Wasatch Front Tax Planning Services
Tax planning helps you understand how a financial decision could affect your taxes before you make it. Our CPAs work with business owners, high-income individuals and families, and people facing retirement or another major life change, in Utah and across the country. Each engagement includes projections, scenario comparisons, written recommendations, and action steps for putting your plan in place.
Start with a free 30-minute conversation about your needs, our services, and fees.
Tax Planning vs. Tax Preparation
Tax planning looks ahead at decisions you can still influence. Tax preparation reports what happened during the tax year and meets your filing obligations.
| Tax Planning | Tax Preparation | |
|---|---|---|
| Main purpose | Evaluate options before making financial decisions | Prepare and file accurate tax returns |
| Typical work | Projections, scenario comparisons, and recommendations | Report income and claim applicable deductions and credits |
| Timing | Throughout the year and before significant events | According to tax-return filing deadlines |
The two services work together: a plan guides your decisions, and your return reports the results. Learn more about our tax preparation services.
Who We Serve
Almost anyone can benefit from tax planning at some point, and often one significant change is enough to make it worthwhile.
We work with:
You may be growing a company, reconsidering how you pay yourself, or preparing for an ownership change or sale.
Multiple income sources or a big change in earnings can raise questions worth answering before filing season.
Retirement, marriage, starting a business, or another major change can affect your tax situation.
Our Tax Planning Services
We focus the engagement on the decisions you’re facing, whether that’s one area or several connected parts of your business and personal finances.
Personal Tax Planning
We review your income and circumstances to identify tax considerations that could affect your next steps. That may include a change in earnings, investment income, withholding and estimated payments, or the timing of income and deductions.
Business Tax Planning and Entity Selection
Business decisions often affect both the company and its owners. We help you evaluate the tax implications of owner compensation, business income, and choosing or changing your business structure or tax treatment.
For educational examples, explore our guide to small business tax strategies
Year-End Tax Planning
Before the year closes, we review where things stand and whether any remaining actions fit your situation. We’ll explain which deadlines apply so you have time to act before your options become more limited. For common moves to review before December 31, see our year-end tax planning tips.
Transaction Tax Planning
Buying or selling a business, selling an investment, or exercising employer stock options can have tax consequences beyond the amount changing hands. We help you compare the tax implications of your options before you commit.
Retirement Tax Planning
As you approach retirement, changes in income and retirement-account withdrawals can affect your tax picture. We help you evaluate those implications alongside your plans for the years ahead, and we can work with your financial advisor when that helps.
For estate, gift, charitable, trust, or succession planning, explore our estate and succession planning services.
We provide tax advice, not legal or investment advice, and we don’t form entities or draft trusts or other legal documents.
Free 30-Minute Consultation
Have a decision coming up that could affect your taxes?
Talk with a CMP CPA before you act. We’ll learn about your situation, explain how we can help, and walk you through the cost.
How Our Tax Planning Works
Once we agree on the engagement, we work through your situation and develop a plan you can put into practice.
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Discuss Your Goals
We meet in person or by phone to understand your circumstances, the decisions ahead, and any deadlines.
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Review Your Tax Information
We review your tax and financial information to establish where you stand today.
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Compare Your Options
We model potential scenarios and explain how their tax outcomes differ, including the assumptions behind each one.
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Provide Your Plan and Action Steps
You receive a written tax plan with projections, scenario comparisons, recommendations, and the action steps to carry it out.
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Revisit Your Plan
Planning is available as a one-time engagement for a single event or as an ongoing service. For most ongoing clients, we perform tax planning one to four times a year.
If an action step involves your attorney, financial advisor, payroll provider, or another CMP department, either you or your CPA can facilitate communication, depending on the relationships involved and what’s most convenient for you.
Getting Ready for Tax Planning
Once we understand the scope of your engagement, we’ll let you know which records to provide. Depending on your situation, that may include:
- Recent tax returns
- Current income information or business financial statements
- Estimated tax payments and withholding details
- Information about an upcoming transaction or financial decision
Why Work With CMP for Tax Planning?
CMP has served clients for more than 45 years, and our team brings more than 250 years of combined tax, accounting, and CFO experience. Because our tax department handles both business and individual returns, we can assess how a decision affects your company and your household together.
We explain the reasoning behind each recommendation so you can weigh the trade-offs, ask questions, and decide how to proceed. A projection should help you make a decision, not leave you with more numbers to interpret on your own.
When a plan touches your books, payroll, or financial reporting, we can involve our bookkeeping and payroll or outsourced CFO teams, so the planning stays connected to the numbers behind it.
“He helps us with tax planning so we can be prepared for year end”
Amber Myers, excerpt from her review of Cody Webb
Meet Our Tax Planning Team
Every CPA in our tax department does tax planning. Meet our team to learn about their backgrounds and experience.
Serving Clients Nationwide from Our Logan, Layton, and St. George Offices
We provide tax planning in all 50 states and cover state taxes as well as federal. You can meet with us at one of our Utah offices or work with our team by phone from anywhere in the country.
Explore our Logan, Layton, and St. George locations.
Frequently Asked Questions About Tax Planning
How much does tax planning cost?
We price tax planning by project and bill it separately from tax preparation. The fee depends on the scope of your engagement, and we aim to share a price range before providing the service.
Can I use CMP for tax planning without using CMP for tax preparation?
Yes, though it’s less common. You can hire us for planning only. Once your plan is in place, it’s usually more efficient to have us prepare your returns too, since we already know the plan and why we recommended it.
When is the best time to do tax planning?
Before you make the decision. Once a sale closes or the year ends, many of your options are gone. Good times to plan include before you sell a business or investment, change how you pay yourself, exercise stock options, or retire, and again before year-end. Most ongoing clients plan with us one to four times a year.
Can I start tax planning after I’ve already filed my return?
Yes. Your completed return gives us a starting point for planning the current year or an upcoming decision. Starting tax planning doesn’t automatically mean changing the return you’ve already filed. We’ll focus on the options that are relevant to your situation now.
Is a tax advisor worth it?
It’s worth considering when you’re making a decision with significant tax consequences, your income has changed, or your business and personal finances overlap. During your free consultation, we’ll discuss your needs and the likely scope and cost so you can decide whether to move forward.
Is tax planning legal?
Yes, when it uses options permitted under the tax laws that apply to you. Legitimate planning may involve deductions, credits, or other choices you qualify for, supported by proper records. Concealing income or providing false information is tax evasion, not legitimate planning.
Work With Our Tax Planning Team
Do you have a decision coming up that could affect your taxes? Start with a free 30-minute call. We’ll learn about your situation, explain how we can help, and walk you through the cost. Advice for your specific situation starts once you decide to work with us.
Free 30-Minute Consultation
Talk with a CMP CPA about the tax decisions ahead.
