Peter Dunn: [00:00:00] It's not unusual. Being out in public, you encounter someone you meet them and they ask what you do. You tell them what they do and the light bulb goes off and then they're like, Oh my gosh. And then they recognize or realize that, that they know the work you do now. Dame Kristen, this is not unusual for you.
This has happened to you. You've been somewhere, some Kristen, you got fan boys all over this world and they're like, wow. Kristen from the beat, the planner show from cricket and co. They're a big fan. What's that like for you?
It's thrilling, actually. I love being recognized as, Hey, you're on the Pete the Planner show.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, no. Every day at the grocery store, at the single grocery store in your town. True. How many grocery stores are in your town?
Just the one. Because Dollar General doesn't count.
Peter Dunn: No, it doesn't. Dame how often does this happen to you?
Damian Dunn: Let's see, over the many years that I've been on the show, it has happened once.[00:01:00]
Really?
Peter Dunn: Just once. I feel like you've told me more than that. Anywho. I was, I can't give too many details about this because I don't, I want to make anyone feel awkward any more than they should. I was somewhere last week and someone said, oh, hey, I really enjoy your work. I was like, thank you. It's very nice.
I think I said, I appreciate you saying that. It's very kind. And then they went on, right? And I was like, yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And then they went on and then they used a superlative, right? Of are something like you were literally the best something. And then in that moment, I was like, 100 percent dismissive of them in their perspective.
I was like, you've got terrible taste. It was like, I'll take a compliment. And I'll be like, oh, I'm not, and by the way. I'm not that good at that, but I'll take it true. And I'm like, okay, thank you. Very kind. But then it went to eh, I no longer trust you, because that's, that is not objectively true, Dame.
You ever have that where someone [00:02:00] compliments you and it goes too far, and then all of a sudden the compliment is rendered nothing because it went too far. You lost me at giving, getting compliments.
Oh, I'll give you a compliment. Oh, I really enjoy talking to your wife. Thanks. Thanks. Yeah. Kristen, how about you?
Do you ever have such effusive praise of you that you're like,
I don't know, P I'm like you and I struggle with just being complimented in general. So it all feels disingenuous to me, to be honest.
Peter Dunn: Is there anyone that like really takes a compliment and knows what to do with it? They're just like, Yeah, you're darn right.
I've got nice eyes. Who do you know? Does anyone know what to do with a compliment?
No. But if you do know, teach us.
Damian Dunn: Yeah, I think people in Hollywood, those that are fawned over all the time probably get pretty good at handling [00:03:00] that situation.
Peter Dunn: I feel like we've talked about this years ago on the show, but like when you compliment someone on a physical, natural feature of theirs, like their eyes or something, and you're like, you have beautiful eyes, and they say thank you, it's they did nothing.
Yeah, they literally did nothing unless they're wearing contacts. Yeah, it's Oh thank you. I worked really
Damian Dunn: hard on these.
Peter Dunn: I don't think they might
Damian Dunn: have spent a lot of time getting the presentation just right to really accentuate their eyes. I was listening to one of
Peter Dunn: my favorite podcasts this morning and they're so good at consistently at the beginning of the show.
So hey, if you'd rather watch this episode, go to youtube. com slash well, in this case, Pete, the planner. So if you're listening right now and you'd rather watch this, Good. Here's what day may set the scene here. Please. Oh my, you're winding down from a long day. Maybe you listen to us on the drive to work, which is fine.
Maybe you listen to music, go home, set your phone up, your TV up, just put on the show while you're cooking. You can look up and you can see Kristen roll her [00:04:00] eyes at Dame. You can see Dame Roll his eyes as I talk about Kristen rolling his eyes at Dame. And you can see my chin. Monday mornings when I start.
It's happening. I can't wait to talk about
Damian Dunn: this in a week.
I can't wait for Wednesday, actually. I think Wednesday will be the best day.
Damian Dunn: Pete is going to do the show from a seated position next week.
Peter Dunn: I feel like I am. Should we do I don't know what's kosher anymore in terms of talking about weight or body image.
Like it really has gone some dynamic places in the last few years. Like your body shape but again, GLP one's changed that, but then it doesn't change that. So I don't know, should I track my weight live on the air? Is this is this a thing like Kristen, you're uncomfortable.
I'm not.
I just think that in the world we live in, just before we would have that conversation to just say that we recognize that this is a really loaded topic and that for some people it [00:05:00] can, frankly, it can be really triggering
Peter Dunn: loaded because I'm very heavy. Is that what you mean? Like heavy load.
Let me get the disclaimer out before you
Peter Dunn: make this like wide load.
You're saying it's a loaded topic. This is actually you're making a fat joke about me. Oh my word. I'm so sorry for anyone listening. Isn't it a weird time for this topic? Dame, do you agree with that? Like with I think GLP ones have made the weight loss topic more complicated than ever before. You think so?
Because now they're, exactly. You just did it.
I think so because there's so much misunderstanding about what a GLP 1 is and what it does and who it's for. And the conversation becomes so complicated of what work did you or didn't you do? And people are really heated about it.
Peter Dunn: Yeah it's, and it's weird.
If you think about the last 15 years, it went from I'm going to post pictures of me working out online. I'm going to show you. And I was all part of that. I was doing that. [00:06:00] Then that actually turned into an influencer thing which wasn't even about look at me. It was about like, look at me and let me influence you.
But then the idea of Hey, I lost 50 pounds on my own without GLP ones. And then now you say I lost 50 pounds on GLP ones. And then because a person is like shrinking the stress on their organs, you're both are good. But then one is one good is one bad. And it's a weird spot.
Damian Dunn: I can easily see a future where people who take GLP 1's to lose weight will think people who are losing weight naturally are somehow shaming them or are
That already happens.
