The Pattie Gentile Show as heard on WADK Radio Ep 28

It's TAX TIME, and the "Fighting the Good Fight Podcast" is now a weekly radio program! Heard Saturday evening's at 6 and again Sunday morning at 10 at www.wadk.com or 1540AM Newport RI.

Host Patricia Gentile continues "Defending Taxpayers & Solving Their Tax Problems". With this new format, The Pattie Gentile Show will be your weekly appointment with Host Pattie Gentile & her guest experts as they discuss the latest tax news, issues and cutting-edge strategies to resolve and prevent tax problems.

Here on episode 28, we welcome Gary Mastrodonato President & CEO
of Masters Wealth Management Group. Gary has dedicated his career to helping families in Eastern North Carolina retire with confidence. With nearly five decades of experience, he built this firm on the principles of integrity, independence, and a genuine commitment to the community he calls home.

Enjoy and tune in on WADK.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is Patricia Gentile, founder of New England Tax Relief and host of the Patty Gentile Show. A client once wrote me, quote, my husband and I found ourselves in debt to the IRS for $167,000. I had contacted a company that said they would help. After I paid them $6,000, I found out that they took my money and ran. I was desperate and searched for a local tax attorney and found Patricia. She was able to get our tax debt reduced to $36,000. End quote. The moral of that story is that you really need to be able to trust the person you choose to represent you with the IRS. With over 43 years of combined experience as a taxpayer, defense attorney, and CPA, I have successfully resolved hundreds of difficult IRS situations. One-on-one, personal attention is the hallmark of my representation, and my strategies are customized to your specific needs to completely resolve your IRS issues. So go to my website, New EnglandTaxrelief.com, and schedule a free telephone consultation or call me at 1-800-880-8388, where a live person will always answer and take your message 24-7. Welcome everyone to the Patty Gentile Show. And in studio with me as always is my producer, John Ianuzzi. And we're coming to you from WADK in Newport, Rhode Island, 101.1 FM and 1540 AM or WADK.com. And what I wanted to ask you, John, is do we have any uh new subscribers to the show?

SPEAKER_02 1:58

We certainly do. Two things I wanted to mention, and one is I want to welcome back as far as the downloading platforms go. There is a platform that we have seen some activity on, and then they went away, but they are back, and that is Downcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Oh, yeah. You haven't mentioned them in a while. I wondered what happened.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Five new subscribers via Downcast. So thank you to them. And as far as locations, this one tickled me. Miami FLA. All right. And the reason it tickled me, Patty, is because I recently spoke with someone who lives on the island. Rhode Island. You mean Rhode Island? I should say on on in Newport. You know, if you're from Rhode Island, it's very specific, whether you're Jamestown, Little Compton, or or Newport, Newport proper. And this individual told me that they noticed something, and that is that a lot of the quote unquote snowbirds who head down to Miami, FLA seem to be making their way back up because the Easter masses that took place at St. Mary's on Memorial Boulevard, and there's a little interesting tidbit on that particular church, but they noticed that the crowds have begun to swell. And not just because of the holidays, because the people down south are returning for the season.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah, that makes sense. I used to have uh clients that would go down for uh out of Massachusetts that would go down from the fall to the spring, and I would end up putting their tax returns on extension so that when they got back, we would do the returns then. I currently have clients uh who are in Florida uh for the six months from the the around the holiday time to this time every year in the spring who send me their information uh electronically and I I do the return while they're down there as well. So, yes, we call them snowbirds. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Uh no ill will. Um, I thought you might find this interesting. That particular parish, September 12th, 1953, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and then Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy were wed.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

How about that?

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Wow, that is a piece of history right there. History trivia. Um if you're new, if you're a new listener to the show, welcome. And we really appreciate all our listeners, wherever you listen from. Uh if you I just to give you a little background, in September of 25, my podcast, Fighting the Good Fight with Patricia Gentile, became this weekly radio show, the Patty Gentile Show. And it is heard here on WADK out of Newport, Rhode Island at 6 p.m. Eastern time and again Sunday morning at 10 a.m. And then John uploads uh the show every Monday to my podcast, Fighting the Good Fight with Patricia Gentile. So you can find it anywhere you download your podcast, as well as through uh Facebook and YouTube. So we welcome you and thank those who are still uh have been with us and just adding on and adding on. We're very excited about that. Our show phone number, where you can text answers to our poll questions, and I have uh I have an answer to read to you today, or if you want to text tax questions or even a topic you'd like to hear, the phone number is area code 603-204-0104. And the uh I had a poll question, we you'll remember this, John, last last month asking people um if they found their refund was a lot bigger this year, this tax season, this tax year, due to any one of the provisions under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And this listener, Jean from Wilton, New Hampshire, said that uh she wanted to say that this year we got back, I'm gonna quote her, we got back one of the biggest refunds ever.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah. She said our tax advisor opened a Trump account.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Oh, where did we hear about that, Patty?

