Tax Planning Services
Posted Saturday, July 26, 2025
Table Of Contents
Tax Planning Services
Most people find out what they owe in April. By then the year is closed and the levers are gone. Business owners have salary and distributions to balance. High earners have equity timing, deferrals and capital gains. Real estate investors and niche asset owners have accelerated depreciation and participation hours. Every one of those is a decision made during the year, not discovered after it. That is where a tax strategist earns their keep.
Tax planning is a year-round discipline, not a year-end scramble. Looking around on December 31 for something to buy just to grab a quick deduction is not tax planning, and it is certainly not a tax strategy. It is operating in crisis mode. The clients who manage their tax liability well are the ones proactively managing their “taxable surface” (as one client said years ago) throughout the year, not reacting to deadlines after the fact.
Ok, that is the elevator speech and we have hit the ground floor. “Oh, good morning, Mr. Tyler. Going down?” Who doesn’t love a good Aerosmith reference? We digress…
What does tax planning entail? Here is the part most CPA firms leave fuzzy, and the fuzziness is expensive for you. Ask three firms what tax planning includes and you will get four answers. One means mailing you estimated tax payment vouchers. One means a phone call in December. One means a six-figure cost segregation study. One means nothing at all, which still somehow shows up on a bill. Same two words, four very different invoices.
At WCG CPAs & Advisors tax planning is the family name, not a service. Underneath it sit four services, and the line between them is not how complicated the conversation felt. It is whether we computed anything.
| Service | What Happens | What You Get |
| Tax Projections | Your facts, your tax. We build a mock tax return from your expected income so you know where you stand before the bill arrives. | A tax projection worksheet and an estimated tax payment schedule |
| Tax Strategy Session | A strategy discussed on its merits. Should you do a Roth conversion? Buy the short-term rental? Put the kids on payroll? Nothing gets computed. | A written recap of the discussion |
| Tax Advisory | One strategy applied to your numbers. We take the decision from the session and compute your tax with the strategy in it, so you see the difference in dollars. | A tax projection carrying the strategy, and a written recap |
| Tax Advisory Project | Multiple strategies, multiple years, or a set of what-ifs where you pick A, B, C or some combination. Multi-year Roth conversions, RSU and ISO timing, income spikes. | Scenario models and a written Tax Strategy Plan |
The dividing line between a Tax Strategy Session and Tax Advisory is whether the numbers get computed using your real-life numbers. A session is a discussion and a recap, and nothing moves on paper. Tax Advisory takes that same discussion and puts the strategy into a tax projection so you see what it does to your tax. That is the whole distinction, and we hold to it so the scope conversation stays boring.
Each of these stands on its own and you can sign up for one and stop. When you do move into Tax Advisory, though, the tax projection comes first. It is the baseline. We cannot tell you what a strategy does to your tax until we know what your tax was going to be without it. Sometimes the conversation happens first and we build the projection afterward, which is fine. Either way it gets built before anything is computed.
| Service | Scope | On Advisory Platforms |
| Tax Projections | Household tax liability based on projected income | Keystone, Breck, Vail |
| Tax Projections | Business entity, PTET and state or local taxes based on expected profit | Add-on, state and income driven |
| Tax Projections | Multi-state apportionment and tax calculations | Add-on |
| Tax Strategy Session | One session on a single strategy, written recap | All platforms |
| Tax Strategy Series | Aspen Tax Strategy Series, three sessions with an execution blueprint | Standalone engagement |
| Tax Strategy Series | STR Feasibility Quick Launch, two sessions with a first-year impact model | Standalone engagement |
| Tax Advisory | One strategy computed into a household tax projection, new or existing | Add-on, included with Vail |
| Tax Advisory Project | Multi-strategy, multi-year or scenario-based analysis | Quoted |
See our fee page for full platform details. Standalone services are available to clients who are not on a platform, at the fees below.
Prefabricated Tax Strategy Sessions
Some questions come up often enough that we built the session around them. Same 75 minutes, same written recap, but the groundwork is already done so the time goes to your situation rather than to background. If you are on an advisory platform, your included tax strategy session can be any one of these.
- Accountable Plan Quick Build
- Company Car Quick Launch
- Reasonable Salary Quick Check
- Family Payroll Quick Build
Under Construction
- Multi-Entity Structuring Quick Launch, Operating Business
- Pass-Through Entity SALT Workaround Quick Build
- Multi-Entity Structuring Quick Launch, Real Estate
- Accelerated Depreciation Quick Launch
- REPS Compliance Quick Check
- Material Participation and Log Analysis Quick Check
- Niche Assets Quick Launch
- State Domicile Change Quick Build
- 1031 Exit Strategy Quick Check, Converting to a Residence
- Equity Compensation Timing Quick Check
- Day Trader and Mark to Market Quick Check
The ones under construction are still available as discussion topics using our Advanced Tax Strategies and Summarized Tax Strategies pages as guides. We've also linked them to other webpages and KB articles in the meantime. We just haven't done the full-blown checklists and discussion outlines yet.
