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Tax Decisions Made While They Still Count
Entity structure, timing, retirement and equipment choices worked through during the year with the team that keeps your books, so April is a filing and not a surprise.
Tax Planning And Strategy For Michigan Business Owners
By the time most owners see their tax return, every decision on it was made months earlier. The equipment was bought or it wasn't. The retirement plan existed in time or it didn't. Tax planning is the work of looking at those choices while there is still room to change them, and it is the part of our tax services that tends to matter most.
We plan with business owners across Michigan and virtually anywhere in the country. Because we usually keep the books as well, planning starts from this year's real numbers instead of last year's return and a hopeful guess.
The Four Decisions We Revisit Every Year
Most of the tax on a small business return gets decided in a handful of places. These are the ones we keep coming back to.
A Conversation During The Year, Not A Line Item In April
Every monthly package includes two tax planning meetings a year, and we use them. One usually lands mid-year, once there are enough closed months to see where profit is heading. The other comes in the fall, while there is still time to buy the equipment or fund the retirement account.
Between those meetings, planning shows up in ordinary places: a question about your first employee, a call about a truck, a check on whether your quarterly estimated tax payments still match what the business is earning. We'd rather hear about a big decision before it happens.
Michigan adds its own questions, including whether electing into the state's flow-through entity tax is worth it for your S-Corporation return or your partnership return. We look at the federal and Michigan sides together, so a win on one doesn't quietly cost you on the other.
Why We Never Quote A Savings Number
No one can honestly tell you what planning will save before looking at your books, and we won't try. What we can do is put every option worth considering in front of you as early as your books allow, and make sure you understand the trade-off before you decide.
What Owners Ask About Planning Ahead
When is the best time to start tax planning for my business?
Earlier than most people think. The strongest planning happens in the first half of the year, when there is still time to set up a retirement plan, adjust your salary or change how the business is structured. By the fall the list is shorter, and by April the only thing left is filing what already happened.
Should my LLC become an S-Corporation?
Sometimes. An S-Corp election can reduce self-employment tax once profit is high enough, but it also means running payroll, paying yourself a reasonable salary and filing a separate Form 1120-S each year. For some owners that trade is clearly worth it. For others the extra work eats the benefit. We look at your actual profit before recommending either way.
Can you guarantee how much I will save?
No, and be wary of anyone who does before seeing your books. What planning saves depends on your profit, your plans and choices only you can make. What we commit to is the process: the options laid out plainly, the numbers behind each one, and the final decision left with you.
Tax Work That Goes Hand In Hand With Planning
Estimates set from this year's real numbers, so the plan and the payments tell the same story all year.
Quarterly estimated Tax payments in detail S-Corp Returns (Form 1120-S)S-Corporation returns prepared with the reasonable salary and shareholder basis questions already worked through during the year.
S-Corp returns in detail Personal Returns (Form 1040)Your personal return prepared alongside the business return, so decisions made for one show up correctly on the other.
Personal returns in detail Tax Services OverviewEvery return we prepare, from Schedule C to Form 1120, plus planning, estimates, amended returns and sales tax.
Return to Tax ServicesBring Us This Year's Decisions While There Is Time
Book a free consultation and tell us what is on the horizon. We will tell you which decisions are worth making before the year closes.