Damian Dunn: Yeah, it already happens. Oh, then I don't. I'm sorry. I spend a lot of time on social media. That's not my algorithm.
Peter Dunn: I will say this, and no one cares what I think about this I think someone on GLP 1's losing weight, it's great! Fantastic. Take the stress off your organs. I've considered it.
I really have.[00:07:00]
Pete's taking compounded semaglutide and telling us he's working out three days a week. No. I'm
Peter Dunn: just eating Greek yogurt. Like I was talking to the trainer who was here a couple weeks ago and he was like, the key to a lot of this will be Greek yogurt. And I was like, who thought that was the phrase?
You start your life and you're like, someday a man will say to me, the key to this will be Greek yogurt. And I was like I sure the Greeks are like, we told you some Windex. Aha. Oh, that's a good callback. Kristen had no idea what you were saying there, but that was funny. Kristen, what movie did Dame just reference?
Kristen Ahlenius: I'm going to guess the only title that I know that has Greek in it, so I'm going to go with My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Wow.
Peter Dunn: Wow. That's
Kristen Ahlenius: the only
Peter Dunn: one
Kristen Ahlenius: I know.
Peter Dunn: Hey guys, Kristen and I both have a hard out, so we need to get going here. And so this just reduced all the cross talk. This is a great
Damian Dunn: reason to not be able to make the start of that meeting.
Anyway, I'm 208. [00:08:00] 208.
Peter Dunn (2): Okay.
Peter Dunn: Yeah. I want to be like, but I carry it well. And I could, I want someone to be like,
that's it. It's so awkward.
Peter Dunn (2): Oh,
Peter Dunn: I love it. 208.
Peter Dunn (2): I think, I
Peter Dunn: think I'm going to land 90 days from now. Can we have a pool? You guys want to have a little bet here?
Damian Dunn: Sure. I think everybody else in YML probably ought to be able to get in on it though. Oh, that's true.
Peter Dunn: But then, again, like the three of us, we can probably get away with a little bit more.
Yeah,
Kristen Ahlenius: I feel
like it's a terrible idea.
Damian Dunn: I would just love to see what people would
Peter Dunn: get. I'm going to say in 90 days,
I'm 185.
You guys are dead air. I'm [00:09:00] doing some calculations. That's 23 pounds. Is that the math on that?
Yeah, I'm taking the under.
Peter Dunn: That I'll lose less than that?
No, that
Damian Dunn: You'll go less than 185? Yeah, actually I was gonna go less than 185 too, because when you get 90 days is nothing for a focus period for you, and you will I was gonna say, if you meet
the planner this
Damian Dunn: Yeah, I
Peter Dunn: know.
But I'm old now, True.
Okay, here we go. Greek yogurt, man. It's the key. Rick Swank is just hard out. No crosstalk. Should we have a pool in three? Oh, I'm not ready. Oh my God. We do have a really hard out. Kristen, what am I doing?
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't know.
Peter Dunn: Oh no. Okay. Here we go in three, two, one this week on the Pete, the planner show. It's the spectacular.
Peter Dunn (2): That was good.
Peter Dunn: Thank you. Oh, that's Kristen Alanius and [00:10:00] Damian Dunn here is here as well. This week on the show, we talk all thing taxes. Tax season is upon us. It has been declared 10 99s have gone out. Tax questions abound. And one of us on this show, life partner is a tax expert. Of course, that person, the show did not invite the tax expert on the show.
So we are going to speculate with all sorts of speculation about what a person should know about taxes and their entire life. Dame, you are married to a tax expert
Damian Dunn: up until you made that comment. Yeah, I was. I don't know if she's going to think, yeah, why didn't he invite me on the show? Kristen, is there anything more
Peter Dunn: mansplaining than doing a show about taxes while just revisiting the points that your spouse gave you without actually inviting the spouse on the air?
Yeah, it reminds me of that time that you guys did the Student Loan Spectacular episode [00:11:00] and didn't invite me to be on it.
Peter Dunn: I'll explain how that all worked later to you so you can understand it with your lady mind. All right Dame, let's begin. You're kind wife Decided to put together five things your accountant wishes that you knew about tax season Am I supposed to frame it that way or was this supposed to be like an anonymous thing from a tax professional?
Did I just ruin her job and her life? I mean it was the chances that her clients
Damian Dunn: listened to this show Good point. All right, Dame, are you running the show here? Yeah, I can. So Pete's exactly right. I asked Mrs. Advice very kindly. I said, listen, now we're doing a tax show on Friday. That's probably where I should have said, would you like to be on it?
But I didn't. Could you do work for me so I could do a show better? I said, could you talk to your staff and say, hey, what are some things you wish your clients knew? Or just clients in general about tax season. [00:12:00] They gave me five things. Okay, five things. Number one. Number one. No particular order.
No particular
Peter Dunn: order.
Damian Dunn: It's already too late to find a new CPA for your 2024 tax returns. This is surprising to people.
Yeah. It's surprising to me too, to be honest.
Peter Dunn: I've made this mistake a few different times.
Say more.
Peter Dunn: I have A person generally starts thinking about their taxes when 1099s start flowing around and W2s and all these sorts of things and you're like, Oh yeah, I was going to make a change there.
I'm going to call so and I have made that mistake and then you get left out in the cold and then you end up filing an extension.
Damian Dunn: Yeah, so what's happened is I'm people outside the industry probably don't realize it but there are a shrinking number of accountants in the United States right now and the likelihood of you being able to find somebody at late notice, which This is late notice at this point.
It may not feel like it to you, but it's very late [00:13:00] notice. It's getting smaller and smaller. Can you go to a low cost shop somewhere to potentially get your taxes taken care of? Potentially, yeah. But if you are looking for that private hand holding experience with a CPA chances are, at best, they're going to say we're going to have to file an extension and get the, get to this later this summer.
