Services

Tax Planning

A projection for the tax year and a written plan setting out each recommended action and its deadline.

The Deliverable

A tax planning engagement covers one tax year. Aurora reviews your recent returns and current-year information, projects the year, and prepares a written plan setting out each recommended action, the reasoning behind it, and the date by which it needs to happen.

The plan is reviewed with you in a working meeting, and follow-up questions are answered for the period set in the engagement letter. The engagement can be renewed each year, starting from the prior year’s work.

What the Engagement Includes

Review of recent returns and current-year income information.
A projection for the current tax year.
A written plan with each recommended action, its reasoning, and its deadline.
A working meeting to go through the plan.
Follow-up questions about the plan for the period set in the engagement letter.

Common Topics

What a Plan May Address

Tax planning is designed for individuals and families with significant income or assets, including executives, professionals, and business owners.

Retirement contributions, including the choice between pre-tax and Roth accounts.
Withholding and estimated payments.
The timing of income, deductions, and charitable gifts.
Education savings.
The tax treatment of equity compensation.
Starting, selling, or closing a business.
A move between states, a sale, an inheritance, or another transition.

The topics depend on your situation and are confirmed when the engagement is scoped.

Working From Your Financial Statement

A personal financial statement and a tax plan draw on much of the same information: what you own, what you owe, and the tax basis of your holdings. The statement shows where things stand as of a date. The plan looks ahead to the decisions to make before the year ends. Either can be engaged on its own, and when both are engaged, planning begins from information already organized for the statement.

Your Return and Your Advisors

The plan is written to carry into your return, whoever prepares it. With your authorization, Aurora can walk your current preparer through it, or return preparation can be scoped as a separate engagement. Investment selection and management stay with your investment advisor, and legal documents with your attorney.