Hidden Money Podcast
In the Hidden Money podcast, you'll learn how you can legally use the tax code to your financial advantage. There’s wealth inside the tax code. Taxes aren’t the enemy. Most people hate taxes (and pay more than they should). But when you view taxes only as an evil expense, you miss out on legal ways to grow your wealth. Unlock the secrets to saving tax and building wealth with the Hidden Money Podcast! 🎧💰 Hosted by Mike Pine and Kevin Schneider.
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Get to Know Mike
<p>On this week's episode: how a kid who got kicked out of school for demanding fairness grew up to build a tax firm on the same fight.</p><p>You'll hear how a PwC internship Mike Pine talked his way into turned him on to partnership tax, why he told every partner he worked for that the CPA model was broken, and what it cost him to build a firm with time for proactive tax planning. Mike also shares the story of buying a bookkeeping firm and amending most of its clients' prior-year returns for free, and the one...
The Variety Hour
<p>This week we go unscripted, with three recent tax stories that caught our attention.</p><p>First, the fine print on "no tax on overtime": why only the premium part of time-and-a-half pay qualifies for the new deduction, and what that means for a $300 overtime check. </p><p>Then Kevin tells the story of a new client with a 2,000-square-foot basement full of bourbon, and how one question turned a hobby into a business worth documenting. </p><p>We finish with a Wall Street Journal story about a man with Florida paperwork whose estate is fighting Connecticut over more...
Revo Oil & Gas Growth Fund 2026 LP (In partnership with G2 TX-26 Energy Fund)
<p>We started investing in oil and gas three years ago because our clients needed bigger deductions, and we kept watching deals deliver the write-off but never pay back the investment. This conversation covers what we changed.</p><p>On this week's episode we welcome Cotton Graham, founder and president of G2 Petroleum and Newport Operating, and Joe Stroffolino of G2 Petroleum to walk through the Revo Oil & Gas Growth Fund 2026 LP, our fund of funds investing alongside the G2 TX-26 Energy Fund in North Texas.</p><p>Deductions That Have to Pay Out:<br>1. $200,000 of stock vs. $200,000 in a...
I Don't Believe My CPA Anymore
<p>If you've had a gnawing feeling that your tax professional prepares your return but doesn't plan ahead to make you money, this episode is for you.</p><p>This week, we unpack what happens when a comfortable CPA relationship stops being a strategic one: a founder two weeks from signing a $25 million roll-up whose firm never mentioned Section 1202, a $5 million earner researching the Augusta rule with an AI chatbot at night, and two clients with the same breakout year and very different tax bills. </p><p>The conversations that never happened:<br>1. A founder was two weeks from rolling...
Get Tax Strategies Like Microsoft
<p>On this week's episode: most people assume Microsoft's 2.44% tax rate means the game is rigged for billionaires, and never ask what the tax code has already built in for anyone willing to invest the same way.</p><p>What the tax code already rewards:<br>1. Corporations pay a flat 21% tax rate — that's the rule. Microsoft backed into 2.44%, which means roughly $85 billion of its $101 billion in profit was offset by deductions and credits written directly into the tax code, available to any business that invests the way Microsoft does.<br>2. Buy $100,000 of office equipment and you write it off a li...
How the Refresh App Has Greatly Increased Goodwill's Impact
<p>For every job Goodwill posts, 54 people apply. Now, with the Refresh app, every one of them leaves with job leads, benefits and local resources, and that connection stays in place long after a program or a job ends.</p><p>We had the privilege of sitting down with Logan Sugarman (Founder and CEO of Refresh), and two Goodwill leaders, Michelle Roberts (President & CEO, Marion Goodwill) and Adrian Gessen (SVP Organizational Development, Goodwill Northeast Texas), who are putting the Refresh app in the hands of the people they serve. </p><p>What We Cover in the Episode</p>The app...
Need a Tax Plan But Have No Time (Oil & Gas)
<p>On this week's episode: most people assume tax deductions come from spending money you don't want to spend, and never ask what the tax code has already built in for anyone willing to take on real risk.</p><p>The math nobody walks you through:<br>1. Every other investment keeps active and passive income in separate buckets — but a working interest in oil and gas gets treated as active, even when you're 100% passive. That's not a workaround. It's written directly into the tax code.<br>2. Buy $100,000 of Apple stock and you get zero deduction, just a higher basis for la...
If You Have High Income But No Time
<p>On this week's episode: high earners often assume the more they make, the more they owe, and don't ask what the tax code already has built in for them.</p><p>Four things hiding in plain sight:</p>$50,000 into the right strategy can come back as a $250,000 deduction — a five-time return, backed by an independent valuation, not a guess.If you clear $500,000 a year and skip tax strategy, your biggest expense isn't your mortgage. It's the IRS, and withholding hides the number so well most people never add it up.That same $50,000 contribution saved $86,000 in federal tax in a si...
The IRS Doesn't Care about Fair
<p>On this week's episode: two people can have the exact same income and still land tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars apart at tax time — and the IRS will never tell you why.</p><p>Four things we unpack this week:<br>Two employees with identical stock option packages can land 31 points apart on their effective tax rate. One paid under 1%. The other paid over 32%. Same income, same year, same opportunity.<br>Sell "non-covered" stock without documenting what you originally paid for it, and the IRS doesn't ask — it assumes your basis is zero and bills you as if t...
Tax Planning in Business
<p>On this week's episode: owners focus on their personal return and never ask what could be done inside the business itself. </p><p>Four things we constantly see missed:<br>1. Your spouse already approves every big decision you make. They can be on the company 401(k) too — one business, two maxed-out retirements.<br>2. Twenty percent of your income, deductible, without spending a dollar. Most owners get a fraction of it and never find out why.<br>3. A swimming pool that was 100% deductible and the home office rule that made it hold up.<br>4. 76 cents a mile for driving you al...
