Your CPA is graded on last year. So who is planning for next year?
That is not a knock on accountants — it's a description of two different jobs. Tax preparation records what happened. Tax planning changes what happens. And almost every move that lowers a tax bill has a December 31 deadline, not an April 15 one.
I taught a class on this with Bryan Daly, CFP® to a room of business owners and families. No products, nothing sold, nobody asked to book an appointment from the stage. These are the ten things people wrote down.
Ten things your CPA can't fix in April
Tax season is too late for tax planning
The moves that save money happen during the year — not on April 14th.
By the time a return is being prepared, almost every lever has already been pulled or missed. Preparation records what happened. Planning changes what happens. Two different jobs, done at two different times of the year — and most households have only hired somebody for the first one.
Up to 85% of your Social Security benefit can be taxable
Most retirees don't learn this until they see the bill.
People assume the benefit arrives clean. Depending on the rest of your income, as much as 85% of it can land on your return as taxable income — which means the withdrawal you took from an IRA in November can quietly drag your Social Security into the tax base with it.
Miss a required distribution and you keep only 75% of it
The IRS keeps the other 25%. RMDs are not optional.
Required Minimum Distributions have a hard date and a real penalty. This is the most avoidable line item in tax law — a calendar reminder is the entire fix — and it still shows up on returns every single year.
That one big income year may be raising your Medicare premium right now
IRMAA runs on a two-year lag.
Sell a property, take a large distribution, exercise options — and two years later your Medicare premium reflects it. Because of the delay, almost nobody connects the bill to the decision that caused it. Income timing is the countermeasure, and it only works in advance.
You may be paying 15.3% in self-employment tax you don't owe
Entity structure sets your rate — and most owners never revisit it.
A strategically timed S-election can save thousands in self-employment tax. The word doing the work there is timed. Late in the year it becomes difficult to reach back to January 1, so the conversation has to happen while there is still runway.
The deductions are legal and available. Are you taking them?
Home office · vehicle · health insurance · retirement contributions · and more.
None of these are aggressive. They are ordinary provisions written into the code for people who run businesses — and they are routinely left on the table because nobody tracked the number during the year.
“I probably spent that.”
The IRS does not accept probably.
A deduction you cannot document is a deduction you do not have. Records written when it happened hold up. Numbers reconstructed in March do not. This is the least glamorous tip on the list and the one that decides whether the rest of them survive.
Your retirement account is a deduction you have to choose
SEP-IRA · Solo 401(k) · SIMPLE IRA.
Each of these allows meaningfully higher annual contributions than a traditional IRA or a standard 401(k) deferral. But nothing happens automatically: the plan has to be opened, and the account has to be funded. No one will do it for you.
December 31 is a hard deadline — in most cases
Bunching · loss harvesting · retirement contributions · income timing.
A few provisions allow action into the new year. Most do not. Knowing which of your strategies close on December 31 is the difference between a plan and a wish, so put your own deadlines on a calendar rather than assuming April is a second chance.
Your advisors are working in silos. So is your tax bill.
You have a CPA, a CFP®, a bookkeeper, and an attorney. Do they know each other?
Each one optimizes their own piece and none of them sees the whole return. The introduction you make between them is free, takes one email, and is frequently worth more than any single strategy on this list.
Tax preparation is a history report. Tax planning is a forecast.
Your preparer is graded on what already happened. In most households, nobody at all is being graded on what happens next.
Four advanced moves worth asking about
These came up in the Q&A more than anything else on the slides, so they belong here too.
One year makes the difference
Short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income. Hold past a year and you reach the preferential 0%, 15% or 20% rates. Same asset, same sale, different date — it's math.
Your losing positions have value
Harvest losses to offset gains and reduce taxable income. Mind the wash-sale rule: buy the same position back inside 30 days and the loss disappears.
Death resets the cost basis
Heirs generally inherit assets at today's value rather than what you paid decades ago — one of the most overlooked intersections of estate and tax planning.
Give from your IRA instead of your checkbook
A qualified charitable distribution sends the dollar straight from the IRA to the charity. You give the same amount and never report the income.
Four things you can do this month
- 1
Put your own December 31 list on paper
Write down every move that has to happen before year-end: contributions, harvesting, income timing, entity election. If it isn't on a calendar it isn't a plan.
- 2
Separate the business bank account today
Every deduction in tip six depends on it. One afternoon, and the whole foundation is under you.
- 3
Introduce your advisors to each other
Send one email that puts your CPA, planner and bookkeeper on the same thread. That's tip ten, solved in five minutes.
- 4
Ask for a look before the year ends, not after
Bring last year's return and this year's statements to somebody whose job is next year. It's a different conversation than filing.
Want the printable version?
We turned this list into a two-page resource you can print and mark up — the ten tips, the advanced moves, and a year-end deadline checklist with room to write your own numbers.
Get the 10 Tax Tips one-pager →Frank Gramlich, CPA
Xavier Financial Services / Xavier Tax — tax planning and accounting for business owners. If any of these ten tips sound like your situation, the conversation is worth having before December 31.
Important disclosures. This article is educational only. It is not tax, legal, accounting or investment advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security or insurance product. Tax rules and dollar limits change, and individual circumstances vary. Please consult your own CPA or attorney regarding your specific situation.
Frank Gramlich, CPA provides tax and accounting services through Xavier Financial Services / Xavier Tax — frank.gramlich2@xaviertax.com, (561) 739-4320, xavierfinancialservices.com. This material summarizes a free educational class he taught with Bryan Daly, CFP®, RICP®. Frank's firm is independent of New Life Financial Planning, LLC.