The Situation

Why Year-End Planning Matters

The tax year is a closed system. Once December 31 passes, your taxable income, deductions, and gains are fixed. The moves that reduce your tax bill — additional retirement contributions, charitable giving, loss harvesting, Roth conversions, withholding adjustments — all have hard deadlines. The difference between acting in November and acting in February can be thousands of dollars.

January 1 is too late for most tax strategies. The best tax planning happens while the year is still open.

— Worthune Decision Framework

• You typically think about taxes only when filing in April — by which point most optimization opportunities have closed
• You've paid a tax bill at filing time that a year-end review would have reduced
• You've never executed a year-end tax planning checklist before the calendar year closes