Chapter 17Pay No Attention at All to Taxes
What to do about taxes is another one of those quibbles that eats up your time and money. Why bother with it? Don’t worry about whether some investments, like index funds, belong in tax-favored accounts like IRAs. Don’t worry about whether others, like cash or super-low-yield bonds, belong in non-tax-favored accounts. And when it comes to your estate plans? Don’t worry about whether you have done anything to protect posterity. After all, what has posterity ever done for you?
Taxes only amount to about half of your estate, and you’ll be dead anyway. So, who cares?
And taxes on capital gains—at 15 percent as I write this, but possibly to go up a lot and soon—they are an important source of income for our federal government. Don’t try to cheat Uncle Sam out of money he needs.
Don’t have a tax planner or adviser. Just let the chips fall where they may.
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