Peter Dunn: I feel like I could do an entire show on this one point here, Kristen, here's what's going occurring to me.
Peter Dunn (2): Okay.
Peter Dunn: Every time we have this sort of conversation on or off the air about how busy tax preparers are, CPAs are, is this not a great profession to go into if you're a young person trying to figure out what to do?
Or it's the fact that there's now new math. Is that why there's no accountants? Why is this like not a great profession?
I would think so if there's a demand. And I know that. I can think of two practices off the top of my head that we're really looking for younger persons to come in so that older preparers could step away from their businesses.
[00:14:00] So I, it seems like it, at least anecdotally,
Damian Dunn: there's one major roadblock in the eyes of today's college student. That's trying to figure out what they're, they want to do with the rest of their lives in order to What's that tick tock? Yes in order to achieve or be able to be eligible for your CPA license you have to have a hundred and fifty credit hours of education.
Peter Dunn: I okay guys Since I was in college, when people talk about credit hours, I don't know what any of it means. You could be like, it takes 10 million credit hours. I'm like, wow. Or it takes four credit. I, what is that? 150 credit hours. What is that?
Damian Dunn: 120 is typically four years. Yeah. So they're requiring a fifth year of education for you to be able to be out in.
Now, I believe there might be a state that has just gone back on that. There may be other states that are considering it, but. In order to be able to get your CPA, you have to pay for a fifth year of college [00:15:00]
or you have to increase your course load all along the
Damian Dunn: way,
and it's not like it's not a rigorous curriculum.
So to suggest that you're going to take 18 or 21 credit hours along the way is likely not feasible,
Damian Dunn: and you're still paying for those classes. You're just squeezing them all. And so instead of stretching them out over a normal class load over five years, you're just deciding to drink from the fire hose and do it in four.
The next thing your accountant wishes you knew about tax season. Okay folks paying taxes and filing tax returns is a personal responsibility. You engage us to assist with your accurate preparation, but it's your responsibility to be sure that your taxes are filed and paid on time. This tracks, like I, I
Peter Dunn: have no I, I don't think there's another perspective to that.
I know there's probably people back in the day that used to do it for ya. You just sign it and they'll take care of it, but I think that's prearranged. Does anyone feel differently about that? [00:16:00] Kristen, do you feel, you're wincing. You look like the emoji with the teeth grinding here.
What do we got?
I am wincing a little just because I, the most important thing is upfront communication. If this is not something that your tax preparer does, that's totally fine as long as we're having that conversation upfront. I think if I were looking for a professional to help me, I would pay for the service to be completely inclusive, like I want to I'm a good record keeper.
I'm great. I'm organized. I will hand you all these things. And then I want to forget about it period
Damian Dunn: to be clear. They will e file for you. Accountants will e file for you. It is your responsibility to make sure that is actually accepted and filed at the I. R. S. So
I'm not going to remember that.
Damian Dunn: Then you're rolling the dice.
Day number three thing that a CPA wishes you knew. Calling or emailing us in January to ask how to reduce last year's taxes is not tax planning.
Peter Dunn: It is it is something, but it is not [00:17:00] tax planning. Planning would be to make the call in October?
Damian Dunn: Maybe even as early as June to start working on some things.
Yeah you have to have some time and preparation to be able to implement some of the ideas that you're going to need to significantly reduce your taxes because you're saying, okay, have you made your IRA contribution this year? That's not tax planning. That's just a way to maybe. Get a little more money taken off the top if you're going to do legit tax planning.
It needs to be a topic of conversation shortly after busy season in most cases. Number four thing that your accountant wishes you knew about tax season. We are required by professional standards to look at everything you provide to us. Please feel free to summarize. Okay. This is interesting. Back in the day, my dad
Peter Dunn: had a shoe box.
Damian Dunn: Yes.
Peter Dunn: That word may have come up this morning on a phone call. Wow. You guys are real sweet talkers. And my dad would just take the shoe box to his accountant was Peter Damo. I don't know. I remember that name and I don't know why I'm saying [00:18:00] it on air and he would take it and they're like, here's our shoe box, Peter Damo.
And That's not what you're supposed to do?
Damian Dunn: No, my dad had the same shoebox and his account was Dave Worthington. Same thing. But no, feel free to build everything into a spreadsheet and then keep the shoebox just in case you get audited. 20 seconds left, what's the final tip? You have to communicate.
Most CPS are going to send out organizers, fill it out. That way they know exactly what happened in your life. So your tax returns are accurate.
Peter Dunn: I'm also guilty of that. Did my accountant get with Cassie to send these things to me? Maybe. Alright. Coming up after the break, your tax questions, you send to 'em us to you send them to us.
We're gonna answer 'em. Oh, that's next on the Pete the Planet Show. I'm Pete the planner. You guys, we are criminally behind. We're gonna have to go here. Okay? Because, Kristen, if I'm late and you're late to what you and I have to do together after this, that is bad.
Peter Dunn (2): Sorry,
Peter Dunn: [00:19:00] Jeremiah, three, two, one back on the Pete, the planner show.
It's the spectacular talking of all things taxes in 2025. We asked you to send us your tax questions and you did. You sent them to ask Pete at Pete, the planner. com that's asked Pete at Pete, the planner. com and we got a lot of them. Who's running this show here today? Chris Dame, who's, Cricket, it's on you.
You got it. Okay, deal. First one's an easy one, gentlemen.
What is a write off?
Peter Dunn: I just write it off. Then you just write it off.
Kristen Ahlenius: Just write it off.
Peter Dunn: Write it off.
Damian Dunn: Write offs don't exist. Write offs don't exist, you say? Those are called deductions. Write offs
Peter Dunn: do not exist. So this feels the accountants all laugh at the common people.
They told me to just write it off. Is that what this is?
That's exactly it. Okay, Damien, educate us. What's a deduction?