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Right, right. I I extensively uh had we had a couple of shows uh where I extensively discussed the Trump accounts, and she mentioned that they have five kids.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Oh, God bless.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Their tax advisor opened a Trump account for each one of them.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

So we only have a few minutes left, but what remind us what that means.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Well, the Trump account, right? The Trump account was under uh the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is for uh newborns up to 18 years old. You can sign up for a Trump account with your return. The form is a 4547. If you don't sign up and include that with your return, July 5th on the website, trumppaccount.com, and you could go to it now and check it out, but as of July 5th of this year, you can actually sign up for one through the website. And if a child is born between January 1st, 2025 and December 31st of 2028, and you check the box off, there's a there is a box to check on that form, 4547, that your child qualifies for the $1,000 United States initial contribution into that account. But there's so many more things, and uh so please go back to previous uh previous podcasts really of the show, as well as on my website, New EnglandTaxrelief.com. Under my podcast page, I have all my podcasts, all the shows, and my podcast prior to the radio show in chronological order there. And find my discussion on the Trump accounts because there's a lot of details there. So congratulations, Jean, and you and your spouse actually starting those wonderful IRAs. That's what they are IRAs for kids and helping them save. She also said they received a credit for each of them. And what I'm she said it was a pleasant surprise with an exclamation point, but what I think she meant about credits might have been about the child tax credit. Uh and with having five children and the increase in the child tax credit, I would have to say Yeah, but you know what?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

