Tax Smart Planning
By April, the year is already decided.
Filing is accounting for decisions you already made. Planning is making better ones while there's still time. We do the second thing, alongside the CPA who does the first.
Your CPA reports. We project.
Your CPA is excellent at reporting what happened. That's the job, and it's a demanding one. But by the time a return is being prepared, nearly every lever has already been pulled: the income recognized, the account chosen, the entity structured, the asset sold.
Tax Smart Planning moves those decisions upstream. It asks a different question. Not "what do I owe on last year," but "what will the next fifteen years cost me, and which of those years should I pay in?"
The decisions that move the number
- Account location. Which dollars belong in taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free buckets, and in what proportion
- Bracket management. Filling lower brackets deliberately in low-income years instead of letting them go unused
- Roth conversions. Modeled across multiple years against future required distributions, not decided in December
- Entity structure. How the business is organized, and whether that's still the right answer as income grows
- Charitable timing. Bunching, donor-advised funds, and appreciated assets rather than cash
- Sale readiness. Structuring a business or property transaction before there's a buyer, when structure is still negotiable
Which of these matter to you depends entirely on your situation. Some clients need two of them. If that's your situation, we'll say so.
The rhythm
How a year runs
Tax work spread across the year is worth more than tax work compressed into March. Here's roughly how a year runs when the planning is coordinated.
Twelve months, four checkpoints
What the work looks like
The strategies we actually use
None of these are secrets. The work is figuring out which ones apply to you, in what order, and how long you have before the window closes. Plenty of clients only need two or three of them.
Where the dollars sit
Account location and bracket management
Which dollars belong in taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts changes the outcome more than most people expect. So does deliberately using low-income years rather than letting the lower brackets go unused. It is dull work and it compounds.
Offsetting gains
Systematic loss harvesting
Portfolios can be managed so that losses are captured as they occur and banked against gains you have not realized yet. Done consistently over years it meaningfully changes what a future sale costs you. Done once in December it does very little.
Concentrated or illiquid wealth
Alternatives and deferral structures
When a large gain is coming, or has just arrived, there are structures that change the timing and sometimes the character of that gain. They are not right for everyone, they involve real illiquidity and real risk, and they only work if the structure exists before the transaction does.
Long-horizon accumulation
Tax-advantaged accumulation vehicles
For high earners who have already filled the obvious buckets, there are vehicles that grow without annual taxation and can be accessed later on favorable terms. They demand long time horizons and careful funding, and they are frequently sold badly. We will walk you through the math and the ways these go wrong before anyone shows you a product.
Business structure
Entity design and compensation
How the business is organized, how owners are paid, and how retirement plans are designed can move the number substantially. This is also the area where the structure that fit at two million in revenue quietly stops fitting at ten.
Giving
Charitable timing and appreciated assets
Giving appreciated assets rather than cash, and concentrating several years of giving into one, changes what the same generosity costs you. It is straightforward and widely available, and people miss it constantly.
Veritas does not provide legal or tax advice. Which of these strategies is appropriate, if any, depends on your specific circumstances and should be evaluated with your own tax and legal counsel. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
Common questions
What people ask before they start.
Are you replacing my CPA?
No. We want your CPA in the room. They know your history and they file the return; we build the multi-year projection and bring options to the table. Most CPAs are glad to have someone doing forward-looking work, because their season doesn't leave room for it.
Do you prepare tax returns?
We don't. Veritas does not provide legal or tax advice, and we don't file returns. We plan around them and coordinate with the professionals who do.
How much can this actually save?
It depends entirely on your income, your entity, and how much runway is left before the decisions lock in. Anyone quoting you a percentage before seeing your return is guessing. We'll model your situation and show you the range, with the assumptions visible.
When is it too late?
For a given year, most levers close on December 31. For a business sale, the useful window usually opens two to three years before closing. Earlier is almost always worth more than clever.
What if my situation is simple?
Then we'll tell you that and you'll have saved yourself a fee. Not everyone needs coordinated tax planning, and we'd rather say so than build an engagement around it.
Let's talk next steps
One conversation, and you'll know whether we're useful.
Thirty minutes. No cost, no pitch. You tell us what's on your mind and we tell you honestly what we see, including when the answer is that you don't need us.