Damian Dunn: A deduction is something that you can [00:20:00] use to reduce your taxable income. So there are Above the line deductions below the line. We're not going to get into those, but there are certain things that you may be familiar with mortgage interest, which you may or may not be able to claim anymore because that is an itemized deduction.
Medical expenses over and above 7. 5 percent of your A. G. I. All sorts of stuff that is going to reduce the number that you are taxed on. When it comes to those air deductions and what we normally hear this conversation isn't in business settings when somebody like, don't worry, we'll write it off.
Okay, whatever. But it's a deduction. And by the way, a lot of those write offs probably aren't going to pass the sniff test. I always feel
Peter Dunn: like you're out to lunch with someone. It's I'll get it. I'll just write it off. It's exactly it. The way I understand that working is you can write At best, 50 percent of that meal off, and so you're just writing off the other person's meal?
Or yours, whatever. Buy one, get one free? Close.
In my, [00:21:00] oh, in my circle, it's Oh, I bought a new tool for the farm, I'm just gonna write it off.
Peter Dunn: I love that your circle involves farm implements. You know what I mean?
I love that. Like I like mine doesn't. And so I love that I get exposure to that through you.
No lie. They don't know what write offs are.
Peter Dunn: That's fair. Dame, you brought up standard deduction and I feel like standard deduction versus itemized. This is where. I would argue most confusion exists within
Damian Dunn: taxes. I agree. And so there's actually been a significant change in this area in the last, Kristen, I'm going to space on when this was implemented.
Is it been five? No more than that. Yeah.
Damian Dunn: More than that. Anyway, yeah, I don't think it goes back that far. There is a standard deduction that you are allowed to take on your taxes. And that is based on the number of people in your house. At this point, if you are married and filing jointly, actually, I think that's what it is [00:22:00] because there's no no, no child deductions at this point.
If you're married, filing jointly, that number is Kristen 26.
I don't know the exact number you're asking. Yeah,
Damian Dunn: maybe we should have looked that up anyway, and if you are single it's half of that, whatever it is in order to be able to itemize your individual deductions have to surpass whatever your standard deduction becomes.
And there are a number of ways that you can get there whether, like I said, mortgage interest salt taxes, Kristen, what's a salt tax
state and local taxes. There we are
Damian Dunn: state and local taxes. They are capped by the way, 10, 000 a year, which may or may not be seem like a big deal for you, but I promise you in the coasts that is a much bigger deal.
So if you can add up some of these things over the year and increase, I'm sorry, surpass what the standard deduction is, you are allowed to deduct more of your income from You're gross income.
You just write it off.
Peter Dunn: [00:23:00] Just write it off. You may guys might not know the answer to this is the child tax credit part of that?
Or is it separate from that? Separate from
Damian Dunn: that's a credit, not a deduction. Oh, yeah.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, I'm a professional.
Quick tip on that. If you're not sure, like just look at a Schedule A because a Schedule A is actually really I know it sounds really complicated, but the form is actually really easy to understand.
And you can see what all of these different items are. And in my opinion, it really demystifies the whole thing because it looks so unapproachable. And then you start looking at the lines and you're like, Oh, I know what these dollars. are. I know where they've gone. It's not as complicated as it seems.
Damian Dunn: Yeah. And by the way, 90 percent of people take the standard deduction now. It used to be much less than that, but now with the increased standard deduction, 90%.
Peter Dunn: The next question that we got is it better to owe taxes or get a refund? This is the great debate. This is the great human nature [00:24:00] behavioral finance debate question.
So let's all weigh in. Kristen, is it better to owe taxes or get a refund?
You mean you want to loan your money to the government for free?
Peter Dunn: I regret this.
That is the argument though, right? It's like, why would I let the government use my money? I think that it's totally, it's your personal preference.
Look, I don't like to write a check to the government after I've already paid all year. I would rather get a refund because nothing boils my blood quicker than having to write a check in April.
Peter Dunn: Team, you and I have been business owners. For a long time. Can I assume that you've written one of those checks that really
Damian Dunn: hurts?
Yes. Yeah. Safe to assume.
Peter Dunn: And it's not really cool to talk about in public or in wide circles because it seems like complaining. It seems Oh, I had a. Write a big check, [00:25:00] but the reason you had the big check is because you got made about it. But it's never really goes like that. It's not that simple.
It is still incredibly awful.
Damian Dunn: The only people you can complain to are other people you think are going to have to write checks or have in the past.
Peter Dunn: Not on a radio show. Not on a radio
Damian Dunn: show.
Peter Dunn: So Dane, what do you think? Is it better to, Oh, or to get a refund? I thought you were going
Damian Dunn: to say, how much was that check off the air?
We can compare four stories. As long as it's close to zero, I don't care if you owe or if you have to pay a little bit. I know the, as you said, the financial behavior is going to say, if that's what you use as a savings account, so be it, but my. Pragmatic self says, just get it close to zero one way or the other
Peter Dunn: for what it's worth.
I, I am more likely to do something with a refund that is smart as opposed to have my cashflow increase over the course of a year
Damian Dunn: because you're making a decision at one simple point or one specific point versus
Peter Dunn: one decision [00:26:00] versus hundreds, thousands.
Damian Dunn: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: Next question. How do you know if you need an accountant that was going to ask that earlier?
There's do it yourself. There's the simple free services and super cheap services, or there's an actual human that is very professional. How do you know,
Damian Dunn: If you've got a simple, straightforward tax situation, W two income, Maybe some 1099 interest statements that come into you as well. Chances are you're likely fine.
You're going to be able to knock this out by yourself. If you start getting into schedule C's and K ones, you want to have somebody take a look at it until you are absolutely sure you're doing it properly yourself, because it is super easy to. Claim some of those write offs that maybe you shouldn't have along the way.
