Whether you have had a good year thus far, are rebounding from recent setbacks or losses, or are working to get a new business off the ground, end of year tax planning is a crucial step in your business strategy. With the right moves made before the year ends, you can potentially save quite a bit on your taxes. At Zinman & Company, our team is dedicated to providing clients with expert advice and advocacy that helps businesses fulfill their tax obligations in a way that benefits them the most. Tax planning is not tax avoidance, but tax management. This process aims to manage the profit in your business, so that when flowing to your personal return, there are no surprises.
So, what steps do we take when working with clients on their year-end financial planning and tax strategies session?
We will start with the November YTD numbers to project the remainder of the year.
We determine where you are and where you want to be. For example, what does the current year look like and what tax changes may be on the horizon that could impact you.
Business income is only one part of the equation, so we create a personal income tax projection taking into account such variables such as salary, interest, dividends, retirement distributions, social security, and capital gains.
Then we formulate a plan based on business income, personal income, any tax due or refund, and address the 4th quarter estimate. Armed with this information, you have a plan to manage your profits through the rest of the year, through the balance in the checking account. We can also look for tax saving opportunities such as:
Maxing out retirement contributions.
Buying assets and getting bonus depreciation.
Prepaying expenses into next year (only for cash basis taxpayers).
After the return has been processed, we take the time to perform a post-mortem. We pull out each tax projection and determine where we hit and where we missed. Our goal is to be on target with our projections.
As we quickly approach the end of the year, and tax season begins, there are certain business and tax related matters that can help streamline your meeting with your accountant or financial advisor. If you haven’t already, it is time to organize your tax paperwork and receipts prior to handing them off to your accountant. Take some time to review business credit cards and bank accounts to see if you have any missed expenses. And if you find this a difficult task, start outlining ways that you can streamline the process for the new year, so that next year end you are well organized and less stressed.
As we end 2021, we hope you’ve had a year filled with success. Take some time to reflect and look back on what went right for your business this year and examine the challenges that you may have overcome. We hope to work with you in 2022 and offer you best wishes for the holiday season from all of us at Zinman & Company.