Tax Planning
5 year-end tax moves small business owners should make now.
The fourth quarter is where most of next April's tax bill gets decided. Five practical moves to make before December 31 — none of them exotic, all of them effective.
There's a quiet truth about small-business taxes: by the time you're staring at your return in March, most of the meaningful decisions are already behind you. The fourth quarter is where next April actually gets decided.
Below are five moves we walk almost every client through before year-end. None of them are exotic. All of them, applied early enough, can meaningfully change what you owe.
1. Reconcile your books before you plan
Tax planning on top of messy books is just guessing. Before you make a single year-end decision, get your bookkeeping current through at least the end of Q3. You can't strategize against numbers you don't trust.
2. Time income and expenses intentionally
If you're on cash-basis accounting, you have real flexibility in the last few weeks of the year. Accelerating a deductible expense into December, or deferring an invoice into early January, can shift income across tax years in ways that materially change your bracket exposure.
3. Make the retirement contribution you keep meaning to make
Solo 401(k), SEP IRA, SIMPLE — there are several structures available to small-business owners, and the contribution limits are higher than most people realize. Funding one before the deadline is one of the most reliable ways to lower this year's tax bill while paying yourself first.
4. Review fixed-asset purchases
If you've been considering a meaningful equipment, vehicle, or technology purchase, Section 179 and bonus depreciation rules can let you expense a large portion of it in the year of purchase rather than depreciating it over time. The timing matters; the structure matters more.
5. Sit down with your accountant — actually sit down
A 30-minute Q4 planning conversation is the single highest-leverage hour you'll spend with your accountant all year. It's also the one most often skipped. Don't skip it this year.
If you'd like us to walk you through this for your business specifically, we'd be glad to. That's exactly the kind of work we do.