Not About The Money
When people say it is not about the money, it is all about the money, right?
WCG CPAs & Advisors believes in a lot of things that buck the traditional CPA firm approach. Having each service line stand on its own is one such thing. For example, a lot of firms will discount bookkeeping services and then puff up the tax preparation invoice to subsidize the combined service. We don’t like this approach, and it also marginalizes the people on our accounting services (bookkeeping) team.
Same with tax planning. Sure, we could puff up the tax preparation invoice and then offer “free tax planning.” Nonsense. Not everyone needs tax planning, and as such, they are overpaying for tax return preparation. Same with baggage fees. Everyone hates them, except those who do carry on and don’t want to subsidize your pallet of luggage for a weekend in New York City.
No one works for free. So if another CPA firm is offering “free” tax planning separate from tax return preparation, they are making up for it somewhere. Only free donuts are honorable (and worth having).
We have the table above to show what is available and bundled into various engagements. The table below shows the money. Not sure where to start? A complimentary discovery meeting sorts it out.
Individuals and Households
| Household Tax Projection, Basic (one jurisdiction) | $600 |
| Additional State Tax Projection, Apportionment (per jurisdiction) | $150 to $300 |
| Tax Projection Update (after delivery) | $250 |
| Shareholder Payroll Plan, QBID Optimized, Reasonable Salary Calcs | $450 |
| Payroll Plan Update | $250 |
| Tax Strategy Session I (30 to 35 minutes, plus 25 to 30 minutes prep and recap) | $375 |
| Tax Strategy Session II, any session from the library above or a custom topic (75 minutes) | $475 |
| Tax Strategy Series: Aspen Tax Strategy Series (3 sessions) | $1,800 |
| Tax Strategy Series: STR Feasibility Quick Launch (2 sessions) | $950 |
| Tax Advisory, a discussed strategy computed into your tax projection | $250* |
| Tax Advisory Project | Quoted |
Business Entities
| Business Entity Tax Projection For State / Local Taxes (one jurisdiction) | $450 |
| Tax Projection Update (after delivery) | $250 |
| Business Entity Pass-Through Entity Tax Optimization (one jurisdiction, income driven) | $625 |
| Additional State Tax Projection, Apportionment (per jurisdiction) | $150 to $300 |
* Tax Advisory is an add-on rather than a package, because it attaches to whatever you already have. If you have a current tax projection with us and we have had the strategy discussion, it is $250 on its own. Starting from nothing, a household tax projection at $600 plus a Tax Strategy Session at $375 or $475 plus the $250 application lands at $1,225 or $1,325 depending on which session fits the subject matter.
We scope and quote before we work. Nothing on this page arrives as a surprise on an invoice.
Tax projections are included on Keystone, Breck and Vail Advisory Platforms. Please see our fee page for more information. Alternatively, give us a call!
Tax Projection Services
Tax Projections take your expected household income including W-2 wages, retirement income, investment income, business income and rental income, and project your tax obligations for the year by building a mock tax return. We factor in changes in household like marriage, children born or launched, and so on. Yes, this is mostly reactive. “Your facts, your tax.”
Tax Advisory is where things get proactive, and that is covered further down.
Household tax projections are included on our Keystone, Breck and Vail Advisory Platforms. For tax-only individual engagements, a household tax projection is $600.
Business Entity Tax Projections
Business entity tax projections are never automatically included, because whether you need one depends on where you operate. Colorado does not require one. Texas generally does not unless profit clears the franchise tax threshold. California always does. We tell you which bucket you are in before we quote it, and the fee is $450 for one jurisdiction (like a state, a city, or a county… at times we can find some efficiency with multiple jurisdictions).
Pass-through entity tax (PTET) is a separate question. Most states have one, but not every household benefits from it now that the SALT deduction cap sits at $40,400 (for the 2026 tax year) thanks to OBBBA. That said, the higher cap phases down above $505,000 of income and bottoms back out at $10,000, so plenty of our clients are right where they were before. That is a calculation, not an assumption, which is why PTET optimization is priced separately at $625.
Payroll Plan
A Payroll Plan is not included with Tax Projections. Our payroll plans include reasonable owner salary recommendations and optimization, plus 401k, fringe benefit and health insurance matters as they relate to payroll processing. If we have prepared a Tax Projection, we then also increase income tax withholdings to reduce or eliminate quarterly estimated tax payments. We also consider PTET and adjust your state income tax withholdings downward or remove entirely.
Keep in mind that payroll processing tables do not understand your household income. If you are an S Corp shareholder drawing $80,000 salary on $200,000 of business profits, the payroll tables will withhold assuming $80,000 of income and will be drastically under-withholding. A Tax Projection plus a Payroll Plan eliminates that problem.
