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Income Tax Planning

Your tax bill is the expense nobody strategizes around.

Filing a return is not a tax strategy. Most high-earning attorneys are overpaying by tens of thousands annually because the planning happens in April, not throughout the year.

By April, most of the opportunities are already gone.

A CPA's job is to accurately report what happened last year. That's important work. But it's not tax planning. Tax planning happens before the money moves, before December 31st, and ideally as early as the beginning of the year.

At $250,000 and above, your combined federal and state tax rate likely sits somewhere between 45% and 55%. That means every dollar of income you can legally shift, defer, or deduct is worth nearly fifty cents. Most people in that bracket have never had anyone systematically find those dollars for them.

We work in coordination with your CPA throughout the year to make sure that by the time you sit down to file, you've already captured everything available to you.

45%+ combined tax rate for many attorneys earning $250k+
$18k average first-year tax savings identified
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The tax code wasn't written to punish you. It was written with tools that most people, including most high earners, never use.

Matthew BennettFiduciary Financial Advisor, WealthCode

We're not CPAs and we don't prepare returns. What we do is find the opportunities your return misses: the Roth conversion window that opened this year, the deduction your CPA didn't know to ask about, the retirement account structure that shelters an additional $40,000. Then we coordinate with your tax preparer to make sure it gets implemented correctly.

Year-round tax strategy, not just April prep

Four areas where proactive planning creates real, measurable savings.

01

Tax projection and gap analysis

We review your prior returns, model your current year liability, and identify the specific gaps between what you're paying and what you could be paying with better structure in place.

02

Roth conversion strategy

Low-income years, market downturns, and career transitions create windows to convert pre-tax money at a lower rate. We identify those windows and model the long-term impact before they close.

03

Retirement account maximization

Most attorneys aren't using everything available to them. Backdoor Roth, mega backdoor Roth, defined benefit plans for practice owners. We find the accounts you should have open and the contributions you should be making.

04

Investment tax efficiency

Tax-loss harvesting, asset location, and the timing of capital gains all affect your annual tax bill. We manage those variables actively rather than letting them be an afterthought.

A real example

Partner. $380k income. $0 in proactive tax planning.

A law firm partner came to us earning $380,000. He had a good CPA who filed accurate returns. But nobody had ever looked at his situation proactively. He was contributing to his 401k but nothing else. He had a significant brokerage account with unrealized losses that had never been harvested. And he was in a year where a Roth conversion made a lot of sense.

We identified three specific opportunities, coordinated with his CPA to implement them before year-end, and restructured his retirement contributions for the following year.

What changed
$22,000 in tax savings identified and captured in year one
$14,500 in tax-loss harvesting applied against capital gains
Backdoor Roth contribution added for the first time
Defined benefit plan opened, sheltering an additional $38,000 annually

Questions about income tax planning

Do I still need a CPA?
Yes. We don't prepare tax returns. What we do is identify the strategies your CPA should be implementing and coordinate with them throughout the year to make sure those strategies get captured. Most clients find that the combination of a good CPA and proactive planning from us produces significantly better outcomes than either one alone.
What if I already have a CPA I like?
Keep them. We work alongside your existing tax preparer, not instead of them. We bring the planning side, they bring the compliance side. It's a better outcome for you when both are happening.
When should I start thinking about this?
The earlier in the calendar year, the more options you have. A conversation in February gives you twelve months to act. A conversation in November gives you six weeks. Both are worth having, but the difference in available strategies is significant.

Want to know what you're actually leaving on the table?

Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll look at your current situation and identify the specific tax opportunities worth going after this year.