WCG Annual Client Calendar

Posted Sunday, July 13, 2025

We want you to focus on running your business, operating that rental property or working that job, and not spend as much time tending to chores. At the same time, there are hard and soft deadlines. We are at the mercy of government agencies and we must march to the beat of their drum. In addition, we want to manage your expectations.

WCG thinks in four seasons- tax preparation, tax planning, extension, and end of year. We say this as a way to help you manage expectations. What do we mean here? When you call in March and want to chat about a rental property you might or might not purchase, please understand where our focus lies when we kindly ask to defer that conversion until May or June.

The following schedule shows general payroll deadlines, tax return preparation deadlines and reminders, tax planning season and a bunch of other goodies. We will also send out reminders throughout the year.

Recurring Payroll Schedules

There are three important considerations when it comes to payroll processing-

Bi-Weekly Payroll

Most of our small business owners who have a team process payroll on a Friday every two weeks. As such, all payroll hours, changes, new employees, etc. must be sent to us no later than 11:00AM mountain time on the Wednesday prior. Exceptions are rare.

Shareholder Payroll

Shareholder payroll is processed for a check date of around the 10th of the month, and the processing starts on the 6th. Should you need to make a payroll change, it must be sent to us no later than the close of business on the 2nd of the month. This might also require a switch to Payroll Mins for the remainder of the year with an off-cycle bonus to true payroll. Shareholder is meant to be a set it and forget system, with one or two minor changes throughout the year.

End of Year Processing

Throughout the year, and especially during tax planning, we will connect with you to determine your self-employed health insurance premiums paid, long-term care and disability payments, confirm 401k deferrals, among other thing for your W-2 preparation.

December

As mentioned in other places, the WCG Annual Client Management (the “ACM”) internal task has a weird 13-month December to December period. So, we start our calendar with December-

  • Tax season kicks off with engagement letters.
  • Payroll team starts processing your W-2 information.
  • Tax planning wraps up with next year’s payroll plan starting January 10th.

January

  • Business entity tax prep kicks off. You are likely cash-based in your accounting, so, Jan 2 is a lovely day to get us your financial statements for tax prep. Really!
  • W-2’s are delivered mid-month by our payroll team.
  • 4th Quarter estimated tax payments are due Jan 15.

Tax Plans and Payroll Plans are not updated between January and April. If salaries need to be adjusted because of a change in business circumstances, then income tax liabilities will be adjusted on a pro-rata basis and adjusted in May, June or July after a Tax Plan is created. For example, a 20% reduction in salary will also cause a 20% reduction in income tax withheld, and we’ll fix it in the summer.

For new clients onboarding between January and April, we will prepare a “quickie” Tax Plan to get payroll launched.

February

  • Individual tax return preparation (Form 1040) kicks off.
  • Tax docs for partnerships and S Corps are due around Valentine’s day (the actual date varies from year to year)

March

  • Partnerships (Form 1065) and S Corps (Form 1120S) tax returns are due Mar 15.
  • Tax docs for individual tax returns (Form 1040) are due around Mar 15 (specific date varies from year to year).

Should your partnership or S corporation tax return be extended, it is necessary to extend your individual tax return since these tax returns will not be prepared until August (yes, we leave room for emergencies). The only exception are rental property partnerships which might be extended and then completed in time for individual tax return preparation.

April

  • Individual tax returns (Form 1040) and C Corp tax returns (Form 1120, without the S) are due April 15.
  • WCG as a firm is closed for 5 business days following April 15.
  • Tax team takes another week off (heavy lifting doesn’t start until early May).

May

  • For our advisory clients (business advisory, investor patrol, tax patrol), tax planning kicks off with scheduling your pre-planning meeting.

June

  • Tax planning and payroll planning continues.
  • 2nd Quarter estimated tax payments are due Jun 15.
  • California’s first PTET payment is due Jun 15.
  • Tax planning docs are due Jun 30 (see our Simplified Tax Planning worksheet)

If we cannot schedule your pre-planning meeting by mid-July or if you cannot get all your planning documents to us by June 30, then we might be unable to prepare a Tax Plan for you. A lot of CPA firms will do tax planning in November and December- that is crisis mode, and stress creeps in and poor decisions are made given the time compression with holidays and vacations to see Grandma.

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July

  • Tax planning wraps up.
  • WCG is on “lite duty” the week of July 4, and emails will not be returned and appointments are unavailable.
  • Extension season kicks off.

September

Tax docs for extended individual tax returns (Form 1040) are due Sep 1 (it varies as you know from year to year).

Extended partnership and S corporation tax returns are due Sep 15.