Our Payroll Plan, including an optional RCReport, is $450.
Payroll Plan Update
Each fall we review your Payroll Plan for the upcoming year. Two things can complicate the new plan as we roll into the new year-
- Compression. This happens when payroll processing started after operations. For example, you were in business for all 12 months, but started payroll in April. 9 months of payroll covering 12 months of business is compressed. Next year, payroll amounts including pay and withholdings will likely be less since we have more months to spread it out.
- Short-Year. This happens when you start your business mid-year such as May, and next year will have more business profits. This usually requires an increase in payroll amounts.
Should a Payroll Plan Update be required, our fee is $250.
Data Gathering
The initial process goes like this-
- You send relevant household data to us like most recent pay stubs for you and your spouse (if applicable) including your most recently filed tax returns if WCG did not prepare them.
- You complete our Simplified Tax Planning worksheet (the “STP”) either with our fillable PDF or secure online form. It is intentionally short to get the basics out of the way so our pre-projection meeting can be productive.
- We stare at it, scratch our heads for a bit, and then schedule a pre-projection meeting with you to review.
This is the shortie version. You should also review our Sending Docs Checklist for Tax Planning.
Pre-Projection Meeting Agenda
- For our business owners or 1099 contractors, we will confirm your business profit projections, discuss your 401k / SEP IRA ambitions, confirm health insurance premiums and related matters, and estimate your Accountable Plan reimbursements. We will talk you out of any SEP IRA ambitions in favor of the 401k.
- For our rental property owners and real estate investors, we will confirm your rental profit and loss projections, review your short-term rental loophole and real estate professional status matters to determine passive activity loss limitations, and any changes in your circumstances (selling a rental, taking a rental offline for renovations, constructing an ADU, etc.). Any big plans on 100% bonus depreciation in connection with a cost segregation study?
- Confirm amounts and dates of estimated tax payments for both you, the human, and your business including any pass-through entity tax (PTET) deduction payments.
- Answer any initial questions you might have.
The pre-projection meeting usually lasts about 40 minutes. Since everyone is busy, plenty of clients bolt a Tax Strategy Session onto the back of it and make one 75-minute sitting of the whole thing. We gather what we need for the projection, then spend the back half on whatever strategy is on your mind. One meeting, one prep, one recap, and you are not back on a calendar three weeks later. Still two services but around here we call it the combo platter with all the taste but half the calories.
In addition to the mini agenda above, we have an extensive questionnaire to get the creative juices flowing… which get pumped into our tax projection software-
- What is your business income after expenses (profit) for this year? How about next year? (pro-tip: aligning deductions with spikes in income makes sense)
- How about your rental property income? Any changes from last year like converting a short-term rental into long-term?
- Any other income such as interest, dividends, capital gains, rental income, pension income, real estate property sale, etc.?
- What will be your Roth IRA contribution? Traditional IRA? What are your current pre-tax versus post-tax contribution strategies?
- What will be your solo 401k contribution? Will there be a discretionary employer contribution made by the business? Does your solo 401k allow for Roth contributions (it should)?
- How much cash can you separate with for retirement planning? $20k? $50k? $100k? Bags of money just lying around?
- Are you leveraging a Health Savings Account (HSA)? (pro-tip: max out your HSA, it is a retirement account of sorts)
- What is your state of residency? Any changes? Will you retire in another state?
- Are you or will you qualify as an expatriate, Foreign Earned Income Exclusion?
And these questions are just jumping off points or conversation starters for Tax Projections and in some cases, Tax Strategy leading to Tax Advisory. In preparation for your pre-projection meeting, you should review our tax strategies and start to generate a list of questions.
Sidebar: As a school-house refresher, Tax Advisory is the application of a Tax Strategy to a Tax Projection for side by side comparison. Oh, all these terms!!
Your unique situation will take us down various roads, and more questions and answers will come up. Also.. and this is important.. we might not arrive at the answer you like or want but it will be accurate nonetheless. The sooner you have an answer the sooner you can begin warming up to its consequences (good or bad).
Afterwards, we create a Tax Projection using a mock tax return and estimated tax payments if applicable.
One of our objectives with Tax Projections is to achieve tax neutrality on your tax returns by aiming for a $1,000 refund from the IRS and $500 refund from the state. How do we do this? If you are an S Corp shareholder, we increase your income tax withholdings to land on tax neutrality. Otherwise we create a schedule of estimated tax payments.
Another Sidebar: Tax neutrality could also mean a targeted $5,000 (or more) refund from the IRS. Why? For our high income earners, we usually bake in a larger targeted refund given the variability of income. If your tax return numbers are only $30,000 different than your Tax Projection, that could be easily $11,000 difference in tax liability.
