SERVICES / TAX PLANNING
Tax planningMost tax savings expire
on December 31st
By the time you are filing, the year is closed and almost every decision that could have changed your bill has already been made. Tax planning is the work that happens while those doors are still open.
Preparation reports.
Planning changes things.
There is a distinction most business owners never have explained to them. Tax preparation is the act of reporting what happened. Tax planning is the act of influencing what happens. They are different services, done at different times of year, and only one of them can change your bill.
An accountant who only appears in March is not being lazy — they are doing the job they were engaged for. But it means every conversation is retrospective, and every answer is some version of "that is what the numbers say."
The decisions that actually matter happen during the year. How you are structured. How you pay yourself. When you buy equipment. Whether you are contributing to a retirement plan. Whether a state obligation exists that nobody has checked. Each of these has a different answer depending on your profit position, and each has a deadline.
Entity structure is the largest of these for many businesses. The difference between operating as a sole proprietor and an S-Corp can be substantial once profit reaches a certain level, and the decision has to be made deliberately and at the right time.
Owner compensation is the second. How much comes out as salary versus distribution affects payroll tax, and getting it wrong in either direction has consequences — too little salary invites scrutiny, too much costs money unnecessarily.
Decisions with deadlines
- Entity election and structure changes
- Owner salary versus distribution split
- Equipment purchase timing and expensing method
- Retirement plan setup and contributions
- Accounting method, cash versus accrual
- State registration where nexus exists
- Quarterly estimated payment adjustments
One-off session $350 · Annual package $900 · Included in Growth & Scale
What planning
actually covers
Reviewed during the year, when the answers can still change something.
Entity structure review
Whether your current structure still fits your profit level, and what changing it would cost and save.
Owner compensation
The salary and distribution split for S-Corp owners, set at a level that is defensible and efficient.
Equipment timing
Whether to buy this year or next, and which expensing treatment applies, modelled before you commit.
Retirement planning
SEP, Solo 401(k) and similar options, which can shelter meaningful income if set up in time.
Profit projection
A view of where the year is heading, so decisions are made against a real number rather than a hope.
Estimated payments
Recalculated during the year so you are neither underpaying into penalties nor lending money to the IRS.
When planning
happens
Mid-year review
Around June, once there is enough of the year to project from. The most valuable single conversation.
Decisions made
Structure, compensation, purchases and contributions decided with numbers rather than instinct.
Q4 check
October or November, confirming the projection and taking any remaining actions before the year closes.
Filing
The return becomes a formality, because everything that could be decided already was.
What planning
is worth
We will not quote you a savings figure, because anyone who does before looking at your situation is guessing. What we can say is that the savings come from ordinary decisions made deliberately rather than by default.
The most common finding is structural. A profitable business operating in the wrong entity type is paying more than it needs to, every year, and the fix is administrative rather than aggressive.
The second most common is timing. Equipment, contributions and expenses that were going to happen anyway, moved a few weeks either side of December 31st, sometimes with a meaningful effect.
And the least measurable benefit is the largest one for most people: knowing roughly what you owe before it is due. Setting money aside through the year instead of discovering the number in April changes how the whole business feels.
BOOK A FREE CALLEvery client gets
- Replies within 48 hours, guaranteed
- Books closed by the 15th, every month
- Flat monthly pricing, no hourly billing
- A plain-English summary with every report
- The same team every single month
- Cancel any time, files handed over cleanly
Tax planning questions
Mid-year is ideal, because there is enough data to project from and enough time to act. Q4 still works for timing decisions. January is largely too late for the prior year, though it is a good time to start on the current one.
No. Everything we discuss is ordinary planning using rules as they are intended — entity structure, compensation, timing, retirement contributions. We will tell you every legitimate way to reduce what you owe, and we will not go past that line.
We do not know until we look, and we will not invent a number to win the work. For some businesses the answer is genuinely "not much, you are already structured well," and we would rather say that on the call.
Basic planning is included in Growth, advanced in Scale. A standalone session is $350 and the annual package $900 if you are not on a monthly plan.
Yes, including whether it makes sense for you, the reasonable compensation question that follows, and the payroll obligations it creates. The election has timing rules, so it is worth discussing before year end.
That works. Plenty of clients keep their CPA for the return and use us for bookkeeping and planning during the year. We will coordinate rather than compete, and we will tell you if the split does not make sense.
Have the conversation
while it still matters
Thirty minutes, no pitch. We will look at your structure and your profit position, and tell you what is worth changing before the year closes.
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