Short answer: December 31 is the deadline for completing many tax planning actions. But the work needed to get there such as reviewing options, involving specialists, preparing documents, and moving money…may take weeks. For Accountants, October and early November are useful targets for starting those conversations.
As the October 15 extension deadline passes, it’s tempting to wait to schedule any more conversations until January, once the holidays have gone by. While the extended return you just finished reports last year’s results, the opportunity to influence this year’s results is about to expire.
Not every tax planning opportunity ends on December 31. IRA contributions and SEP contributions, for example, can wait. However, other actions need to happen before year-end. October and early November can be useful internal targets for getting planning projects underway.
For many Accountants, especially after extension season, another round of client meetings can feel like the last thing your firm needs. You need a break, and you can feel the filing season already on the horizon.
A planning conversation is easy to move to December, then January. But any type of delay like that will only kill the remaining tax planning opportunities a client has for the year that’s closing.
This is why starting early is so vital. If you’re waiting until after Halloween, that’s already beginning to push it.
For example, if you review your clients for year-end planning, find a business owner who needs a retirement-plan review, another who needs legal work, and a third preparing to sell a company. How do you actually get this done before the end of the year?
You need the right expertise.
If you have to find and evaluate a specialist for each situation, much of the remaining time can disappear before the client ever receives a recommendation.
This is where having established specialist relationships becomes practical.
You can make an introduction, explain what you have identified, and help the specialist understand the client’s broader situation. The specialist can then assess the opportunity, the requirements, and the available time.
As we discussed in When Should a CPA Bring in a Specialist?, recognizing an issue outside your expertise can be the beginning of valuable advisory work.
You do not have to implement every strategy yourself, but rather you simply need a way to help the client take the next step.
You don’t need to review your entire client base at once; start with recently completed extended returns and clients whose circumstances have changed. Look for:
A recently filed return is the starting point. Then schedule a focused conversation:
“Now that your return is finished, let’s look at this year. Has anything changed, and are there decisions we should review before December 31?”
From there, identify what needs immediate attention, what can wait, and who needs to be involved. It helps if you have access to Specialists like Accountants that leverage a Virtual Family Office have.
Just remember that a recommendation only helps if the client can act on it. Starting earlier gives everyone more room to evaluate the options, ask questions, and complete the work. It also lets you explain clearly when a project should focus on next year.
Elite Resource Team helps Accountants build proactive planning relationships with access to Virtual Family Office Specialists across tax planning, legal services, wealth management, risk mitigation, and business advisory. You remain involved with the client while the appropriate specialists provide deeper expertise and help with implementation.
Time Sensitive Q4 Tax Planning Strategies you can potentially help clients with before December 31 include:
A client can leave a meeting interested in an idea and still do nothing about it. They may be waiting for you to contact the specialist, while you are waiting for them to send the information needed to get started.
With year-end approaching, that kind of misunderstanding can use up valuable time.
Before the conversation ends, agree on three things:
You don’t need to promise that a strategy will work before it has been evaluated. You can tell the client:
“Let’s get the right specialist involved, confirm whether this makes sense for your situation, and find out what would need to happen before year-end.”
That gives the client a clear path forward. It also helps you spot delays while there is still time to address them.
The biggest takeaway is that when a planning opportunity comes up, knowing who to call can save valuable time. Elite Resource Team’s Virtual Family Office gives Accountants access to specialists in tax planning without hiring internally. You stay involved with the client while the right specialists help evaluate the opportunity and handle the technical work!
Planning can happen throughout the year. October/ November is a useful time to review current-year changes and identify actions that need to be completed before December 31. Complex projects should begin as early as practical.
No. It is a useful working target for projects that need several weeks of preparation. The actual deadline depends on the strategy, provider requirements, and the client’s circumstances.
Some can. IRA contributions, SEP contributions, and certain employer contributions have deadlines after year-end. Employee deferrals follow different rules. A limited exception allows eligible sole proprietors with no employees to establish a first-year 401(k) and make retroactive deferrals by the regular return due date, without extensions.
Not necessarily. Some actions may still be possible. Confirm the requirements and processing time before promising completion, and explain which opportunities remain available for the current year.