Here is a fact that annoys people the first time they hear it.
A 58 year old dentist who owns her practice can, in a good year, put several hundred thousand dollars into a retirement plan and deduct all of it.
Not $23,000. Not $70,000. Several hundred thousand, in a single year, legally, using a structure most people have never heard of.
It is called a cash balance plan, and it is the most powerful tax shelter available to a successful small business owner or professional practice in America.
It is also genuinely complicated, expensive to run, and comes with obligations that trap people who set one up without understanding what they signed.
So let's take it apart properly. What it is, who it is for, what it costs, and the three ways it goes wrong.