If someone has five kids, Patty, they need every credit they can get.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Oh, you read my mind because I was thinking that when I was reading that. I'm like, oh my god, if you have five kids, you definitely can use that credit uh in for groceries. No doubt about that. So going into our break, I just want to say that this is what I look at as coming down the stretch now to April 15th, and how to you know get to that finish line. I've got great tips, which is what the show is about. Tips, strategies, uh, guidance. We talk about latest tax news issues uh to resolve and prevent tax problems. And we have weekly guest experts that provide the same, but not only about taxes, but about business models, different types of business, different types of financial advice. So please come on back because this next segment is about getting to the finish line of April 15th. Welcome back, everyone, to the Patty Gentile show. And my horoscope today said, and it's this is for everybody, it wasn't under a particular sign. This is what's in the astrology in the universe today for everyone. It says this point of the season is a chance for an almost dizzying momentum toward goals. And I don't know if this astrologist knew what the date was, and we're only a handful of days out from April 15th. And, you know, she's not only talking to tax return preparers such as myself and many of you out there, but also to taxpayers, which is what I want to uh put forth to you in this segment, and that is these final things to think about or handle, do, take action, whatever you need to do to meet the goal of the April 15th deadline for the following things. So, first, you want to make sure that if your return is done, either you've prepared it already or you've had a uh tax paid preparer, you want to review it. Take your time, review it. You want to make sure that uh all your information is in there. I just saw this morning on that the IRS issued a newswire saying that the final regulations listing occupations where workers customarily and regularly receive tips under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That just happened now, and we're only a handful of days out from April 15th. Now, safe to say, most of those occupations were listed properly. People are really benefiting by that. Um on the no tax on tips, qualifications, you know. But these final regs list more than 70 separate occupations of tipped workers from bartenders to water taxi operators. And the final regs actually expanded the list. So these final regs, right now, five days out from April 15th, expand the list to include visual artists and floral designers in the personal services category, and they added gas pump attendance in the transportation and delivery category. I have a client who owns a florist shop, but I did ask her if in her gross receipts of her business she received tips because I I pull them out separately and provide her with that. She qualifies for no tax on tips. But I'm gonna look back at that now that it's coming to mind. So I just saw this this morning. I know I did it with one of my clients who's a salon here salon owner, and we were able to deduct just under $18,000 of tips that she received through client payments that they used card to pay, debit card, credit card. So it was easy for her to look back at her records and pull out what clients included, uh separated service from tips. So the other thing I want you to be aware of is that tax year 2022, tax returns that are not filed or not amended, if you needed to amend them, the due date for them to claim a refund, to amend the 2022 tax return and claim a refund, or to actually file the tax return to claim a refund is April 15th of 2026. It's most taxpayers have three years from the legal filing due date of the return to actually do that file and get that claim of that refund. You don't want to leave any money on the table. I have a client right now that we're trying to meet that tax deadline for 2022, and he has paid in for that tax year $20,000 worth of estimated tax payments, and he may be getting a refund. Thirdly, is that the IRA, traditional IRA and Roth IRA contribution deadline is April 15th as well. And for the next uh discussion about filing an extension. Filing for an extension of time to file the returns is not an extension of time to pay your tax. And that due date is also April 15th to file the extension if you're not going to file the returns. But you look at the extension form 4868 for 10 form 1040 filers, you see what the rules are about how much you have to put in with the extension in order to have a valid extension, six months automatic extension of time to file that return, and not put yourself in a position that if you haven't paid enough in with the extension, and now you're going to be subject to failure to file penalty as well as failure to pay and interest. Make sure you understand what the rules are of the form 4868 application for an extension of time to file the Form 1040. It's very important to note that if you are someone who pays estimated income tax payments, that April 15th is also the due date for the first estimated tax payments of 2026. And you may have both federal and state income tax payments to make. So if there's my rule is if there's just so much money to go around, you stay current. What does that mean? You pay your estimates. Lastly, if you are serving in a combat zone, living outside the United States, or affected by certain disaster declarations, you may be eligible for additional time to file and pay for military personnel and their families. There is a website called Military OneSource. I strongly suggest you check that out, as well as the IRS Publication 3, Armed Forces Tax Guide. And when it comes to knowing what the uh tax relief is for taxpayers impacted by winter storms or floods or mudslides or tornadoes or hurricanes, you go to the IRS.gov and you actually look up disaster relief by state and see if you qualify uh your county, your city, your town in your state. I mean, just the other day, just I think within the past week, the IRS actually issued that there's relief for taxpayers impacted by the winter storm fern in Tennessee that happened January 22nd, 2026, and now they have until May 22nd, 2026, to file various federal, individual, and business tax returns and make tax payments. So please check that out for yourself. Coming up in our next segment is our guest, Gary Mastro Donato. For over 46 years, he's been the uh founder and CEO of Masters Wealth Management Group, and he has created the master plan for pre-retirement and retirement planning. Gary's going to discuss why the first segment in the master plan is about social security. So come on back. This is the Patty Gentile show. Our guest today is none other than Gary Mastro Donato. He's been the host for 43 years of his radio show, Mastering Your Money. And he's the founder since 1979 of Masters Wealth Management Group. And I want to thank you, Gary, for taking time out of your schedule to be on our show today.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Well, it's always a pleasure and an honor to be invited by you to do your show, Patty, because I really admire your your professionalism and what you do uh for a living. And you've uh helped me out a lot along the years, of course. But most importantly, we're here to help educate a little bit on how I can help your listener a little bit from the perspective of retirement, retirement distribution planning. And uh the whole enchilada when it gets into the retirement part of the part of the uh the calculation. You know, when people are working in in their in their daily jobs and putting money into a 401k or an IRA of some sort, saving for retirement is we would look at it as, they're always thinking about accumulation, they're thinking about the end game, how many more years do I want to work, how many, how long do I want to keep going, etc., etc.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

