By: Sharon Heinz, EA

Date Posted: September 2026

Reading Time: 9 – 11 Minutes

For many business owners, taxes become a priority when it’s time to prepare the tax return. By

then, however, most of the financial decisions affecting that tax year have already been made.

Tax planning takes a different approach. Profit Wise focuses on being proactive with clients,

which in turn makes building a business throughout the year a lot easier.

Instead of waiting until tax season to find out what happened, tax planning gives you an

opportunity to look at where your business is headed while there is still time to make informed

decisions. For profitable business owners, that can mean reviewing current financial

performance, estimating your tax liability, discussing upcoming purchases or investments, and

identifying strategies that may make sense for your business.

So, what actually happens during a Profit Wise tax plan meeting?

A productive tax planning meeting at Profit Wise needs more than last year’s tax return. It starts

with understanding what is happening in your business right now. Your current financial

information can help provide a clearer picture of your business’s profitability and where your

income may be headed for the year.

Depending on your situation, the conversation may include:

● Year-to-date revenue and profitability

● Current business expenses

● Prior-year financial results

● Owner compensation and distributions

● Estimated tax payments

● Major changes in the business

● Upcoming purchases or investments

● Changes in staffing or payroll

● Other income or financial activity that could affect your tax situation

The goal isn’t simply to look at numbers on a report; It’s to understand what those numbers may

mean for your tax situation and your decisions for the rest of the year. Current financial

information is an important part of effective tax planning because it gives you and your advisor

something more useful than a backward-looking tax return– it provides a picture of where the

business is going.

Your business today may look very different from your business last year. Maybe revenue has

increased significantly. Perhaps you’ve hired employees, purchased equipment, opened another

location, changed your compensation, or taken on a major new client. Those changes can affect

your tax situation.

That’s why a Profit Wise tax plan meeting isn’t simply a review of what happened last year. We

want to understand what’s different this year and what you expect to happen next. Some of the

most valuable information may come from a simple conversation with the business owner:

● What’s changed?

● What’s coming up?

● What decisions are you considering?

Those questions can uncover planning opportunities that wouldn’t necessarily be obvious from a

tax return alone.

Tax planning shouldn’t happen in isolation from the rest of your business.

If you’re growing, hiring, investing, purchasing property, preparing for retirement, or considering

another major business decision, those goals may need to be part of the tax conversation. For

example, if you’re considering a large equipment purchase, the question isn’t simply, “Can I

deduct this?”

The better question may be:

“Does making this purchase make financial sense for my business, and what are the

potential tax implications?”

The same principle applies to other major decisions. Tax planning should help you understand

the financial consequences of decisions you’re already considering—not encourage you to

spend money simply because an expense may be deductible.

Profitable business owners don’t want to be caught off guard by a large tax bill. During a

planning meeting, we can review your projected income and consider whether your estimated

tax payments are still appropriate based on your current situation. If your income has changed

significantly during the year, the estimates you made earlier may no longer tell the whole story.

Reviewing your tax position before the end of the year gives you an opportunity to better

understand what may be coming and plan your cash accordingly.

Estimated tax payments are one of the practical areas commonly addressed during a productive

tax planning meeting.

This is often what business owners think of first when they hear “tax planning.” But tax planning

is about more than finding deductions.

Depending on your circumstances, the conversation may include opportunities involving:

● Timing of income and expenses

● Business investments

● Equipment purchases

● Retirement planning

● Owner compensation

● Business structure

● Estimated tax payments

● Potential deductions or credits

● Other year-end decisions

Not every strategy will make sense for every business. That’s why the goal isn’t to create a

generic list of tax deductions. It’s to evaluate your specific circumstances and determine which

opportunities are worth considering.

A tax strategy that looks attractive on paper may not make sense once you consider cash flow,

business goals, timing, or other financial factors.

Timing matters in tax planning. Some decisions need to be made before the end of the tax year

to have an impact on that year’s tax situation. Waiting until the tax return is being prepared may

mean there is little or nothing left to change. That’s why we discuss upcoming deadlines and

decisions during the planning meeting.

For example, you may need to determine whether a planned purchase should happen this year

or next year, whether estimated payments need to be adjusted, or whether another financial

decision should be evaluated before the year closes. The earlier these questions are

addressed, the more time you generally have to evaluate your options.

A tax planning meeting shouldn’t end with, “We’ll figure it out when we prepare your return.” You

should know what comes next.

That may include:

● Information or documents you need to provide

● Decisions you need to make

● Estimated tax payments that need attention

● Potential strategies that require further analysis

● Purchases or investments that need to be evaluated

● Questions to revisit later in the year

● Follow-up items and deadlines

A productive planning meeting should result in action—not just information. Profit Wise gives

you a clear understanding of the current tax situation, recommended adjustments, missing

information, and next steps.

If your business is consistently profitable, your tax situation deserves more attention than a

once-a-year review. The more your business grows, the more financial decisions you may have

to make—and those decisions can have tax consequences. By the time you’re sitting down to

prepare your tax return, the opportunity to influence many of those decisions may already be

gone. Tax preparation tells you what happened.

Tax planning asks:

“What can we do about what’s happening next?”

That distinction is important for established business owners who want to be intentional about

how they manage their finances.

If your business is profitable and you’re waiting until tax season to start thinking about taxes, it

may be time to have a different conversation.

Tax planning starts before the tax return.

Schedule a conversation with Profit Wise to discuss your business, your goals, and what you

should be thinking about before the year gets away from you.

Sharon Heinz, EA, is the owner of Profit Wise Accounting. Profit Wise provides tax

preparation, strategic tax planning, accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, and business advisory

services for small and growing businesses.