Your tax return is the end of the story.
We’d rather be there while you write it.
Tax planning happens before the deadline. Not after it.
If the first real conversation you have with your accountant about this year’s taxes happens while they prepare your return, most of your planning opportunities are already gone.
Countless provides year-round tax planning for business owners who already have their accounting handled and want someone actively thinking ahead about their taxes.
We project. We plan. We follow through. And when the year is over, we prepare the returns, too.
Tax preparation is separately priced based on return complexity.
Tax prep tells you what happened. Tax planning changes what happens.
Don’t wait until April to find out how your decisions affect your taxes.
Throughout the year, we look ahead while there’s still time to make different decisions. How much should you pay towards quarterly estimates? Is your S-corp salary still reasonable? Should you increase retirement contributions? Could a PTET election help you avoid the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap? Can you use an accountable plan to deduct home office expenses? Did something change in the business that changes your tax strategy?
And just as important, does any of that actually make sense for you?
A tax strategy isn’t a good strategy just because it lowers your tax bill.
We look ahead six times a year.
Four times a year, we project your income and calculate your quarterly estimated tax payments.
We go deeper during summer and winter planning meetings, digging into your books, updating projections, and working through whatever opportunities apply to you.
That’s six forward-looking tax-planning cycles throughout the year. But we don’t disappear in between. If you have a question on a random Tuesday, you can email us. We’re your tax accountants all year, not just leading up to a deadline.
We don’t just run a projection and call it tax planning.
Behind every Countless tax-planning engagement is an actual review process. We look at your financials, check whether you implemented our prior recommendations, and work through the planning opportunities that apply to you.
Depending on your situation, we work through things like:
- Reasonable compensation
- PTET elections
- Qualified business income (QBI) and payroll optimization
- Retirement plans, defined benefit plans, and Roth strategies
- Accountable plans
- Health savings account (HSA) contributions
- Multi-state issues
- Entity considerations
And plenty of less exciting things that matter, too.
We’re not looking for one clever tax trick. We’re looking for everything that deserves attention.
And then we follow through.
Tax planning isn’t worth much if you get a list of recommendations nobody ever checks on again.
Did you make the estimated payments? Did the accountable-plan reimbursements happen? Did you move money into the tax savings account? Do you implement the strategy we discussed?
We follow through on recommendations so we know it actually happened.
Your business + personal finances are part of the same picture.
We don’t tell you to put another $50,000 into retirement just to create a deduction. We consider whether it makes sense for you.
How will it affect liquidity and cash flow? How much do you already have saved for retirement? What’s happening in the business? What are your personal goals? Do you need the money for something else?
Paying the least possible tax isn’t the goal. Making the smartest decision with your money is.
Sometimes the smartest strategy lowers your tax bill. Sometimes it involves intentionally paying more now so you can pay a lot less later. We optimize the whole picture instead of chasing the biggest write-off.
Multi-state? Oh good. This gets interesting.
Some accountants see another state and think, “another tax problem.” We see another set of rules, and sometimes another planning opportunity.
If you operate, hire, sell, or live across multiple states, we help you understand what applies, where you need to register and file, and what planning opportunities exist within that footprint.
Complicated doesn’t bother us. Give us all the states.
What’s included?
Four Quarterly Tax Projections + Estimated Payments
We project your full-year income using current financials and calculate what you should pay each quarter.
Two Deeper Tax-Planning Cycles
Ahead of your summer and winter meetings, we dig into your books and tax picture, identify opportunities, and come back with recommendations.
Two Tax-Planning Meetings
We walk through what we found, what we recommend and what to do next.
High-Level Accounting Review
We’re not your bookkeeper in this engagement, but we need reliable numbers to plan for taxes. So we review your accounting at a high level and flag anything that could affect your tax picture.
Year-Round Access
Do you have a tax question in between planning cycles? Ask us. We respond to client emails within two business days.
Tax Preparation
We prepare business and personal returns for our ongoing Tax Planning clients, so the same team planning throughout the year carries it through to filing. We price tax preparation separately based on complexity.
There is one catch.
We need good numbers to do good tax planning.
This service is for business owners who already have reliable, up-to-date books, whether they work with a bookkeeper or do it themselves.
We don’t need perfection, but we do need financials we can actually use.
If you don’t maintain your books consistently, we’ll tell you. Depending on the situation, you may need a bookkeeper, or Accounting, Tax + Advisory may be the better fit.
Good tax planning starts with good information.
We’re probably your people if…
- Your business is profitable, and you want tax planning more than once a year.
- You already have bookkeeping handled, and your numbers are current and reliable.
- You want someone to proactively project what’s coming rather than reacting after the fact.
- You care about saving taxes, but you care more about making smart financial decisions.
- You want a response when you email your tax accountant in June.
- You respond when we need information from you.
- If you’re looking for a once-a-year tax preparer, we’re not your people.
Year-round tax planning starts at $350/month.
Pricing increases based on your entity structure along with complexity, including multiple entities, owners, states, or a more complicated overall tax picture.
Your engagement includes year-round projections, planning, financial review, meetings and ongoing access to your Countless tax team.
We price tax preparation separately based on complexity.
We tell you exactly how much your engagement will cost before you sign anything.
Tax strategy isn’t a once-a-year event.
Your business changes all year. So does your income, cash, plans, personal finances, and sometimes the tax law itself. Your tax strategy has to change with it.
We project what’s coming, make decisions while there’s still time, follow through on what we decided, and prepare the returns when the year is done.
That’s tax planning the Countless way.
– MD Squared Property Group LLC
– Nell MV
– Aimee Raupp
Countdown Fitness
– SanovaWorks
– Indigo Wellness Group
– Amanda Ellis Photography
Want to learn more and make it official?
Here’s where we cheese it up and say … are you ready to do more, and count less? Go ahead and give us a shout to schedule a discovery call or just drop us a line to say, hello.