Tax Projection Delivered
- We deliver your Tax Projection and estimated tax payments (if applicable). We highlight concerns or questions. For our Vail Advisory Platform, we will update and deliver your Payroll Plan as well.
- From there, we strongly recommend a Tax Projection review meeting to confirm the data inputs, review the projections line by line and answer any additional questions you might have. If there are changes to your Payroll Plan, we review those as well. We can also record a 5-7 minute video. Up to you!
Once a Tax Projection is delivered, it is a snapshot. If your facts change materially, a sale, a bonus, a new rental, a spike in profit, we can re-run it for $250. Small corrections during the review meeting are part of the original engagement. Your collaboration there is not an update, it is how we land the final Tax Projection.
Multi-State Apportionment
Should your tax footprint span multiple states then an additional tax projection fee might be incurred. For example, you are a consultant living in Colorado and your only client is in California. You will likely have a California income tax obligation given your revenue concentration, and you will also have a Colorado obligation. Generally, how these states interact is that you pay California tax, and Colorado gives you credit (to a limit) of the taxes paid to another state. There are a zillion examples, so please visit our state apportionment web page to get more information.
Each jurisdiction (state, city and / or county) beyond your resident state runs $150 to $300 depending on how involved the apportionment gets. Same pricing whether it is a household or a business entity tax projection. Note this is just the tax projection fee. Apportionment and nexus work on the tax return itself is quoted separately. At times we have to spend effort in calculating the apportionment to determine the nexus (based on physical presence, or economic presence such as sales, property and payroll) to then determine if you have a filing obligation- it is a process, and one that causes us to groan a bit. Oh well, this is our chosen profession.
SALY Tax Projections
For those advisory platforms (Keystone, Copper, Breck and Vail), if we do not have your data by July 31, then we cannot complete a Tax Projection for the year. Instead, we will create projections based on the previous year assuming “same as last year” or SALY in nerdy accounting vernacular. We will not scramble in November and December to crank out some Tax Projection that could have been done in the summer. Time is just way too compressed with holidays and whatnot, and the tax team has other duties such as end-of-year planning, payroll bonus processing and roll forwards and other verifications.
Yes, we leave room for exceptions. A good example is a real estate agent or someone who is paid via commissions, and income streams are lumpy and bumpy. Another good example is a client who just stumbled on the amazing WCG tax team in November, and needs help… like now.
End of Year Wrap Up
For our Vail Advisory Platform, we review your Payroll Plan for the upcoming year. Two things can complicate the new Payroll Plan as we roll into the new year-
- Compression. This happens when payroll processing started after operations. For example, you were in business for all 12 months, but started payroll in April. 9 months of payroll covering 12 months of business is compressed. Next year, payroll amounts including pay and withholdings will likely be less since we have more months to spread it out.
- Short-Year. This happens when you start your business mid-year such as May, and next year will have more business profits. This usually requires an increase in payroll amounts.
At times we see the “short-year” effect with rental property owners as well but in a different way. First year expenses getting your short-term rental online won’t repeat and perhaps you missed the busy season with the purchase date. More importantly, a cost seg study is a one and done. All in all, you could have a big fat loss in year 1, and a material rental profit the following year that moves your tax needle.
Rental Property Tax Strategy
We often get asked about rental properties, specifically short-term rental properties, and how they are a tax strategy especially among high income earners. As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, rental properties are a wealth building strategy not solely a tax reduction strategy. However, they can be both!
Tax Advisory Services
Tax Advisory is one step beyond a Tax Projection, and it is the proactive part. It marries your facts with a tax strategy to identify opportunities that align with your risk profile, so you can find comfort in an informed decision.
No, our mother didn’t write that (neither did AI). Who did? Nearly two decades of walking this rock preparing tax returns and working with business owners and rental property investors wrote that cheesy line. Conversely, a Tax Projection determines tax obligations given your facts. A sorting of the bodies, if you will.
A Tax Projection is what we build upon, but on its own it cannot answer questions like these-
- How much should I pay myself as an S Corp owner? How do 401k deferrals and self-employed health insurance affect this? HSA? Long-term care? Disability?
- Should I exercise my ISOs this year or next?
- Should I do a cost segregation study on that rental I bought three years ago? Should I use 100% bonus depreciation on all asset classes, or only use one or two of the classes available (5- 7- and 15-year)? Should I amend my tax returns or use a Form 3115 with an IRC Section 481(a) adjustment?
- Should I purchase a vehicle for my business? If so, this year or next year? How much will I save in taxes?
- How much tax will I save if I put my children on payroll? My spouse?
- I want to leverage the Augusta rule for renting out my house. Tell me the tax savings based on reasonable rent and my marginal tax rate.
- How close am I to losing “cliff-like” tax credits like the premium tax credit, child tax credit, dependent care credit, student loan interest deduction and education credits? If I max out my 401k contribution, do I get under the phaseout limits? Does a $10,000 401k contribution release $5,000 in “tax cash” (which would be a win, right?)?
