It’s Not What You Earn That Matters. It’s What You Keep.
Minimizing taxes is essential to protecting your lifestyle, longevity, and legacy. That’s why we make proactive tax strategy an integral part of our financial planning process.
With CPAs and other tax professionals on staff coast to coast, we can plan and prepare your state and federal returns and help you optimize tax-favored accounts and charitable giving to keep more of what you earned — for you and your heirs.*
Because income tax is typically our clients’ largest outflow, we place great importance on income tax planning and preparation. We want to be proactive at all times, not reactive.
Year-Round Tax Planning
Optimizing your finances means optimizing your tax planning. A smart tax strategy includes year-round planning and action. If you wait until tax season, it may be too late to make a difference. Here’s what year-round tax planning looks like — and what’s on our minds every day:
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- Retirement contributions
Make contributions for the previous year. This can be done until the time you file your tax return. - Tax return prep and filing
Gather 1099s, K1s, qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) and other tax documentation for previous year. - Current Year Planning
Identify tax efficiencies and other tax opportunities for the year ahead.
- Retirement contributions
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- Estimated taxes
Make sure you’re keeping up on what you might owe the IRS. - Review of last year’s returns
What changes are needed or wanted for the next filing? - Cash flow planning
Are there any updated spending assumptions that could impact retirement projections?
- Estimated taxes
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- Tax return filing
For extension filers, returns are due in October. You can also make the previous year’s retirement contributions. - Rebalance tax payments
Lower withholding levels to avoid large refunds, or increase to avoid underpayment penalty. - Charitable giving
Plan now to avoid the year-end rush, especially if you will contribute to a donor advised fund (DAF).
- Tax return filing
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- Before the new year
Satisfy RMDs and charitable giving. Max out tax-advantaged accounts. Harvest gains/losses. Use remaining FSA funds. - Planning for next year
Review age rules for RMDs, QCDs, Social Security, retirement contributions, and Medicare surcharge issues. - After the new year
Consider Roth conversion if expected income is known. Identify needed trust distributions.
- Before the new year
For illustrative purposes only, may not be applicable to all clients.
FEATURED SOLUTIONS
- Comprehensive tax planning
- Tax return preparation & filing
- Succession planning
- Charitable giving strategies
- Tax-loss harvesting
- Efficient distributions
- Roth conversions
- Retirement plan contributions
* Tax preparation and tax filing are a separate fee from our investment management and planning services.
Take the Long View with Taxes
When it comes to taxes, many families are only looking in the rearview mirror. Whether you work with an accountant or file your tax return yourself, you’re typically only measuring what happened in the past, and only one year at a time.
But what about next year? And the year after that? At Mercer Advisors, our CPAs can prepare your tax returns. But more importantly, we help you understand what your tax situation may look like in the future — and how the tax decisions you make today can affect your future wealth.
