Don't Forget To Cut Uncle Sam In On Your Illicit Earnings

Note: I am not condoning in any way illegal activity. The following post is based on my observations.

Enter our "poster-boy" for criminal tax evasion: Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947).

Capone was notorious during the Prohibition Era for his control of large portions of the Chicago underworld, which provided the Outfit with an estimated US $10 million per year in revenue.

Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges, Capone's criminal career ended in 1931, when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income tax evasion.

Interesting to note: his business card reportedly described him as a used furniture dealer.

Forward to present day:

If you're going to be dealing in drugs, sale of stolen goods, extortion, or any number of illegal business ventures, make sure your wealthy lifestyle is congruent with what you claim as your employment.

Here's where your problem lies: The last job you had was flipping burgers at McDonald's, and you haven't filed a tax return in 5 or 6 years, but you're living in a million dollar house, driving a $75,000 Hummer.

When your county tax assessor comes around to measure your house for property tax purposes, these lifestyle vs income "incongruencies" will be made obvious. How will you be able to rationalize to the IRS how you are living this wealthy lifestyle when the last job you filed taxes on was a burger flipper. Good luck with that one!

The solution:

Get organized and pay your taxes! With getting organized, Set yourself up as a legitimate business. File you Articles of Incorporation to create a corporation. or file Articles of Organization to create an LLC (Limited Liability Company). This will also separate you legally from your "business assets". If you have dealers, runners, spotters, etc. set them up as "employees" create an ADP account for payroll. Remember, most of your outgoing expenses will be tax-deductable; which will minimize the actual amount you pay to the IRS. File your quarterly and annual taxes on schedule and accurately.

My point in all this is you can pretty much deal in anything you want as long as on paper you appear legitimate. At least it will divert the gaze of Uncle Sam.

Oh yeah, don't forget to read up on the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations)act of October 15, 1970. It's the law that Rudolph "Rudi" Giuliani used to bring to justice key organized crime figures. Regardless of how "legitimate" you look on the outside and on paper, you could still be hit with a RICO suit and thrown in the clink for a good long time!

When all is said and done, DON'T BREAK THE DAMN LAW!! you'll always lose eventually.

Whose Dreams Are You Working For Anyway?

I don't know about you, but when I wake up the first thing that I think is NOT "oh wow, how can I make my boss more money today?" It's probably more like "oh hell, I gotta go to work again today so I can pay the bills".

One of my favorite authors and speakers, Jim Rohn, has a saying: "Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard at your job, you can make a living. If you work hard on yourself, you can make a fortune."

When is the last time you knew of a really wealthy EMPLOYEE? It's been a while hasn't it? Or if you're like me, NOT AT ALL. The business you work for will pay you just enough to survive, pay the bills and that's about it. I suppose if you were an avid investor of stocks and other securities, you might be able to become wealthy. Probably after about 30 years or so.

I finally realized this fact and began asking myself the question, "whose dreams am I working for anyway?" I have done a ton of reading, listening to seminars, soul-searching and questioning. Then I started writing. I first wrote "The 25 Rules For Success, Wealth & Happiness." This book that I have been selling successfully is basically the 25 common laws of success and achievement. These are the rules that have been constant since the beginning of humanity and intellectual thought. They are as true then as they are now.

Then I started studying business and entrepreneurship and started creating small business ventures and really understanding how business works. I then started writing a book about how to create your own business. I found that the help and training I received from the Small Business Development Center was a good start but it was really sub par and I needed much more information, I read and studied for years and got the knowledge I was seeking. I added all of that information in the book, "Self Employment 101."

By the way, all of the E-Books I have written are available to check out from this site.

In the end, I was able to successfully shift my paradigm (the way I see the world)from being an EMPLOYEE, to being a BUSINESS OWNER and have been very successful at it.

Nothing will change for you until you start to seriously ask yourself, "whose dreams am I working for anyway?"

If you're not completely clear on what you want, check out some of my E-Book resources on this blog.