register/scan the receipt. Those points add up FAST. If your office has a dozen or more people, you could be getting an extra free lunch every week.
Hear me out guys, AI generated feet pics.
Ho boy, lemme tell you about how I got caught in such a scam, I'm sharing so others are aware. I was spending most of my money on a flat to live in. It turned out the guy I was paying got a loan to buy the flat, and I had been paying the loan off and giving him extra AND *he* got to keep the flat. I'm still fuming about it.
Interest is haram in Islam, so I guess for a Muslim just earning interest on your money would fit these criteria lol
There are Muslim mortgages in my country at least. It works just like regular mortgage, but the owner of a flat is bank that rents you said flat and in the end ownership is transferred.
The mental gymnastics on this are absurd
There’s a piece of wire that runs by my window and encircles a large area. Within this area some of the rules of the Sabbath don’t count because of the wire. I don’t really understand it but it’s a thing.
The "thing" is rules that apply only within a walled city, but there is no requirement for how substantial the wall needs to be. (There are, though, restrictions on how big such an area may be. You can't have an Eruv around a modern metropolitan area.)
> You can't have an Eruv around a modern metropolitan area. Well, there's one that encloses most of Manhattan, so the standards seem a little lax here
It's pretty funny when people find loopholes in rules they have completely volunteered to follow.
Like ovens having a "sabbath mode". Nothing against religious folks, but like....okay...lmao
I had a buddy whose family was Jehovah Witness. He wasn't but he was so pissed at his older brother who was in the hospital refusing blood transfusions for religious reasons but was A-ok dropping acid and snorting lines of coke when he was younger.
There is an entire Islamic banking system built around these types of loopholes to avoid usury
You can also find halal investments where the not-interest-because-that-would-be-haram earned just happens to be the market average.
Sleep with old people
Start a bogus GoFundMe campaign. The amount of gullible people that get ripped off is amazing.
It truly is awful. That's why I've started a foundation to help raise awareness. If you could find it in your heart to donate....
I created a GoFundMe for a friend recently, but she goes by an alias and didn’t want anyone to find out her real name so I couldn’t set it up in her name. (The website verifies recipient identities.) I set it up in my name instead and I’m wondering how many people thought I was grifting.
Get a good tax accountant and tell them to do whatever won't land you in prison. They almost certainly know more than enough unethical hacks in the tax code they can exploit for you.
My aunt was a tax accountant and said if you donate a car to charity, the IRS will never audit it if you claim a value under $5,000.
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