Tax Planning

Self-sufficiency means being prepared for the inevitable.

What can I say?
I love taxes.

I started working in my dad's tax and accounting practice at a young age, doing data entry into Lotus 123. That evolved into a love of assisting clients with various tax situations, helping them plan, minimize their tax liability, and avoid negative surprises. My approach to tax planning and preparation includes a holistic look at your finances, goal planning and discussing what the future entails for your next grand adventure. Together, we’ll develop a tax strategy that best prepares you to take advantage of benefits and tax incentives while building wealth for the future.

Tax Planning Services

Current Year Planning

  • Project current year liability and withholdings to clarify and avoid surprises

  • Avoid penalties and interest by creating a plan for increasing paycheck withholding or making quarterly estimated tax payments

  • Evaluate options to reduce your tax bill from large non-recurring spikes in income - things like capital gains from the sale of stock or a property, a one-time bonus, etc.

Planning Over-time

  • Save in the most tax efficient vehicle, and create tax diversification

  • Take advantage of low tax years between when you retire and when you are required to distribute pre-tax retirement accounts to do Roth Conversions

  • Help manage and put to use large carried forward capital losses and passive losses

  • Harvest capital losses during periods of market downturn, to offset capital gains in future years

Self-Employed and Business Owners

  • We help 1099 contractors understand how their taxes will work, so they can make payments along the way (or set aside in a savings account) and avoid a big surprise at tax time

  • We help small business owners maximize deductions and minimize taxable income

  • We help solopreneurs establish retirement accounts that allow them to supercharge their savings and provide current year tax benefits

FAQs

  • My situation is simple” is a phrase that always catches my attention. Although W-2 employees typically have taxes withheld from their paycheck, they can also be subject to surprises. Maybe they end up owing taxes out of pocket due to investment income, which does not withhold for taxes due. Maybe they were told by a car dealership that they qualified for a clean vehicle tax credit, but didn’t end up qualifying and have to pay it back on their tax return. Maybe their spouse didn’t withhold enough from their paycheck and they have a surprise tax bill. Everyone’s situation is unique and deserving of a review to avoid surprises.

  • If your household is all W-2 employees, you might be fine! As things get complicated, however, it gets easier to miss small but important details that can cost you money - from paying more tax than you need, to owing penalties and interest.

    • Contributions to a Health Savings Account (HSA) - ensuring you maximize your tax-advantaged contributions, but don’t over-contribute.

    • Electric Vehicle (EV) tax credits at the federal or state level. It can be hard to know at time of lease or purchase whether you’ll qualify for the credits at tax time, and it’s a tough pill to swallow if you end up having to “pay back” the credits on your tax return if you did not end up qualifying.

    • If your employer does not provide health insurance, and you enroll in coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace, Premium Tax Credits can be complicated and confusing. This is another area where, if you’re not careful about the income you provide when enrolling in ACA coverage, you could end up having to “pay back” some of the tax credits you received up-front to reduce your monthly premium.

    • Having kids! Student loan interest, child and dependent care tax credits, ensuring you qualify for the child tax credit, and so on.

    • Being separated or divorced from your partner means you have to coordinate on who gets to take each of the kids as a deduction, who is considered “head of household”, who gets to deduct mortgage interest, etc. “Married Filing Separate” is a way to file your own tax return without the cooperation of a spouse, but it comes with higher tax rates and effectively disqualifies you from IRA or Roth IRA contributions.

    • Contribute more to a tax-deductible retirement plan like a 401k / 403b / IRA. This can reduce income subject to federal and state taxes, to reduce your tax bill in that year.

    • Contribute to a Health Savings Account. If you make contributions through your employer’s payroll process, the contributions will reduce payroll taxes (social security and medicare) in addition to federal and state taxes.

    • Make multiple years’ worth of charitable donations in a single year. When combined with other Schedule A deductions (primarily mortgage interest and state & local taxes), this can help you itemize deductions. Whereas in most years, it is difficult to itemize since the standard deduction is fairly high.

  • We don’t prepare tax returns, however we maintain and refer clients to a list of tax-preparation firms that do a great job for clients.

    • Smoothing income out over multiple years, rather than taking it all in one year which pushes income up into higher tax brackets.

    • Harvesting capital losses during a market downturn, to offset capital gains in years when you sell appreciated investments.

    • Deferring current-year income in order to qualify for tax credits.

    • Stacking up many years’ worth of annual Back-door Roth IRA contributions, when someone makes too much money to contribute directly to a Roth IRA.

Explore the boundaries of what’s possible while securing your financial future.