The Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Tax Planning Season

Now is the time to focus on year-end tax planning. Careful and strategic planning can help minimize your tax bill and maximize what you keep. Given the uncertainty and sweeping scope of proposed tax law changes, planning is both more complex and more important than ever this year. Below, we discuss five year-end tax planning strategies you can use to maximize how much of your own money you keep.

Play the Timing Game

Why pay taxes now if you can delay it until next year? Income deferral is difficult for W-2 employees, but the self-employed and freelancers have a lot more room to plan. Businesses and the self-employed who operate on cash basis accounting (as opposed to accrual basis) can delay invoicing customers and clients until late December. For cash basis taxpayers, your income is taxable only if you receive it before year end, so delaying invoicing means you won’t get paid until early January.

Remember that you want only to defer income if your tax bracket next year will be the same or lower. If you know you will be in a higher tax bracket next year, then you might want to do the opposite and move as much income into 2017 as possible. Unfortunately, with the proposed tax bracket changes, this might be a difficult planning decision as both the current and new rules, if any, will likely impact your decision.

Speed Up Deductions

Similar to deferring income, you might want to accelerate deductions.

Any deductions where you impact the timing – such as charitable deductions – are good choices. Remember to keep proper records to document the contributions regardless of the amount. Also, consider donating stocks or property that has appreciated in value in lieu of cash to receive a higher tax benefit.

Other deductions that are good options to pull into 2017 include estimated state income taxes due January 15 and property taxes due early next year.

There are two important points to keep in mind. First, pulling deductions into 2017 can be a big mistake if you are impacted by the alternative minimum tax. Second, if a new tax bill passes and eliminates some or all of the itemized deductions, then this might be your last chance to benefit by accelerating them into 2017.

Harvesting Isn’t Just For Farmers

The stock markets are up big so far this year, so a lot of people have gains instead of losses. However, certain sectors, such as commodities, haven’t done so well. If a portion of your investment portfolio is down from where you purchased, you might want to harvest those losses to offset gains from other investments and reduce your taxable income.

The general rule is that you can deduct losses up to the amount of your capital gains, plus an additional $3,000 – and then roll over any excess losses to be used in future years. Just make sure your tax strategy aligns with your overall investment goals.

Take Your Retirement to the Max

Maxing out your 401(k) contributions can help you avoid significant taxes. If you have the financial means, see if you can contribute extra before year end. Self-employed individual 401(k) owners can make their “employer” contributions up until April 17, 2018. Another option is to contribute to an IRA; however, this isn’t as time sensitive. You can contribute to an IRA all the way up to the initial tax filing deadline still deduct the amount against 2017 income.

Make Tax Planning Less Taxing

The cost of hiring a tax professional to assist you in navigating the complexities and challenges of tax planning is also something you can write off if you itemize your deductions. Again, like many other itemized deductions, this one could disappear under the proposed tax plans – so now’s the time to invest in consulting an expert.

These articles are intended to provide general resources for the tax and accounting needs of small businesses and individuals. Service2Client LLC is the author, but is not engaged in rendering specific legal, accounting, financial or professional advice. Service2Client LLC makes no representation that the recommendations of Service2Client LLC will achieve any result. The NSAD has not reviewed any of the Service2Client LLC content. Readers are encouraged to contact their CPA regarding the topics in these articles.

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