So get help that you need as your tax situation gets more complicated. If then you feel like you're comfortable doing it yourself, feel free to roll the dice, but you can always lean back on that professional,
Peter Dunn: Kristen for about 20 years. I had the same tax preparer and he was great.[00:27:00]
County is great. And about four or five years in that relationship, I was like. I can do this. I messed up my taxes so bad, so badly. And then I had to get him back involved to save my bacon. It was. Terrible. And I don't think that's an uncommon problem. No.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh, yeah.
Peter Dunn: Dame, can you give us let's try to see if we can answer one more question here.
Free or low cost filing options. What if you've got a very simple situations? What do you do?
Damian Dunn: As you said, there's IRS free file. If you've got an AGI under 84, 000, you can also get fillable forms where you're right up on pencils, but head to IRS trusted partners and there'll be about six different options you can find there for Good options.
Peter Dunn: We're gonna answer a few more questions when we get back and more all that's next on the Pete the Planner show. Pete the Planner. Okay, we're flying now. It's cuz of all the silly at the beginning, Kristen.
Sorry.
Peter Dunn: A [00:28:00] nerve. Love to blame people. It's trying. Entertaining. 3, 2, 1. Back on the pet, the planner show answering your tax questions.
Dame and Kristen are here. They are births, they're birthed. They've been birthed. Each of them are alive.
Damian Dunn: Congratulations.
Peter Dunn: They have been born. They're also certified financial planning practitioners. That doesn't make them tax experts. But it does mean they know more about taxes than I certainly do.
Dave, if you're married, specifically newly married, should you file jointly or separately the first year? I've never considered this, so I'm so glad I don't have to answer this. It is
Damian Dunn: almost always advantageous to file married filing jointly versus separately. There's only a handful. of situations where it might make sense to do married filing separately.
And then it starts to get a little bit more complicated because you start to lose deductions when you do married filing separately. Kristen, there's one specific example [00:29:00] for a newly married that I can think of potentially that includes student loans.
Yeah. If one of you is potentially facing garnishment on your student loans, if you file that can protect the refund of the spouse that doesn't have the student loans.
That's exactly the situation I was thinking of. I was also thinking of income disparities with multiple dependents. Maybe is another common situation. Those were the two that came to mind for me,
Peter Dunn: Kristen. So this decision point of jointly or separately, it's not about. We have separate finances or not.
It's more practical and pragmatic than that is that you will be economically advantaged more often than not by filing jointly.
That's exactly what that means. And if you are working with a preparer, their software probably can pretty easily switch from separately to joint to make sure that you're filing in a way that makes the most sense for you.
Peter Dunn: Dame, why does sales commission get taxed at a higher rate than a normal salary? If you have a [00:30:00] commission based. seller in your family, what's the best way to plan so that you're not way over or under paying with a standard deduction? Is this, you're not a commission sales person. I don't think you've ever really gone down this path too much.
What do you know?
Damian Dunn: First of all, let me let you whoever wrote the question, let me promise you that it's not taxed at a different rate. It's withheld at a different rate. It's supplemental income, and so it could be, back in the day, Peter it, some people had their bonuses or their commissions with all the top marginal tax rate for that year, which is, was at that point close to 40%.
So that, that looks completely different right now. If it's even done, because it's still, it doesn't, every company doesn't do this anymore. But if it's done is typically in the 22 ish percent range that it's withheld at, and then it all gets reported to the IRS on the same W two that you that you receive at the end of the year.
So the withholding is different. It's not taxed differently. [00:31:00] Interesting.
Peter Dunn: What's up? What's better? A deduction or a credit? Kristen
totally depends on your income. And that's a very Damien done answer. It depends. But it really does for if you are a kid. lower income individual, a credit is usually more beneficial versus if you are in a higher tax bracket, a deduction could be more beneficial.
And that's very overgeneralized, but a decent rule of thumb.
Peter Dunn: I'm going to jump around a little bit. Some other things, Damon pop culture in the last I don't know, five years. It's been more acceptable to gamble and to have winnings gambling. Talk to me a little bit about that.
Are gambling winnings taxable?
Damian Dunn: Yes very much. You will need to settle up with Uncle Sam at the end of the year to square that off. However, gambling losses. Wait, say more. I'm not saying any [00:32:00] more. I, this is where I wish Mrs. Advice would have been on the show, but I can 100 percent guarantee that gambling winnings are taxable.
Go ahead,
Peter Dunn: Kristen.
You can deduct your losses, but only up to your winnings, right? Isn't that, I think that's the way that works. And so if a lot of the time then, I think as most of us know, then you end up having a wash, but this is also true for like gambling winnings that might not be through like an app where you would have been received a tax form from them, technically all winnings.
are taxable. Just saying,
Peter Dunn: Dame Donald John Trump, president of the United States says that we're not going to tax tips anymore. Is that in force? And if it is, can I just. Make my entire compensation gratuity and not pay taxes. That Mike
Damian Dunn: is yours asking me to speculate on a proposal that isn't in effect law yet.
Indeed. Yeah. Do whatever you want, man, your free country. [00:33:00] Yeah. Just don't tell the IRS anything.
Peter Dunn: Kristen, people make a big deal about climbing tax brackets or going up and down, like where do these misconceptions exist or what do people need to know about? A change in tax bracket.
Yeah, we hear that a lot.
It's I got a raise, but I jumped tax bracket, so I ended up paying more. And it's it's probably not entirely true. So our tax, our federal tax system anyway is progressive, meaning the more you take The law of the more you make the larger percentage the federal government takes, but there is a difference between what is your marginal tax rate, which is the tax rate on the last dollar you make versus your effective tax rate, which is just your average rate across the board.
So if you get a raise that brings you into the next bracket, it's only for the dollars that you make. tax bracket you're currently in that are being taxed at a higher rate.