- If I sell my Tesla stock, how does my Tax Projection change?
Each of those is one strategy, computed once, and you walk away with a Tax Projection carrying the strategy plus a written recap. That is Tax Advisory, and it is a $250 add-on to a Tax Projection and a Tax Strategy Session you already have. For our Vail Advisory Platform clients, Tax Advisory is included.
Some questions do not resolve in a single computation-
- Should I sell some Tesla stock now, some later and some even later? What does each tranche do to my tax?
- Piggybacking on the cost segregation question above, what is my internal rate of return? What is my cash on cash rate of return? How does my cash flow improve assuming a certain cost of equity or return on investment?
- If I defer income recognition by delaying certain events and / or pre-pay certain expenses (accelerating deductions such as rent and insurance), how do my taxes change using different scenarios?
- Should I convert my traditional IRA to a Roth IRA this year, or spread it out? Can you give me an analysis of each?
- Should I bunch my charitable donations or use a donor advised fund? Why? Can you show the differences in taxes today, and into the future?
- Should I pare down debt now or later? Combo? Does it make sense given my marginal tax today versus tomorrow?
Those are Tax Advisory Projects. Multiple strategies, multiple years, or a set of what-ifs where you pick A, B, C or some combination. More on those below.
Sidebar: WCG CPAs & Advisors has been built from the beginning to buck the traditional CPA firm norms such as time billing in favor of value-based fees. We despise time billing with the heat of a thousand suns (ok, a bit dramatic), which is why Tax Advisory carries a flat fee rather than an hourly rate with a minimum and a wince, but it does require a Tax Projection first followed by a Tax Strategy Session.
Tax Advisory is typically handled by WCG Partners or Senior Tax Managers. This stuff is crazy like the Glue and the Train (yes, an Ozzy reference snuck in), and requires a deep knowledge of the tax code plus the finesse to explain the nuances and subtleties. The anxiety of not knowing, or the cost of an incorrect decision, runs higher than the fee. Did we throw one too many pitches on that last one?
As mentioned earlier, Tax Advisory is included on our Vail Advisory Platform, once per year. On Keystone and Breck it is available as an add-on since household Tax Projection is already being prepared.
Another silly consideration to keep in mind- Building wealth is your primary and perhaps only mission; not saving taxes. If we can do both, Yay! However, paying taxes provides value to your assets, such as a business or rental property. As such, paying taxes gives you access to capital, and access to capital helps build wealth (or do the things you want to do). Yes, we just suggested paying more in taxes but for good reason.
Tax Projections Versus Tax Advisory
When does a Tax Projection become Tax Advisory? When a decision is on the table and the answer requires computing it. Here are some examples-
| Tax Projections (Your Facts, Your Tax) | Tax Advisory (Your Decision, Your Tax) |
| I did a cost seg which came in at $120,000 of eligible property for bonus depreciation. I plan to deduct it all. | Should I use 100% bonus depreciation on all asset classes, or only use one or two of the classes available (5- 7- and 15-year)? |
| I purchased a heavy truck for $90,000. I plan to deduct the max. | Should I purchase a heavy truck this year or next? Should I do the max depreciation, or plan it out? |
| I max’d out my Roth 401k. | Should I max out my Roth 401k or pre-tax 401k, assuming a 22% marginal tax rate in retirement and an 8% rate of return? |
| I received $30,000 in capital gains this year from selling stock. | Should I realize more gains this year or defer to next year to optimize my AGI and avoid triggering NIIT or AMT? |
| I sold the rental on Elm Street for $450,000. It was a nightmare. | I have the option to do an installment sale on the Elm Street rental over 5 years. Should I take it? (follow-up from WCG- Did you risk adjust the purchase price?) |
The left column is reporting. The right column is a decision with a number attached. Notice that a couple of these want to grow. The Roth 401k question is easy enough for this year, but once you want three decades modeled against a retirement tax rate, it has become a Tax Advisory Project. Same with the installment sale spread over five years. That is the next section.
There are 6,772 other examples that we came up with but don’t want to bore you. Where do we go from here? Easy! Your job is to extract the most out of your WCG CPAs & Advisors tax planners. Our job is to keep the scope conversation boring.
Tax Advisory Project
Some questions do not resolve in one computation. When a decision spans several strategies, several years, or a set of scenarios you want to choose between, that is a Tax Advisory Project. It is not a point-in-time decision but rather a series of actions over the short- and mid-term, aligned to your long term financial, business and real estate objectives.
Three things push a question into this category-
- Multi-faceted. More than one strategy, and they interact. Most tax questions do not sit still on their own.
- Multi-year. Roth conversions, expected RSU or ISO vesting, a known income spike, a planned exit.
- Scenario based. You want A, B and C modeled so you can pick one or blend them.
