Tactic
Second passport/residency: earn US income, pay no income tax
Aaron's tax rabbit hole: leaving high-tax cities for Austin still leaves federal income tax. Going further with a second residency/passport in places like Indonesia, Mexico, or Panama lets a remote tech entrepreneur keep the same income while avoiding property and federal income taxes and living far better.
“if you are a tech entrepreneur like you, like Sam and all these guys, you can make that same amount and actually not pay any property taxes or any federal income taxes. And your life can be better, to explosively better, from your time in Indonesia, from my time in Indonesia.”
Steal thisGet a second residency abroad to keep US-level income while cutting your tax and cost of living.
Fact
Residential depreciates over 27.5 years, commercial over 39
Aaron gives the IRS depreciation schedules used in real estate tax strategy: a house depreciates over 27.5 years, a commercial building over 39 years.
“Sure. So on a house, it's 27.5. On a commercial building, it's 39 years, right? So just for average people, not like super tech bros like Tim Ferriss and all that, if you buy a house, you can depreciate that asset over 27 and a half years.”
Tactic
Cost segregation + depreciation can beat your down payment
Aaron explains that on an expensive building you can both depreciate the structure and cost-segregate the contents (beds, washers, fixtures), so the tax credit you get can exceed the ~20% you actually put down — the mechanism behind real estate investors paying little to no income tax.
“Well, see, at that level, Sam, there's also something called cost segregation. So anything inside that very expensive building, like beds, washer and dryer, fixtures, you You can cost segregate that too, so that the amount you actually put down to buy this building that's $25 million, you put down like 20%, but with the cost segregation that you could get and the depreciation, you actually get a bigger credit than what you put into it.”
Steal thisOn a commercial property, layer cost segregation on top of depreciation so paper losses can exceed your cash down payment.
Framework
Buy, Borrow, Die: how the ultra-rich pay zero tax forever
Aaron explains the strategy he traced to USC professor Ed McCaffery: buy appreciating assets, borrow against them tax-free to fund your lifestyle, then die and pass the assets to heirs at a stepped-up basis so the gains are never taxed. Larry Ellison is cited running a $10B line of credit against Oracle stock instead of taking income.
“That's right. So this is how like your ultimate tech bro, Larry Ellison, does it. He's the CEO of, I believe, a small company called Oracle, right? So he has a $10 billion line of credit. And that's why all these CEOs who say, oh, I only take $1 in annual income. That's just a trick the rich play to come across like, oh, I'm just like you.”
Steal thisHold appreciating assets, borrow against them instead of selling, and let heirs inherit at a stepped-up basis to wipe out the capital-gains tax.
Fact
Banks are forced to lend — deposits are a liability they must deploy
Aaron's reframe from his YouTube rabbit hole: customer savings are a liability on a bank's books, so banks are compelled to lend that money out. The takeaway for a borrower is that the bank wants to give you the loan — you just have to make the deal look good.
“So when all the employees put their money into savings, that's a liability against the bank's books. They have to lend it out. So they got to take a gamble on your boy, making them more money than they could by handing it to someone like to buy their first home. So when I was understanding that the banks want to give you the money, you just gotta like put some lipstick on a pig sometimes and look good, bro.”