Peter Dunn: Yeah. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but let's say that you've got 3, 000 [00:34:00] over that bracket. Your tax rate instead of being, I don't know, 25 percent is maybe 28%.
So it's only a 3 percent difference on that 3, 000, which is nothing. 90 bucks, Dan?
Damian Dunn: Yeah, I mean it's a very incremental increase in your overall tax effective tax rate.
Peter Dunn: What else? The IRS can audit you for three years, but if they suspect fraud, it's even longer. Kristen if you've listened to, oh, I don't know, any media outlet in the last two weeks President Trump's talked about shedding IRS agents and not hiring like 80, 000.
I don't know. Here's what I know. I want a bunch of IRS agents because I want my taxes done faster. But there's a feeling that this leads to more audits. Let's say you and what should people know about audits?
Yeah. I think the most common misconception is that if [00:35:00] you make a mistake on your taxes, that you're going to go to jail.
I just recently had a situation where bless her heart, Mrs. Advice helped a friend of mine who was literally convinced they were going to go to jail. And I'm like, You made a mistake because of true lack of information and ignorance. You weren't fraudulent. You weren't trying to cheat the government out of money.
And so that's where the difference is if you make a mistake on your taxes, you might have to pay a penalty for underpayment, but it's not likely that you're going to jail because you weren't out here like laundering money or sending it to offshore accounts or sending in fraudulent tax returns.
Damian Dunn: And I will say, if you write a letter. To the IRS with whenever you discover this and you say, listen, I messed up chances. Other going to forgive you. They might still put the penalty on there. It might not. So just be up front with it.
Peter Dunn: We're pushing the show called Pete role plays Christians.
Kristen's conversations with her friends. You're Kristen's friend. [00:36:00] I'm Kristen. And I want you to begin with I've made a mistake. Okay. And then I'll take it from there.
Damian Dunn: Cricket, I've made a huge mistake.
Peter Dunn: Oh, I understand, but here's the thing. You're not evil, you're just dumb. Wow. And that's how I talk to my friends.
Ha. And scene.
Kristen Ahlenius: That's brilliant.
Peter Dunn: Oh, I can actually Here's the thing, Kristen. You may or may not have said that, but I know you thought it. I know you thought it.
Might've said it
Peter Dunn: you. Yeah, exactly. All right. So this has been the spectacular. If you have other questions They aren't just limited to this show You can always email us ask Pete at Pete the planner comm and here's what I promise you I won't know the answers to any of your questions But I've got two very talented people who do and their names are cricket and Dame.
All right coming up after the break We move off the tax bandwagon or maybe not. I don't know if Dame's current event stories are about taxes or not, but I do know [00:37:00] we have an amazing biggest waste of money. Of the week. That is next. Buaman News, right here on the Pete the Planner Show. I'm Pete the Planner.
Alright, Kristen, we caught back up on time, so that's good. Yeah,
we did. What's your no buy?
Peter Dunn: What's a what?
What's your no buy?
Peter Dunn: Oh, yeah. Okay, go ahead. Set us up here.
Okay social media recently, there have been these, this was even in the Wall Street Journal. Wow. There are the challenges to do no buy or low by months in an attempt to reset your spending in particular categories.
So here on the Pete planner show for the month of February, we are each choosing a category of no buy slash low buy, and we're going to see who fares the worst.
Peter Dunn: Is it based on free number of occurrences or is it dollar amount of who's going to be judged the winner or loser?
That's a great question, and I think it depends on the parameters.
So for example, mine is that my person and I are only spending 100 this month at the grocery store.
Damian Dunn: What? Which is [00:38:00] bonkers. It's just five head of lettuce.
100. That's our limit for the month. So it's not frequency of trips. It's the dollar amount. You're just going to
Peter Dunn: dine out more, which is dumb, and you're going to spend more money.
Negative. He's only allowed to go to lunch at work once a week. And then we have an allowance for one trip out with friends if they have something that they need to celebrate.
Peter Dunn: This is why, A, I'm glad I don't have friends. B, you're putting him on a, you are taking your special friend, your life, your paw.
Paw, no. And you are saying, you shall not dine. At lunch.
Kristen Ahlenius: Correct.
Damian Dunn: Okay, Dan, what's yours? I am going to do a low buy on Amazon for discretionary purposes and I am implementing a 72 hour hold period before I allow myself to click buy on that.
Peter Dunn: I need to understand the severity of your challenge here. How many days a week are you typically solving a problem with a trip to Amazon?
Damian Dunn: I don't know, [00:39:00] one or two days a week probably. Wow, okay.
That's more than I expected. That's a lot,
Damian Dunn: yeah, me too.
Peter Dunn: Alright. Maybe.
Peter? Ew,
Peter Dunn: what? Who,
what
Peter Dunn: are you, my mother?
You're in my phone as Pete Dunn.
Peter Dunn: That's perfect. I was with my mom last weekend. She still calls me peachy pie. I'm never gonna shake it.
Mine is, I will not have any food delivered to my home. In the month of February, the shortest month
Damian Dunn: of the year. Please know that Peter's at work the vast majority of the day.
Peter Dunn: No, he's not going to work either. No.
Kristen Ahlenius: You're at
Peter Dunn: work
Kristen Ahlenius: all day!
Peter Dunn: I know, but that is time is money. But I'm at home.
Okay, let's say it's a Saturday night.
Okay, that's fair.
Peter Dunn: And I feel alright. The pod is here on the west side. I'm sorry. So I reached for my 40 [00:40:00] and I pick it up designated driver. Cause I got keys to the truck. Okay. Kristen, you know that song? Yes, I do. Okay, good. Wow. You almost got kicked off the show.
I. On occasion, I'm like, Oh, we're bored. We get home. I will order this and they bring it in because you're like, I've already got my shoes off. I don't want to go back out. What I'm saying now is I'll put my shoes back on and I'll just go and get it. And it will a reduce the amount of times we get carry out delivery.