Here are some examples-
- Can you help me develop a 5-year Roth conversion strategy to reduce future RMDs, and tell me the tax impact for each year and in total?
- Assuming a different marginal tax rate at retirement, can you model 100% pre-tax, 100% post-tax and a 50-50 split on my cash flow now and during retirement?
- If I can spend $200,000 each year on the purchase of a short-term rental for five years, and assuming maximum cost segregation and 100% bonus depreciation, what are my tax savings and what is my time value of money on improved cash flow?
- Should I accelerate or stretch depreciation based on my projected income trajectory? Can you give me a tax strategy using various tracks or scenarios?
Tax Advisory Projects are quoted by scope. As you can imagine, these vary wildly in complexity requiring more time and effort including discussions with you. Most land between $1,500 and $3,000 depending on how many strategies, how many years, and how many scenarios you want modeled. The deliverable is a written Tax Strategy Plan, reviewed with you and updated as your circumstances and risk tolerance change.
How is this different from Tax Advisory? Tax Advisory computes one strategy into one Tax Projection. A Tax Advisory Project models several, across time, and writes it down.
Sidebar: The Greeks had two words for time. Chronos is the clock, the calendar, one year after another. Kairos is the right moment for a thing, which is a different question entirely. A Roth conversion is a fine idea in the abstract and a terrible one in a year your income spikes. A cost segregation study is the same study whether you run it this year or next, but the two outcomes are not remotely the same. That is the whole job of a Tax Advisory Project- finding the year, not just the strategy. We liked the word enough to name our custom AI tool after it, since the right answer at the wrong time is just a wrong answer.
How are they the same? Both aim to provide comfort in your decision-making process and to reduce your FOMO. The fear of missing out on amazing and wonderful tax deductions that others can’t help but brag about to you at the cocktail party and as reinforced by your bartender.
Tax Planning Services Summary
As mentioned above, WCG CPAs & Advisors splits the concept of “tax planning” into four separate services-
- Tax Projections. Simple tax liability calculation based on your projected data. We call this “your facts, your tax.” Household projections are included on our Keystone, Breck and Vail Advisory Platforms.
- Tax Strategy Session. One strategy discussed on its merits, with a written recap. Nothing gets computed. Prefabricated or custom, and included on every advisory platform.
- Tax Advisory. A decision needs to be made based on tax consequence, so we compute that strategy into your Tax Projection and show you the difference side by side. A $250 add-on, included on Vail Advisory Platform.
- Tax Advisory Project. A series of what-if, scenario based outcomes over several years needs to be analyzed to make decisions today, and along the way. Quoted by scope, and it ends with a written Tax Strategy Plan.
If we computed it, it is Tax Advisory. If we discussed it, it is a Tax Strategy Session. That is the whole test.
How We Communicate
We rely heavily on email and text, but we are not allergic to the telephone. During friendly hours (let's call it 8AM to 7PM, including weekends) we will often just call you if we have a quick question or need clarification. It is usually faster for everyone.
That said, email is a wonderful tool for sending documents, memorializing decisions, and asking simple yes or no questions. It is also a terrible tool for explaining complex tax strategy. To keep things efficient and sane, we operate under two primary communication rules.
The Deep Work Rule (Mondays and Thursdays)
To produce high-quality work, our tax team needs uninterrupted focus. As such, we generally process email on Mondays and Thursdays. Why? It allows us to stay heads-down in your data on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays without distraction.
Need us sooner? Call us. If something is time-sensitive, a 5-minute phone call beats a 3-day email wait every time. We are committed to responding to all emails within 3 business days.
The PB&J Rule (Efficiency)
If your email requires more than 10 minutes to answer, we will not reply via email. Instead we will call you or send a calendar link to discuss. Why? The PB&J concept.
Everyone loves a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But trying to explain how to make one via email takes 45 minutes. Seriously. Crunchy or smooth? Strawberry or grape? Diagonal cut or straight? Toasted?
We could trade 15 emails debating jelly, or we could have a 12-minute conversation, build the perfect sammy, come away more fulfilled, and move on with our lives.
The Recap Promise
We know conversations blur fast for busy people. After every meeting we send a recap email to memorialize the discussion. This recap also gets captured by our workflow software so your entire WCG team stays in the loop.
A Note on Exceptions
We always make room for military clients on secure bases, expats in challenging time zones, and anyone with accessibility needs who requires email as their primary channel. Just let us know and we will work around it.
Pass Through Entity Tax Election Planning
Way back in 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed with a lot of cool tax deductions like corporate taxes going to 21% and the Section 199A qualified business income deduction. But life is one big equalizer, and Congress wanted to limit state and local taxes (SALT) to $10,000. This means either state income taxes or real estate taxes, or both, were severely muted. People in South Dakota owning a $600,000 house were like “what’s the big deal?!” People living in Oregon (second highest state income tax rate next to California) owning the same house were like “WTF, over?!”

