Income and estate taxes

While I endorse a flat income tax, it'll never happen. The infrastructure of tax professionals, including CPA's, attorneys, consultants, financial service companies, etc. in America is too entrenched. They don't want to see their cash cow go away.

Flatten the income tax brackets, make loopholes go away, and many highly paid professionals lose their livelihood. Long-term, it will catalyze our economy, but there are too many powerful special interest groups lobbying to keep the tax codes complicated.

That's why it is imperative that people stay current on tax codes and implement strategies coherent with tax laws. Most people are unaware that their qualified retirement savings plans are subject to income and estate tax rates of up to 90%. That doesn't include the penalties levied if the retiree starts withdrawing from their savings plans outside the age corridor of 59 1/2 and 70 1/2. Those penalties are 10% and 50%, respectively, not including state penalties. And that's on top of income and estate taxes.

That's why most retirees feel helpless--they're taxed to death, and when they do die, their children and grandchildren are taxed as well.

Design your own retirement plan, or the government will design one for you, and it won't be pretty. When the government "qualifies" these deferred retirement savings plan, does it not make sense that they benefit the government?