Tax Planning: The Decisions That Have to Be Made Before the Year Closes
Most meaningful tax decisions have a deadline earlier than the return. Once December 31 passes, much of what could have been done is no longer available: the equipment placed in service, a Roth conversion, the timing of a sale.
A few decisions stay open into the new year. An IRA or HSA contribution runs to the unextended filing deadline, a SEP contribution to the filing deadline including extensions, and an S corporation election generally to the 15th day of the third month. Most of the rest cannot wait.
Planning is the work of finding those decisions while they are still decisions. We do it alongside the returns we prepare, because a projection is only as good as the numbers underneath it, and we already have those.
Who we serve
- Owners with a profitable year they did not expect: The situation where waiting until April is the expensive choice
- Businesses considering a structural change: An S election, a new entity, adding a partner, or buying out one
- Executives with equity compensation: Grants, vesting and exercises, where the tax outcome depends on decisions made well before the shares are sold
- Anyone approaching a sale: A business, a building or an investment position, where timing and structure change what is left afterward
- Households with income that moves: Bonuses, distributions, self-employment income and the estimated payments that have to keep up with them
How we help
- Year-end projections: A current-year estimate built before December, while there is still time to act on it
- Timing of income and deductions: Deciding what to accelerate and what to defer, and confirming it is worth doing
- Entity and compensation planning: Reasonable compensation, distributions, and whether your current structure still fits the business you have now
- Retirement and benefit contributions: Which plan fits the payroll and the ownership, and the deadlines that decide whether it counts this year
- Coordination with your other advisors: Attorney, banker and investment advisor working from the same set of numbers rather than three different ones
Planning runs on the numbers in the return. If we do not prepare your returns yet, tax return preparation is usually where this starts.