So! States got creative, and created a state tax that was deducted on partnerships and S corporations (otherwise called pass-through entities, or PTE for short) resulting in lower federal taxable income. This tax was in turn credited to the small business owner resulting in lower state income taxes being reported on Schedule A. This is a workaround to the SALT limit, and nearly all states have enacted legislation to do just that.
The IRS took note of the workaround, but understood it was perfectly legit. The IRS through Notice 2020-75 states,
“Certain jurisdictions described in section 164(b)(2) have enacted, or are contemplating the enactment of, tax laws that impose either a mandatory or elective entity-level income tax on partnerships and S corporations that do business in the jurisdiction or have income derived from or connected with sources within the jurisdiction. In certain instances, the jurisdiction’s tax law provides a corresponding or offsetting, owner-level tax benefit, such as a full or partial credit, deduction, or exclusion.”
The IRS continues by stating this practice is permitted under the notice until it can legislate this practice into regulations.
Then OBBBA arrived in July 2025 and raised the SALT cap, which changed the math for a lot of households. The cap is $40,400 for the 2026 tax year, written directly into the statute with a fixed 1% step each year through 2029, and then it falls off a cliff back to $10,000 in 2030. Worth knowing that it is a statutory number, not one of the IRS annual inflation adjustments, so it does not move with inflation.
Here is the part that matters for our clients. The higher cap phases down above $505,000 of modified adjusted gross income, dropping 30 cents for every dollar over, and it bottoms back out at the old $10,000 floor around $606,333. So a business owner at $700,000 of income is right back where they were in 2018, and PTET is worth exactly what it was worth before.
Sidebar: Earlier drafts of OBBBA proposed limiting or killing the PTET deduction. The enacted law contains no such restriction, so entity-level deductibility still rests on Notice 2020-75. If you read otherwise somewhere, that was a draft.
There are all kinds of rules, and not every business owner will benefit from the PTET or pass-through entity tax deduction. As such, the tax planning for determining the efficacy of using this tax deduction is challenging. That is a calculation, not an assumption, which is why PTET optimization is priced separately at $625.
Tax Reduction Strategies
One of our primary focuses at WCG is ensuring you are paying the least amount of taxes allowed by law. Some of our other primary focuses are helping you build wealth and leverage the most of your financial worlds for you and your family. However, these focuses or objectives are not isolated; they are very much related to each other and intertwined.
Our Tax Strategy Hub is where the strategies live. Borrowing against your unrealized gains, state deferrals and residency changes, 401k and retirement plans, cost segregation, adding a spouse or children to payroll, 1031 exchanges, conservation easements, among other fun stuff. Each one gets discussed on its merits in a Tax Strategy Session.
When you want to see what one of them does to your actual tax, that is Tax Advisory. When you want several of them modeled across years with a written Tax Strategy Plan, that is a Tax Advisory Project. Same strategies, three different depths.
End of Year Tax Planning
December is the worst time to start and one of the better times to finish. Our End of Year Tax Strategy Session runs in October or November, which is late enough to know how the year actually went and early enough to still do something about it.
Typical ground: confirming 401k deferrals and HSA contributions, timing income and deductions across the year boundary, checking proximity to credit phaseouts, bonus and payroll decisions for owners, and setting the payroll plan for next year. For rental property owners it is placed-in-service dates, cost segregation timing and material participation hours.
Related Content
Table Of Contents
Tax Planning Season
Tax planning season is here! Let's schedule a time to review tax reduction strategies and generate a mock tax return.
Bookkeeping Services
Tired of maintaining your own books? Seems like a chore to offload?
Tax Planning Consultation
Did you want to chat about this? Do you have questions about WCG’s tax planning service levels including tax strategy?
The tax advisors, business consultants and rental property experts at WCG CPAs & Advisors are not salespeople; we are not putting lipstick on a pig expecting you to love it. Our job remains being professionally detached, giving you information and letting you decide within our ethical guidelines and your risk profiles.
We see far too many crazy schemes and half-baked ideas from attorneys and wealth managers. In some cases, they are good ideas. In most cases, all the entities, layering and mixed ownership is only the illusion of precision. As Chris Rock says, just because you can drive your car with your feet doesn’t make it a good idea. In other words, let’s not automatically convert “you can” into “you must.”
Let’s chat so you can be smart about it.
We typically schedule a 20-minute complimentary quick chat with one of our Partners or our amazing Senior Tax Professionals to determine if we are a good fit for each other, and how an engagement with our team looks. Tax returns only? Business advisory? Tax strategy and planning? Rental property support?
Tax Planning Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of tax planning?
Tax planning helps you estimate and manage your tax liability today and tomorrow, so you know how much of the cash in your bank account is actually yours and how much belongs to the IRS.
When should tax planning be done?