When they call us from our radio program, which is called Mastering Your Money, and we've been on the air for about 43 and a half years, and we specialize in retirement distribution, it's a whole totally different mindset than they've ever been through before because of the process of planning for one's retirement. When you walk out of the job for the last time, there's a lot of mixed emotions because you're no longer getting that guaranteed paycheck in most cases. Now, I say most cases because many people, not as many as there used to be, but still people have pension plans from whether they work for municipality, government, a teacher, plans that normally carry a pension plan. Uh, most of them have not cut it out as of yet. But many private companies, like the General Electrics and the J and J's and all those companies, no longer have pensions. They primarily just offer what's what we call the 401k. So it's a different type of scenario that they need to begin to focus in on. So all of a sudden, going from a paycheck, as we call it, we we want paychecks, but we also want to create a playcheck at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Yeah, the pay the paycheck is where you get your monthly checks that you're used to getting. And we'd like to create lifetime incomes that you can't outlive, kind of like Social Security. You know, people count on Social Security today more than ever. And sadly, Patty, about 62% of Americans when they retire, the only income they have in retirement, believe it or not, is that of Social Security. And it's hard to live and make a living or or make ends meet only on Social Security. So we highly encourage people to start saving very early in life, including you know, in your early 20s. And a lot, yeah, a lot more younger people now are much more focused in for whatever the reason. They're focusing more in on religion and they're focusing more in on retirement savings. So there's kind of been been like an awakening in the uh in the youth program that we're delighted to see in the Gen Z kind of scenario. The best time to have somebody begin to plan a retirement is technically about five to even ten years prior to retirement into the first five or ten years once you retire. There's a big reason for that. The big reason is because there's something in the equation when we retire. Retire is simply math and science. When we when we sit down to calculate a retirement plan for somebody, it's nothing more than math and science. I'm a mathematician from training and education, but the science portion is how long we live, which we can't determine that, and how long of those years you're going to be healthy in your retirement program. Uh, because we don't know. Health can change from one day to another. And uh simply uh it's up to the Lord how that plays out. What we want to calculate out is we want to make sure your money is protected in your retirement plan and in your pre-retirement plan from not losing money. You know, since January 1st of this year, with the way the market's been, uh, we finished the first quarter, uh, March 31st, and the SP 500 year to date is down 7.9%. And that 7.9% is just the first quarter of the year, and there's a lot more volatility to come. Uh there's a lot of uneasiness in the world. We got a lot of geopolitical things going on, uh, a lot of dissent all over. We've got three or four wars going on all at the same time. Things are different today. But you know, the thing that the only thing that we can control, we can't control any of that. But the only thing that we can control is the money plan and the money that we set aside of how we want to spread that money out over a lifetime.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

And people come to me and they say, you know, Gary, how much do I need to live uh for for a good retirement? Well, that number, there is no set number. It varies for everybody. It varies because of the fact that everybody has different spending habits. Some people come to the gate with absolutely no debt whatsoever. Other people come where they're where they're they're lined up to debt from all the way up to their neck. And uh, you know, they have different needs at that point. And some people can't afford to retire where they're still working at 70, 75, even 80. A lot of a lot of companies will have mandatory retirement ages that you have to get out by. We have a lot of pilots, for example, that have to retire by 60 or 65.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

