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.

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.

Deductions That Have to Pay Out:
1. $200,000 of stock vs. $200,000 in a well.
2. How $100,000 becomes a $91,000 deduction. Of every $100,000 invested, roughly $70,000 to $75,000 pays for the drilling itself: the crews, the fuel and the rig time. That’s deductible in year one. When G2 buys a well that’s already pumping, part of the price also covers the pump jacks, tanks and pipe already on site, and that equipment can be written off in year one too. Together, that’s how the fund targets about $91,000 in deductions on $100,000.
3. Old wells still hold oil nobody bothered to pump. Picture a well drilled decades ago. In its first 2,000 feet it passed through 7 to 10 layers of rock that hold oil, but the original operator pumped the best one and moved on. The big companies wanted 50 to 100 barrels a day from a well. With its own rigs and low costs, G2 can go back in, open the layers that were skipped and make 5 to 10 barrels a day pay.
4. Owning the rigs keeps the oil flowing. Three years ago, a wet Texas spring turned the fields to mud. The other Texas operators in our first fund, which relied on hired drilling crews, fell about nine months behind waiting for contractors to get to them. G2 owns its rigs and has a crew of about 25 in the field every day, so it went straight back to its own wells. Every day a good well sits idle is money lost.

Get in touch: https://www.revotaxpayer.com/?utm_source=revo-taxpayer&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ep-32-revo-oil-gas-growth-fund-2026-lp-in-partnership-with-g2-tx-26-energy-fund&utm_content=show-notes#contact-1

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• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiddenMoneyPodcast

Chapters
[00:00] Why a deduction isn't a win unless it pays out
[04:06] Meet Cotton Graham and Joe Stroffolino of G2 Petroleum
[09:40] Buying production first, then stepping out 300 feet
[11:35] Behind-the-pipe pay: the oil early operators left behind
[17:19] Buying the equipment: bonus depreciation on top of IDCs
[23:26] Why owning the rigs matters: the rainy spring
[35:06] General partner liability and GP insurance
[38:47] The tax math on a $200,000 investment
[41:12] Royalties, operating costs and the 90/10 split
[52:40] Q&A: material participation, AMT, recapture and exit

Investment in the Revo Oil & Gas Growth Fund 2026 LP is limited to accredited investors and is offered only through the fund's offering documents. Deduction targets and distributions are not guaranteed. This content is for educational purposes and does not constitute tax or legal advice. Always consult a qualified tax professional for your situation.

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.

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.

The conversations that never happened:
1. A founder was two weeks from rolling roughly $25 million of businesses into one new company. His CPA firm of 20 years first told him it would be a taxable sale. He found the Section 351 route himself with an AI chatbot, and nobody had raised Section 1202, the qualified small business stock rule that, if the structure qualifies, could keep potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of his future gain tax-free.
2. A financial advisor earning about $5 million a year, headed for a $2 million-plus tax bill, was asking an AI chatbot about the Augusta rule to shelter $15,000 to $30,000. Small strategies like that snowball over 10 to 15 years, but the first conversation should be about the big moves, and the client shouldn't be the one doing the research.
3. Two long-term clients who had been earning $1 million to $2 million a year both broke out in the same year, to well over $5 million of taxable income. One was too busy to meet. The other called in March, again in the summer, and again in October, when a railroad took the $2 million property he'd just bought, by eminent domain, for $6 million. Kevin estimates the tax at around $3.5 million with no planning. Because we'd been talking all year, we're tracking closer to a 3% effective rate.
4. By Mike's estimate, about 95% of the people who prepare tax returns are preparers, not strategists. If you're the one bringing ideas to your CPA every year, or no ideas are coming at all, that gnawing feeling is worth trusting.

Get in touch: https://www.revotaxpayer.com/?utm_source=revo-taxpayer&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=s4e31-i-dont-believe-my-cpa-anymore&utm_content=show-notes#contact-1

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• Website: https://www.revotaxpayer.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/revotaxpayer/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revotaxpayer/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/revo-taxpayer-advocacy
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiddenMoneyPodcast

Chapters
[00:00] "I Don't Believe My CPA Anymore"
[01:00] Preparers vs. Strategists: It's Not the CPA's Fault
[01:42] A $25 Million Roll-Up and a 20-Year CPA Relationship
[04:31] "Did Your CPAs Ever Talk to You About 1202?"
[06:29] The CPA's Reply: Does That Sound Like a Partnership?
[10:00] A $5 Million Earner, an AI Chatbot and the Augusta Rule
[13:03] Why Tax Planning Is a Two-Way Street
[14:30] Two Clients, One Breakout Year and an Eminent Domain Surprise
[19:21] What Proactive Planning Costs, and What It Saves
[20:37] Preparer or Strategist? Trust Your Gut

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.

What the tax code already rewards:
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.
2. Buy $100,000 of office equipment and you write it off a little at a time over several years. Put that same $100,000 into qualifying AI data center property — or a rental property using the same bonus depreciation rules — and it's largely 100% deductible this year, against income you're already earning.
3. R&D tax credits aren't a deduction that lowers your taxable income — they're a dollar-for-dollar reduction of the tax you actually owe. Every dollar of W-2 wages paid to build genuinely new technology counts the same way for a five-person business as it does for Microsoft.
4. Most taxpayers don't lose out because the tax code is stacked against them — they lose out because they have a tax preparer instead of a tax strategist. The fix isn't a bigger tax bill, it's proactive planning before the year closes: we have clients landing at 0% and 2% effective tax rates using this exact playbook.

Get in touch: https://www.revotaxpayer.com/?utm_source=revo-taxpayer&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=s4e30-get-tax-strategies-like-microsoft&utm_content=show-notes#contact-1

Connect With Us
• Website: https://www.revotaxpayer.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/revotaxpayer/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revotaxpayer/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/revo-taxpayer-advocacy
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiddenMoneyPodcast

Chapters
[00:00] Why "the rich don't pay their fair share" misses the real story
[01:11] Microsoft reported $101B in profits and paid 2.44% in tax
[02:46] The math: backing into $85B in deductions
[03:19] These aren't loopholes — they're intentional tax incentives
[03:39] Inside the strategy: AI data centers and 100% deductible property
[05:12] R&D tax credits: a dollar-for-dollar reduction, not just a deduction
[06:54] You don't have to be a corporation to use this playbook
[10:01] Real clients getting to 0% tax — and how
[11:01] A retired client's capital gains deferral through a rural opportunity zone
[12:53] Tax preparer vs. tax strategist — the gap that costs people millions
[13:44] These opportunities exist for every taxpayer, not just billionaires