A separate service from tax preparation, tax planning is the key to successfully and legally reducing your tax liability. By making tax planning part of your yearly strategy, you can use our experience and access to the most current new developments in the tax laws. We help you customize the best possible plan for you to minimize your taxes not just at the end of the year but throughout all of the year.
Remember, we are here to work for you, not for the IRS.
Our clients save many times the fee in reduced tax liability through our careful tax planning services and court-tested tax strategies.
How is a Certified Tax Coach different than a standard Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Enrolled Agent (EA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP), or other financial service providers?
EA and CPA are valuable marks. However, they can indicate a variety of specialties, and only indicate what they are, not how they benefit you. Certified Tax Coaches are a leading group of tax professionals who are specially trained in the art of long-term, proactive tax planning. In addition to their standard certifications and tax degrees.
Certified Tax Coaches are required to complete comprehensive education focusing on high-impact tax planning strategies. Certified Tax Coaches are also required to adhere to the American Institute of Certified Tax Coaches Code of Ethics which provides assurance that the strategies and ideas used to create your plan stay within the boundaries of the law. The AICTC upholds a strict Code of Ethics to ensure the highest standards of integrity and excellence among its members.
But I already have a tax preparer. Isn’t that enough?
When you work with a Certified Tax Coach, you get more than just a tax return. You get a team of strategists to help ensure you are paying the least amount of taxes legally allowed by implementing a customized strategy to take advantage of every available break. You can continue to use your current tax preparer to prepare your tax returns and we will provide the tax saving strategies!
What you can expect with your Proactive Tax Strategy:
You start with a brief interview with a Certified Tax Coach (CTC). We want to hear about where you are now, and where you want to be. We’ll ask a few easy questions about your current situation and from that determine the best Proactive Tax Strategy program for you.
You complete a brief Tax Questionnaire. You’ll outline your financial, business and investment goals and about where your money currently goes. We’ll need copies of your past tax return and a little information on each business entity (S Corporation, LLC, Limited Partnership, etc.) that you currently have set up. It’s all in the Tax Questionnaire and we’re here to help you if you have more questions.
The more information you give us, the better job we’ll do.
We analyze your information and develop a comprehensive Proactive Tax Strategy. This stage typically takes two weeks so there’s plenty of time to research the best possible options for you. This is the stage where the cool things happen! In fact, our average client saves over $15,000 with their Tax Strategy!
Together, we schedule a phone call or in-person meeting to review the details of your plan and to get your feedback. Typically, this call lasts about an hour. It’s so packed with information, though, that we write up your customized strategy, so you won’t miss a thing!
You receive a write-up of your customized strategy along with informative tax loopholes information based on needs identified during your meeting with your CTC.
We conduct a follow-up phone call about two weeks after the initial phone call or meeting to cover the details of the first call again or to go through new questions you’ve uncovered.
We work with your investment adviser, attorney, and other financial advisors to help you plan your financial future. Need an investment advisor, attorney, or another financial advisor? Although we do not offer investment or legal advice, we can introduce you to some of our favorite advisors!
New Business Advisory (first-year new business)
Small business start-up
Selection of the right structure – SMLLC, S-Corporation, C-Corporation, Partnership
Understanding your entity structure and the administrative requirements
Incorporation and business formation assistance
Federal EIN Creation
Filing Form 2553 for S-Corp Election
Federal, State, & Local Registrations
Are you looking to form an entity? Click here to use www.SmallBiz.com and they will help you file the necessary paperwork after GPS has helped you determine the best entity for your situation!
Tax Projections
A tax projection is a mock tax return of the current year to estimate your federal and state tax liability due on your tax return. Tax projections in conjunction with tax planning save time, ensure accuracy, streamline the tax preparation process, and minimize your tax burden. GPS will effectively model complex tax scenarios to eliminate surprises.
Tax projections are essential for those with self-employed income and unearned income, such as investments, rentals, interest, and dividends, to remove surprises at tax time.
Generally, as a part of our tax planning services, these tax projections are done towards the end of the year to implement any tax saving strategies before December 31st. Our fee starts at $349 and increases depending on the complexity of the calculation and the number of scenarios. Factors include such items as whether we prepared your prior year tax return, the degree of life-changing events, whether you own a small business, etc.
You will receive a tax projection showing the prior year to compare multiple scenarios of the current year. In addition, you will receive detailed instructions and tax vouchers for making any necessary quarterly payments to the IRS or state tax authorities.
Estimated Tax Payments
If you normally owe tax on your annual income tax return, there is a chance that you are incurring estimated tax penalties. The IRS and state tax governing authorities require that you pay tax on the income you earn as you earn it. Most people have withholdings taken on their W-2’s to satisfy this requirement. However, if you under-withhold on your W-2, are self-employed, and/or have unearned income, such as dividends or capital gains, you are required to make quarterly estimated tax payments.
Generally, you are required to pay at least 100% of your prior year tax liability or 90% of your current year estimated tax liability, whichever is lower. If you earn over $150,000, you must pay 110% of your prior year tax liability instead of 100%. If you do not pay this amount, you will be subject to estimated tax penalties along with a lump-sum payment on your tax return.
GPS always includes estimated tax vouchers based on the 100%/110% requirement for prepared every tax returns. However, to provide the most accurate tax planning services, we HIGHLY recommend current year tax projections and planning to our business owners and our clients with high unearned income from investments to ensure that you are not paying too much or too little.
The general due dates for quarterly estimated tax payment are:
Q1 – April 15th
Q2 – June 15th
Q3 – September 15th
Q4 – January 15th