Tax Planning
What is Tax Planning?
Tax planning refers to our review of your tax return to identify potential planning opportunities – both now and in the future – to keep your lifetime tax liability as low as possible. This is different than tax preparation (usually done by your CPA or an online service like TurboTax), which is focused on keeping you compliant with what the government thinks you owe each year.
Why is Tax Planning Important?
Taxes touch every part of your financial life. Your tax return is a financial fingerprint: it’s completely unique to you, complete with valuable clues and information, all of which is buried in dozens of pages and hundreds of numbers. Understanding your return equips us to have more valuable and actionable conversations with you. Additionally, we can demystify the world of income taxes and help you understand this important piece of your financial picture.
Who is Tax Planning For?
Everyone! Regardless of your income sources or filing status, nearly anyone who pays income taxes can benefit from having a professional review of your tax return to identify relevant planning opportunities. At worst, we’ll review your return and conclude you are currently maximizing every available tax saving opportunity. That’s great “peace of mind” news. Alternatively – and more frequently – we’ll identify a handful of tax saving opportunities, both in the current year and in future years.
You’ve Made Great Choices
Common Things We Hear From Clients:
The better You Saved, The Bigger Your Future tax problem can become
Higher taxable income may lead to:
This isn’t just about taxes today. It’s about having a lifetime tax strategy.
How Can We Help
Reduce the impact of future retirement taxes
Your retirement income may come from multiple sources. We help identify strategies that may
improve tax efficiency over time so you can potentially keep more of what you’ve saved.
Create flexibility in retirement income
Different account types are taxed differently. By building tax diversification, you may have more
control over where retirement income comes from each year.
Plan proactively, before RMDs begin
The years between retirement and Required Minimum Distributions can create valuable planning
opportunities. We help clients evaluate strategies before forced withdrawals kick in.
What Kind of Opportunities Might Be Identified?
We will evaluate a number of opportunities during tax planning, including topics like
We can run projections to see how potential changes (e.g., filing status, dependents, the sale of a business, stock option exercises, etc.) may impact your upcoming tax liability.
How Do I Get Started?
Schedule your initial consultation. After our call, upload a copy of your tax return to our secure client portal. That’s it.