And they have to get out where they're not ready to get out yet. But you know, that's that's the law for them. Uh air traffic controller is the same. So there's different there's different segments of the occupational menu, if you will, that uh require people to retire. But for the most average, we're just talking to an average individual that decides they want to get out early. Uh they've been working their whole lifetime. An average average person works over 100,000 hours in their lifetime. If they worked 40 years in a job at even at even uh 40, 40 hours a week that that runs over, you know, that's 160,000 hours over the long period of time. And uh there's a lot of hours that they put in, and now they want to hopefully have something to show for it. So what we do is we sit down and we create the optimal solution. There's a lot of solutions, but there's only one optimal solution, as I call it, right? And the retirement game. You know, we start the whole process, Patty, through building and maximizing one's income. We call it the master plan in retirement. And the master plan consists of different segments of the planning phase. One of them, of course, is Social Security. Why do we start with Social Security? Because just about every working American has paid into Social Security. About 98% of the populace is paid into Social Security, and most of them have paid in out their entire lifetime from their very first paycheck. So we want to maximize Social Security the best we can. People's choices for Social Security, they all start at age 62. They all go to age 70. Those are the times that one can choose Social Security. There's a couple of exceptions. If you if you're a widow early on and you have young children, uh, that starts earlier. Or if you're disabled prior to 62, you can actually start collecting at 60 and sometimes at age 55, depending on the disability and depending on your participation in the Social Security Act alone. But we're just talking about a basic retiree. And uh so we help them maximize out their social security. I've got 12 of the best coaches in the world in the United States, including yourself, Miss Patty Genteel, because you are one of my you're my creative CPA and tax attorney coach that I reference a lot on my radio program. But uh, we got to have specialists along the way. And we have uh Social Security specialists. I use Dr. Larry Kotlikoff uh out of Boston University. He's a Harvard PhD, uh, comes with good credentials. He's the head of the economics department at Boston University. He teaches economics, he teaches Social Security, and he's written the majority of books that are kind of like the compendium on Social Security uh rules and regulations. He knows them better than just about anybody. He also designed software that he gave to me that uh works pretty well. And uh the software that we use, we run everybody's case through the Social Security software to give them their maximum social security, if you will, based on their situation. So that's how we start the whole program off we maximize your social security. We're building an income that hopefully they can't outlive. And social security is one of them. You know, social security is like one of the best annuities that you can have because it not only pays you over your lifetime, but it pays the higher of the two spouses once the first spouse dies. Uh if you have if you have a living spouse or even a deceased spouse, you can go back and work off if you've been married 10 years or longer, you can you can get your your former husband's Social Security payout from that perspective. So we maximize Social Security for building the foundation of a good income plan for when you retire.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Welcome back, everyone, to the Pennity Gym. And it was so interesting to discuss with Gary Maestro Donato, his master plan, of which he starts with Social Security. But we took a deeper dive in this, where next week Gary's going to talk about what's also involved in the master plan that's beyond Social Security. So you definitely want to tune in for the rest of our conversation with Gary, Mastro Donato. And in the meantime, I invite you to check out his website at masterswealth.com. In this segment, what I mentioned earlier was that we're gonna talk about if you owe taxes, but you can't pay the IRS in full, and how you don't need to panic because you're going to have options. So I understand that it could be a gut punch to you when you see that you finish your return before April 15th. You might have even been expecting a refund and only to discover you owe the IRS, and there's no realistic way for you to pay the full amount by the April 15th deadline. So I can tell you don't panic. What you'd want to do is if you do have your return ready, it does have a balance due that you can't pay, you want to file on or before April 15th, even with a balance due. What do you want to include in your return before you file it is you want to fill out form 9465, which is an installment agreement request. So check out that form because there is a tip that the IRS states at the very top of this form that says if you owe $50,000 or less, you may be able to avoid filing this form 9465 and actually establish an installment agreement online even if you haven't yet received a tax bill and to go to www.irs.gov forward slash O P as in Paul to apply for an online payment agreement OPA. I I find filing the form 9465 just as convenient uh as going online to apply online for an installment agreement. You fill it out, you uh put in a payment amount that's affordable to you, that will not cause you to default on that monthly payment. You provide your bank account routing number and the bank account number itself for direct debit, and you include it with your return, and you don't end up doing anything except wait in about 30 days from the time you filed your return, you're gonna receive the actual installment agreement in the mail. And then it just goes from there and you don't lose any sleep, you're on a payment plan and you're all set. The the other uh type of form, which I think is the IRS's biggest secret, is form 1127. Form 1127 is an application for extension of time for payment of tax due to undo hardship. So say you you've had uh all kinds of things happen during 2025, like job loss or loss in your business income, a downturn in business income, or you've had a divorce, or you've had an illness, things that have caused you not to be able to work or spend more money that you would have used to pay estimated tax payments and you didn't get those in. And you find yourself with a balance due in your tax return that you can't pay. Once again, you want to file this tax return, but you can also request for an extension of time for payment of this tax that's due because of undue hardship. So look up form 1127 and see if that could apply to your situation. Follow the instructions as well. The worst option is doing nothing. Why do you want to file a balance due return? Return with a balance due that you cannot pay either in full or you can only partially pay some of it, is because you want to avoid the failure to file penalty. You're you do not want to file beyond April 15th with a balance due when you think you can come up with the income because now you're filing a late filed return, and that's the failure to file penalty. You cannot put you can put this return on extension and pay in some of what is owed to get an extension of time to file the return, but there's a possibility under the rules that you may not have paid enough in with the extension. And when you do come up with the money and file the return, you're going to be hit with that failure to file penalty. That penalty is 5% per month, up to a maximum of 25% calculated on the balance due. So these are a couple of options I wanted to give you. And you can contact me with any of your last minute final questions at New EnglandTaxrelief.com. Schedule a free telephone consultation with me. You can also call my phone number where I have 247 answering service. Uh, it is located here in the United States, 1-800-880-8388. Please use our phone number to even text at the radio show phone number at six oh three two oh four zero one oh four. And until next week after April fifteenth, I look forward to talking with you again. Take care and have a good rest of the week, and I'm gonna get away from the city.