Tax Planning: What You Need to Know

At Rapacki + Co., we offer both wealth planning and tax planning. What’s the difference, you ask?

With wealth planning (also called financial planning), we work with you to achieve your long-term financial goals, such as establishing a trust for your child’s college tuition, saving for retirement, or making investment decisions.

Tax planning is a little more fun—that’s where we help you avoid taxes as much as possible. It requires in-depth knowledge of IRS policies, mixed with a dash of creative thinking.

There are simple ways that wealth planning and tax planning can work together. For example, contributing more to your retirement plan through your employer will effectively lower your income—this means you’re paying less taxes, while at the same time dedicating money to the post-career future you’ve been dreaming about.

The truth is that there are many tax-planning strategies you can take advantage of if you know where to look, some less known than others. A central strategy is to lower your income (and therefore adjust your tax bracket), but there are many ways to do even that, including rearranging investments and knowing the ins and outs of deductions. Most people fail to realize these opportunities to save some cash, and many end up paying more taxes than they needed to.

All of life’s big changes—marriage, college, having children, purchasing or selling a home—can be seen not just as an expense to save for but as an opportunity to save. Given that many of your financial decisions will be influenced by the way you plan for taxes, it makes sense to have one professional take care of both services.

Want to start saving? Give us a call to find out what we can do for you.