Tax Planning & Consulting

While tax preparation and filing is important, tax planning is likely even more vital to ensure you’re paying your fair share of taxes and also receiving all of the necessary credits and deductions that are due to you, your family and your business. At Havig Tax & Consulting, we feel strongly that one of our greatest duties is to help our clients with sound tax planning. Many accountants simply send out a basic questionnaire each year and complete their client’s taxes as if nothing changed. At Havig Tax, this is simply not how we operate. We focus on tax planning and consulting and make sure that we sit down with each of our clients periodically to understand what if anything has changed and how these changes could impact your tax liability.

Without these periodic meetings, how can an accountant truly know your entire financial roadmap?

At Havig Tax, we want to be an integral part of keeping your financial house in order. Tax planning and consulting is one key way that you can ensure you’re paying your fair share of taxes, but also that you’re taking advantage of a variety of deductions and credits that can save you real money.

Importance of Year Round Tax Planning & Consulting

Tax planning is not just something that should be done early in the year as we get closer to tax time. It should be a year round process where you work directly with your accountant to ensure that you’re doing all you can to minimize your tax liability. Below are some of the key reasons why year round tax planning is so important:

Review Your Deductions

Whether you’re a business owner or not, it’s always a good idea to review your deductions that were taken last year. You’ll want to look at last year’s Schedule A to see the deductions that were taken in the previous year. Talk with your CPA about ways to potentially accelerate or delay certain deductions or income where possible to avoid triggering the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

Look at Education Expenses

Are you saving for your children’s college education? If so, there are a number of ways your investments can grow tax free and have the distributions be withdrawn tax free as well – provided that they are used for qualified educational expenses. It’s always a good idea to talk with your accountant about any tax credits that may exist because of dependents that may be claimed on your tax return.

Save for Retirement

There are a whole host of ways to save for retirement, many of which have significant benefits. Talk with your accountant about the ability to save for retirement in a 401(k), 403(b), or other type of employee sponsored retirement plan. If you’re self-employed you can also talk with your accountant about the advantages of retirement vehicles such as a SIMPLE IRA, SEP-IRA and many other types of investments. Finally, depending on your income you may also be able to invest in a ROTH IRA which allows you to contribute after tax money which can then be deducted tax free in retirement.

Estate Planning

Depending on your age, there are a variety of strategies to help you with estate planning. Laws surrounding estate planning change from time to time so it’s important to work with a tax professional who is well versed in this area.

Let Havig Tax Help With Tax Planning & Consulting

If you’re unsure whether your current tax planning efforts are sufficient, feel free to give the team at Havig Tax & Consulting a call today. We’ll sit down with you to discuss tax planning strategies that should help you in the years ahead. We can be reached by phone today at (763) 325-4400. We look forward to speaking with you soon.