3rd Quarter estimated tax payments are due Sep 15.

October

  • Extended individual tax returns (Form 1040) are due Oct 15.
  • For our advisory engagements (business advisory, investor patrol and tax patrol), end of year review meetings are scheduled for November through about the third week of December (see our “slash week” under December).

November

  • End of year review meetings are underway.
  • Updates to Tax Plans are made to those who have a more than 10% change in their income or if there is a material change in circumstance (sold some stock, received unexpected bonus, bought a rental with big fat cost segregation deduction, etc.)
  • Next year Payroll Plans are underway for shareholder payroll processing on Jan 6.

December

  • Payroll team starts to prepare W-2’s.
  • End of year review meetings are wrapping up.
  • Next year Payroll Plans are being delivered, approved and wrapped up.
  • Second week of December is WCG’s firmwide “slash week” where all our remote team members (plus a selected 4 team members from our India team) come to Colorado Springs for tax kickoff / meetings / holiday party / training… hence “slash week.” Emailed responses will be delayed and meetings are not scheduled.

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If your shiny new entity is being taxed as an S Corp, there are other considerations.

Business Records Onboarding Checklist

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Accounting Services (bookkeeping)

With your new business venture, do you need bookkeeping? Might be early, but…

Tax Patrol Services

Learn about Tax Patrol – affordable tax help for individuals and small businesses!

Investor Patrol Services

See our Investor Patrol’s proactive tax planning designed for real estate investors like you.

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Meetings Throughout The Year

At the risk of repeating ourselves-

Who drives the boat? In most ways, you do. We will ping you with phone calls, emails and text messages about critical things like tax return preparation and payroll processing approvals. However, if you want to chat about your business or have a question on a car purchase or want to discuss some tax wizardry your bartender informed you of, those requests come from you. We used to ping business and rental property owners in the past for these meetings but it quickly became noise and unproductive; as such we encourage you to reach out to us… at any time… for anything.

Having said that, there are three meetings we will schedule for all advisory engagements (business advisory, investor patrol and tax patrol)-

  • Pre-tax planning (around May or June, or when you onboard)
  • Tax plan review (around June or July, or when ready to deliver)
  • End of year review (November and December)

Notice something missing? Yup, you got it, tax return meetings. There are three potential meetings for tax return preparation-

  • WCG requested to clarify things or to discuss tax position as we prepare the tax return.
  • Client (you) requested once the tax return is delivered (we love these by the way- something good always comes out).
  • WCG requested as the tax return is delivered to clarify things, explain material differences as compared to the prior year, or other “we think we need to chat about this” situations.

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After almost 6 years with this CPA group, there is NO ONE else we would trust to do our taxes.

L. Matisek

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We've worked with multiple bookkeepers and accountants over the years and WCG has completely blown us away.

N. Sellden

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As a novice business entrepreneur they provided me with the tools to both structure and tax my business efficiently

Mayon Hight

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They've made my taxes a breeze and are worth every dime I pay them for the peace of mind their services provide.

Lynn Shannon

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The good folks at WCG have impressed me, as being highly competent, patient & friendly.

Fred LeBlanc

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They've made my complicated business life simple and I'd recommend them to anyone with a slightly complicated-to-overwhelmingly complicated tax strategy!

Nic J

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For nearly nine years, I have had the privilege of working with WCG and their team of exceptionally knowledgeable and experienced CPAs.

Alex Hickman

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Amanda - WCG CPA - You guys have been invaluable in helping us get this business and tax planning setup properly and executed correctly.

Lance Dodd

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WCG is extremely knowledgable, timely and attune to the unique aspects of our businesses.

Carl Protsch

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WCG CPAs are professional and a pleasure to work with.

Nakapan P.

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They go beyond the call of duties to assist me not only with Tax return matters but with any questions on other personal and company tax matters.

Juan Mayorga

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I've always dreaded tax season, but WCG has made things so easy, even as we changed to an S corp. So happy we found them!

Paige de Kock

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It was great to find an accounting firm eager to take on new clients, answer initial questions in depth, and support our “keep it simple” philosophy.

Stuart B.

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Working with WCG was so easy, shout out to Sally Rhoades who handled my complicated tax situation this year wonderfully and was available for all my questions.

Stefani Cinto

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I am so thankful to be a client of WCG CPAs & Advisors.

Carol Kersten

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It's a wonderful and rare treat to find a company like WCG these days with their high level of service, personal approach, and deep knowledge of accounting.

Jeffree Hilton

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Such a great firm. Great communicators, great attention to detail and overall great people.

Jeff Owens

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