Number two, it's a lot less expensive because you, you do the thing. It's 30 percent more.
I bet you eat out less as a result too, because I don't know about you, but when I'm feeling really lazy. And if I told myself I can't have it delivered, then I'm just not going to get it at all because I'm too lazy to go get it.
I
Peter Dunn: think, as Dave knows, the complicating factor here is too hungry, demanding adolescence. I was already
Damian Dunn: going to say that your daughter at some point is going to get sick of it and just do it from her phone.
Peter Dunn: The [00:41:00] funniest thing was when your young teen kids first Figure out DoorDash or whatever.
They're like, I'm gonna get chia pudding delivered. It's 38 and it's because of all the fees and everything And once she was like, I do this and I was like who's paying for it? She's like I am I'm like go right ahead Yeah, dummy, if you want a 4 chia pudding and paying 36 bucks for it have at it Dummy, that's my parenting style though.
Sarcastic. That's a good idea. Anyway, Let's do a show. Oh, we got to get going. Kristen. We're actually pretty good. So you guys are both taking the under on 185, 90 days out. I think so. So what's that going to be? Today's the, I start on the third, so it'd be April 3rd. We'll go with April 3rd, February, March, oh no, May 3rd.
Yeah. That's my birthday. Hey. Hey. Happy 40th. Okay. Rough. [00:42:00] Rough. B Blake our finance guy. Man. Our man in finance brought in his cat to the office yesterday. Lana.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: Just for a little show and tell, damn, I couldn't breathe the rest of the day. I'm violently allergic to cats. My nose immediately stuffed up.
I'm like, hack coughing. He
Damian Dunn: tried to kill me. I was wondering if anybody was gonna have issues with that in the office.
Peter Dunn: And the cat was hanging out in my office, like I was out doing stuff. It was in here like cleaning itself. Perfect. And I'm still looking for if it, did something in here.
Oh, you'd know.
Damian Dunn: I don't know.
Peter Dunn: Can you hear that?
Damian Dunn: Yeah. Is that your your neonatal chiropractor?
Peter Dunn: Yeah. I, they're really working over a fetus in there. Somebody is in trouble. Wow. I'm like here's, I can't talk about this. There's two things I can't. [00:43:00] Last segment. I am s Dead air. No, that's not dead air.
I know. That's some drilling. I was listening to it, but, yeah. I'm frustrated. Yeah. But try not to be petty, which is very hard. No petty February.
Kristen Ahlenius: Good thing it's January. In
Peter Dunn: three, two, one. This week's biggest waste of money of the week, right here on the Pete the Planner show, is the Louis Vuitton Vivienne Sir My Yay Edible Robot.
You can purchase treats created by pastry chef Maxime Frédéric in Louis Vuitton's flagship stores in Paris, Singapore and Shanghai. You can now add New York to the list with the opening of Le Chocolat Maxime Frédéric at Louis Vuitton in the 57th Street Outpost to celebrate. Frederic has created Vivian Sir Maya, an edible creation that combines elements of candy making, [00:44:00] trunk making and horology, which is not what you think it is.
This piece finds the brand's mascot Vivian standing atop an LV trunk, which hides a system of over 20 interlocking gears turned by a milk chocolate crank, which causes the figure to move. Handmade in Paris. Each one takes over three hours to assemble and weighs over two and a half pounds. Kristen, how much does this Louis Vuitton chocolate robot cost?
Do you, are you supposed to just stare at it? Or do you, do people actually eat it?
Peter Dunn: I know your dog can only stare at it because if we were to consume it, it would kill the animal.
That's so sad.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, I'm made of carob. Go ahead. What do you think?
This is a Oh my gosh, I don't know. This is a 600 chocolate robot.
Peter Dunn: Dame, how much for this robot made of cacao?
Damian Dunn: [00:45:00] Cacao. I was originally going to say 7, but that seems too close to 6, so I'll go, I'll double Kristen and say 1, 200. The answer is 350.
Peter Dunn: Still too much. Dame, this week's news is brought to you by the loud construction going on next door outside my office wall. And.
What's in the news this week?
Damian Dunn: We all call that the Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates at its current target between four and a quarter and four and a half percent. Turns out our pesky old friend inflation hasn't gotten the hint that the party's over, Fed Chair Jerome Powell explained, albeit in a much more boring way during his press conference.
The Fed will need to see, quote, real progress on inflation or weakness in the labor market before making more adjustments to the future. Future federal funds rate Powell declared he went on to note that core inflation is still at 2. 8 percent higher than the Fed's 2 percent stated goals.
Peter Dunn: We talked about this [00:46:00] last week from the opposite angle that the president demanded interest rates be lowered, but after listening to Powell's comments.
I feel like he's thumbing his nose at it. He's we're going to have to see something better to do. By the way, I agree with the Fed for what it's worth, but I also feel like the comments were really pointed.
Damian Dunn: Yeah, I I don't disagree. I think it's the right decision, but even if there was a chance that they could lower them, I'm not entirely sure they would have.
Yeah, I think they're poking the bear at that point. What else is in the news, Dan? OpenAI has decided that actually. Yeah, protecting one's IP is important. The AI company and its largest investor, Microsoft, are investigating whether Chinese AI startup DeepSeek stole OpenAI's tech to build its new show stopping model that wiped nearly 1 S.
stocks this week. DeepSeek is being accused of using a technique called distillation. Which is essentially trains one model on another. This method is prevalent in the AI world, but it's against open AI policies to use its [00:47:00] models to build a rival. The hypocrisy critics and anyone online who is slightly tuned into the AI race may have pointed out that open AI, which has built its whole company around questionably scraping everything on the internet, accusing someone of stealing.