Year-round, not in a December scramble. Most of our planning work runs from May through November, which is late enough to know how the year is going and early enough to change the outcome.
What are the four tax planning services at WCG?
Tax Projections, Tax Strategy Sessions, Tax Advisory and Tax Advisory Projects. The line between them is whether we computed anything: a session is a discussion with a written recap, while Tax Advisory puts the strategy into your Tax Projection and recomputes.
What does a Tax Projection include?
A mock tax return built from your projected income, factoring in changes like marriage, new dependents or income shifts, plus an estimated tax payment schedule or adjusted withholdings. We aim for tax neutrality, targeting a small refund rather than a surprise.
How much does a household Tax Projection cost?
For tax-only engagements it is $600. Business entity tax projections are quoted separately at $450 for one jurisdiction, or $625 where PTET optimization is involved. Additional state tax projections run $150 to $300 per jurisdiction.
What is a Tax Strategy Session?
One strategy discussed on its merits, with a written recap and nothing recomputed. Session I is 30 to 35 minutes at $375, and Session II is 75 minutes at $475. Session II can be any of our prefabricated sessions or a custom topic you bring.
What are prefabricated tax strategy sessions?
Sessions we built around questions that come up often, such as the Accountable Plan Quick Build, Company Car Quick Launch, Reasonable Salary Quick Check and Family Payroll Quick Build. Same 75 minutes and same fee as a custom session, but the groundwork is already done so the time goes to your situation.
What is Tax Advisory at WCG?
Tax Advisory is one strategy computed into your Tax Projection so you see what it does to your tax in dollars, side by side. It is a $250 add-on to a Tax Projection and a Tax Strategy Session you already have.
What is the difference between a Tax Strategy Session and Tax Advisory?
A Tax Strategy Session is a discussion of a strategy on its merits, delivered as a written recap, with nothing recomputed. Tax Advisory takes that same strategy and runs it through your Tax Projection so the answer is a number rather than a conclusion.
Why does the Tax Projection have to come first?
Because a strategy only means something against a baseline. We cannot tell you what a Roth conversion or a cost segregation study does to your tax until we know what your tax was going to be without it.
What is a Tax Advisory Project?
A Tax Advisory Project is for questions that do not resolve in one computation: multiple strategies that interact, decisions spanning several years, or scenarios you want modeled so you can choose. The deliverable is a written Tax Strategy Plan. These are quoted by scope and most land between $1,500 and $3,000.
What is the Aspen Tax Strategy Series?
A three-session engagement taking you from financial snapshot to execution blueprint, with a reality filter applied before anything gets recommended. The series fee is $1,800. The STR Feasibility Quick Launch is a two-session version focused on the short-term rental loophole, at $950.
Are Tax Projections included with WCG advisory platforms?
Household Tax Projections are included on Keystone, Breck and Vail, and every platform includes a tax strategy session. Business entity tax projections are never automatic, because whether you need one depends on your state. Check the fee page for what your platform covers.
Is a Payroll Plan included with a Tax Projection?
No. A Payroll Plan covers reasonable owner salary recommendations and optimization, plus 401k, fringe benefit and health insurance matters as they relate to payroll processing. It is $450 and includes an optional RCReport. It is included on our Vail Advisory Platform.
What data does WCG need to start?
Recent pay stubs, your most recently filed tax returns if we did not prepare them, and our Simplified Tax Planning worksheet, which is deliberately short. Our Sending Docs Checklist for Tax Planning covers the longer version.
What happens during the pre-projection meeting?
About 40 minutes reviewing your income projections, retirement plan ambitions, health insurance and real estate activity, confirming estimated tax payments, and answering your initial questions. Plenty of clients bolt a Tax Strategy Session onto the back of it and make one 75-minute sitting of the whole thing.
What is a SALY projection?
If we do not have your data by July 31, we build projections on a same-as-last-year basis rather than scrambling in November and December. We leave room for exceptions where income is genuinely lumpy, such as commission-based work.
What is the Pass-Through Entity Tax?
PTET lets your business pay state income tax at the entity level, creating a federal deduction and working around the SALT cap. The cap is $40,400 for the 2026 tax year, but it phases down above $505,000 of income and bottoms back out at $10,000, so PTET still matters for plenty of business owners. That is a calculation rather than an assumption.
How does WCG approach email?
Our tax team processes email on Mondays and Thursdays so the other three days stay heads-down in client data, and we respond within three business days. If a question needs more than 10 minutes to answer in writing, we will call you or send a calendar link instead.
How do I get started?
A complimentary 20-minute discovery meeting with one of our Senior Tax Accountants, or a 20-minute meeting with a Partner for $250 with half credited toward whatever you engage us for.
Pre-Projection Meeting Agenda
The PB&J Rule (Efficiency)




























