Preparation reports the past. Planning changes the outcome.
A tax return filed in April can only work with the facts as they are. Planning happens during the year, while the facts can still be changed — equipment timing, entity structure, owner pay, and estimates sized to reality instead of last year’s guess.
What we actually move.
Entity & Compensation Structure
Whether an S-corp election makes sense at your profit level, and what reasonable owner compensation looks like once it does — the two decisions that drive self-employment tax.
Equipment & Asset Timing
§179 and bonus depreciation are levers, not defaults. We time trucks, trailers, and equipment against your income so the deduction lands in the year it’s worth the most.
Quarterly Estimates From Actuals
Estimates recalculated each quarter from your real numbers — so seasonal businesses stop overpaying in the dip and underpaying in the peak.
Multi-Year & Exit Planning
Retirement contributions, income smoothing across years, depreciation recapture before equipment sales, and succession planning done before the handshake, not after.
Planning is a calendar, not a phone call.
Checkpoint
Books through June, estimates trued up, and the S-corp and equipment questions raised while there’s still time to act on them.
Strategy Session
The main planning meeting: project the year, run the scenarios, and decide what happens before December 31.
Execution
Purchases closed, elections documented, payroll adjusted — the plan becomes entries in the ledger, not notes in a drawer.
Planning, answered.
When is the right time to start tax planning?
Before the year you want to change — ideally by mid-year, and at the latest by early fall. Almost every meaningful lever (equipment timing, entity elections, compensation, retirement contributions with year-end deadlines) closes on December 31. A planning conversation in March about last year is a preparation conversation.
I already have a CPA who files my return. Isn’t that planning?
Not necessarily. Preparation and planning are different engagements: one reports the year that happened, the other shapes the year in progress. If your only CPA contact is during filing season, the planning levers are closing unexamined every December. Some clients keep their preparer and engage us for planning alone.
How much can tax planning actually save?
Honestly: it depends, and any firm quoting a universal number is selling. The savings come from specific, identifiable moves — a well-timed election, a purchase shifted a few months, compensation restructured — and their size depends on your profit, entity, and equipment cycle. The strategy consult exists precisely to replace that guess with your actual numbers.
One firm, one ledger.
Engagements here are designed to feed each other. These are the ones this work most often runs alongside — and published minimums for all of them are on the pricing page.
Structure Is the Biggest Lever
Whether to elect S-corp status, and what reasonable compensation actually costs, modeled on your real numbers.
Entity & S-Corp Analysis →Where the Plan Lands
The filing that carries out the plan — prepared by a CPA or EA, signed by the principal.
Tax Preparation →Forecast the Tax, Not Just the Cash
Rolling forecasts show the estimate you will owe before the quarter closes, not after.
Analysis & Forecasting →Ready when you are. Virtual or in-office.
Every tax return prepared and signed by a licensed CPA or IRS Enrolled Agent. Everything runs through the secure portal and e-signature.
Free 15-Minute CPA Consultation
Fifteen minutes with Kevin Hemingway, CPA. We discuss your tax or accounting needs, determine whether our firm is a good fit, and you leave with an estimated fee range and next steps. This consultation is for engagement evaluation and does not include tax advice, tax planning, or detailed analysis of specific tax situations.
Book a Free ConsultStrategy Consult
A paid, flat-fee review of your prior return and current books, ending in a prioritized action list you keep either way.
Book a Strategy Consult