StrataTax believes that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We focus on tax savings strategies that can keep you on track to achieve your financial goals. Through tax planning, we educate individuals on tax savings strategies throughout major life events, such as buying a house, starting a family, starting a business, or growing an existing business.
Strategic tax planning often leads to tax savings. Our goal is to help you arrange your financial activities in a way that will reduce your tax expense and maximize your wealth over time. Our tax consultants can help you develop and implement tax strategies to arrange your financial affairs in a way that optimizes tax liabilities. As part of our tax planning services, our tax professionals will perform a thorough evaluation of your tax situation to identify and maximize tax saving opportunities.
Whereas filing a tax return, also known as tax compliance, is related to past or closed transactions, tax planning primarily deals with future or open transactions. You will have a greater opportunity to take advantage of effective tax savings strategies before transactions are finalized. As a result, it’s important for you to meet with us as soon as possible to discuss how to apply effective tax strategies to events that are not finalized.
Our tax planning services are customized and ideal for individuals as well as businesses. An hour of free tax planning is included as part of our tax preparation services. The hour of free tax planning is available to independent contractors, sole proprietors, C Corporation, S Corporation, limited liability companies and partnerships.
What is tax planning?
| Types of Planning | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Income Tax Planning | Business: Creating strategies to reduce, affect the timing of, or shift either current or future income tax liabilities
Individual: Reducing taxes on your income so you keep more of what you make |
– Timing of income, gains, deductions, losses, and credits - Avoiding recognition of taxable income - Changing the character of income - Spreading income to related taxpayers - Application of new and future tax laws |
| Entity Planning | Business: Determining the best business organization to use in creating, managing and operating a business | - Tax implications of being a sole proprietorship, C corporation, S corporation, limited liability company (LLC), or partnership |
| Retirement Planning | Business: Determining the best way to secure the future for you, your employees and your business
Individual: Creating a savings strategy that could defer taxes on your income or reduce taxes on your retirement distributions so you can retire comfortably |
- 401K - Traditional Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) - Roth IRA - Keogh Plan - Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) - Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) |
| Risk Planning | Business: Identifying risks to your business’s property, employees, and finances and protecting them from harm
Individual: Identifying risks to yourself, your property, and your finances and protecting them from harm |
- General Liability Insurance – Product Liability Insurance – Professional Liability/Errors and Omissions Insurance – Property Insurance – Workers’ Compensation - Asset protection - Home owner’s insurance - Health Savings Account (HSA) - Health insurance - Life insurance - Disability insurance - Long-term care insurance |
| Cash Planning | Organizing the use of your money and other financial resources, such as credit | - Budgeting |
| Investment Planning | Identifying strategies that generate wealth and preserve the assets you worked hard to accumulate | - Asset allocation - Purchase new assets |
| Succession Planning | Business: Identifying the best way to transfer your business regardless of your exit strategy | - Selling a business - Transferring ownership to a relative |
| Estate Planning | Individual: Preserving and distributing your wealth to your heirs according to your wishes | - Gifting - Revocable trusts - Irrevocable trusts |
| Education Planning | Clarifying education goals and identifying potential costs | - 529 plan - Qualified Tuition Program (QTP) - Coverdell Education Savings Account - Series EE savings bond - Series I savings bond |