It's tech is pretty rich. The AI company is currently in a lawsuit with the New York times claiming that training it's AI models on publicly available articles is fair use.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, it's going to be a really awkward moment when companies like NVIDIA, who said, you're going to need all of these chips to build all of this AI face the reality that maybe you don't need the chips because they're just trained on other models.
And then it just gets cheaper and cheaper. It's good for the public, bad for NVIDIA investors. Kristen, what's your favorite AI tool?
I do use chat GPT. I've built my own though.
Peter Dunn: Whoa.
As in, it's not that complicated. [00:48:00] You just go in and train it about you and your writing style and the like, and I give it some more information about me and what I do every day.
And it produces higher and higher quality responses.
Peter Dunn: Have you shared with your your chat GPT that you will only be spending 100 this month on groceries?
Kristen Ahlenius: No, I have not.
Peter Dunn: Dame which one do you use?
Damian Dunn: GPT. Fair. What else is in the news? Not exactly a Robin Hood story, and we're talking old school Robin Hood, not sorry.
But it seems plenty rich, plenty of rich young shoppers are comfortable stealing from even richer companies as long as it happens online. Some of the same people who probably can't stand toothpaste is behind lock and key at their local drugstore since they'd never shove it in their pocket without paying for it, don't seem to have the same qualms about falsely claiming packages never arrived, disputing legit credit card purchases from online retailers or saying they never made sports bets that [00:49:00] didn't go their way per Axios.
A survey conducted by anti fraud tech maker SoQure in December found that this percentage of Gen Zers and this percentage of Millennials who earn more than 100, 000 a year admitted they'd stolen from an online retailer in the last year, committing what's known as first party fraud in the anti fraud biz.
What percentage of Gen Zers and what percentage of Millennials who earn more than a hundred grand admitted they'd stolen and done some online theivery?
Gen Z is 1 in 4, 25%.
Peter Dunn: I'm pre furious as to how much I'm going to lose faith in humanity. First, I started my day in the carpool line, which this is not the great way to start your day.
I almost get in a mental fight every day in that line. I'm going with 20 percent dame. If it's more than that, I'm going to lose it. 55 percent admitted it.
Okay. Wait, I have a clarifying question. Does this [00:50:00] include like when a retailer messes up and sends you something that you didn't pay for? Cause I've done that.
I
Damian Dunn: don't believe so, but this, they're literally asking people if they've committed fraud. Okay.
Millennials,
Damian Dunn: 49 percent
Peter Dunn: guys, everyone loves the point of reasons. Why this whole ship is sinking around here, not the show because that's been at the bottom of the ocean for years, society, culture, this is good evidence that is not, that is awful.
That is awful. I would throttle my kids verbally if they ever did anything like that.
Damian Dunn: Yeah I mean if this is the amount that admitted to it, I think the actual number is higher or lower?
Kristen Ahlenius: Higher. It's higher.
Peter Dunn: I, that is so infuriating. I'm gonna go yell at our youngs outside after this show's over. I'm gonna go out in the office like, alright young [00:51:00] people!
Who's done this?
Damian Dunn: Yeah, let's set up a Google for him. Let's see who cops to it.
Peter Dunn: Oh man, that's disheartening. You've just ruined my week. It's horrible. There's a lot going on, but this itself has ruined my week. Any other news, Dan? Can you uplift us a little bit? No,
Damian Dunn: it's more expensive to climb Mount Everest than it's ever been before.
So if that's part of your 90 day challenge, Pete, you might want to think twice about it.
Peter Dunn: Can I guess what it costs? Sure.
Damian Dunn: During the popular March to May climbing season, 77,
000. Double it.
Damian Dunn: Actually. It says it's 15, 000.
No.
Damian Dunn: We can't get a good Sherpa for that said veteran climber Jake Meyer told the reporting company that the full cost of the trip up Everest Rangers from 40 to 150, 000 the higher permit fees represent only a minimal increase in overall cost and he's lumping in travel and things.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. That's what [00:52:00] Chris was thinking. Okay. Okay, so we're right there. Dame. Have you ever aspired? to climb a peak of that magnitude, or a similar magnitude. No. Chris? Zero desire. I have climbed 10, 700 foot mountain, Mount Baker, in Bellingham, Washington, when I was in college with my dad, and I get such bad altitude sickness that the last 600 feet that my dad was dragging me up like weekend at Bernie's, the pictures are hilarious.
Anyway, that's all we have time for on this spectacular show. Next week, more of fun, finance and frivolity. It's any good vibes, or all that's in the budget. I'm Pete the Planner Show. Back on Friday next week. I'm so mad about the noise next door. Yeah, that's not great. I was on a very important call yesterday.
I can't, I'm just like, I'm starting to feel bad. And this baby is just going. And the person's oh, are you working from [00:53:00] home? I'm like, no, I'm in great, I'm in like class A office space is where I am.
I get upset, sorry.
Damian Dunn: Dan, what are you doing this weekend? Anything fun? I will be returning to one of the most beautiful areas in Indian West Lafayette for a swim meet. Kristen, what do you got?
The Purdue I'm going to be in the office tomorrow morning. Oh. Yeah. Oh. And I, the Purdue IU game is tomorrow night, so going to a friend's house to watch it.
Peter Dunn: Nice. A boys weekend. Ted and I are going to a Pacer game and then a little man dinner, I think, nice.
Damian Dunn: I always, no, you're not ordering it to be sent to the house.
Peter Dunn: It's February 1st, so no. Yeah, you could. Yeah. Enjoy it while you can. All right, Kristen, now we have three minutes to go to our next meeting now.
Yay. Hey everybody. This was fun. Remember, you can watch the show, but you've just listened to it. So go back and watch it now is why you gotta tell 'em at the beginning next week. You can watch the show, [00:54:00] youtube.com/banner. Stay getting money.
