GETTING STARTED WITH BCT
Let’s turn the moving pieces into a plan.
You do not need to know every tax question to ask.
We start with how you earn, how the business currently operates and what is changing. Then we identify what matters, build the roadmap and make sure every next step has an owner.
One coordinated plan
Every piece has a decision, a deadline and an owner.
The pieces above are the ones physicians most often carry separately.
THE RETURN COMES LAST
The tax return is the last step—not the plan.
By the time a tax return is prepared, most of the important decisions have already been made—or missed.
Payroll, estimated payments, retirement contributions, major purchases and business deductions need attention while there is still time to act.
Income earned
W-2 wages, 1099 contracts and any other work.
Decisions made
Entity, salary, reserves, purchases, contributions.
Books, payroll and payments updated
The records and the money movement follow the decisions.
Retirement and deductions implemented
Contributions funded and documentation put in place.
Tax return prepared
The filing reports what already happened.
The return reports the decisions that were already made.
Filing-only relationship
The CPA becomes involved primarily after the year is over.
Business Casual Tax
The decisions are addressed during the year, and the return closes the loop on the work already completed.
START WITH HOW YOU EARN
How you earn changes what needs to be managed.
Same planning process. Different pressure points.
THE MOVING PIECES
The pieces need to work together.
The complexity usually does not come from one difficult form. It comes from several reasonable decisions affecting one another.
THE DECISIONS THAT MATTER
Here is where planning creates value.
Entity and S corporation
An S corporation is not the strategy. It is one tool inside the plan.
The potential benefit needs to be weighed against the amount of business profit, reasonable compensation, payroll costs, retirement goals, administrative work and state-specific considerations.
The goal is not to create an entity because someone heard that physicians should have one. The goal is to determine whether the structure improves the overall result.
How business profit reaches you
Taxes are likely the single largest expense in your financial life. Business Casual Tax actively manages—and works to reduce—that expense throughout the year.
Choose a profit level, then compare how the same business income may be allocated as a sole proprietor and an S corporation.
After business deductions, health insurance and the employer retirement contribution reduce the remaining income, the selected salary represents a larger percentage of the adjusted amount. Only the employer contribution is subtracted — the employee deferral stays part of gross salary.
S corporation
Cash You Keep
$152,63950.9% of $300,000
Cash remaining after the modelled business cash expenses, owner health insurance, retirement funding, payroll or self-employment tax, and federal income tax. The S-corporation figure assumes all remaining company cash is distributed to the owner. The $7,500 short-term home-rental payment is included because it returns to the owner.
Illustrative cash salary$105,000
Starting salary percentage35%
Salary after illustrated deductions47.9%
Includes home rent returned to you$7,500
Assumptions used in these illustrations
Business use of vehicle$15,000
Home office and accountable-plan reimbursement$5,000
Miscellaneous business expenses$15,000
Short-term rental of the owner’s home (S corporation only)$7,500
Owner health insurance$12,000
Solo 401(k) employee deferral$24,500
Solo 401(k) combined maximum$72,000
Standard deduction$16,100
Social Security wage base$184,500
Additional Medicare Tax begins at$200,000
Illustrative 2026 federal estimates for a single filer under age 50, using the standard deduction, with no dependents, no other income, no other retirement plan and no credits or itemized deductions. Contributions are traditional pre-tax Solo 401(k) amounts, with no age-50 catch-up. State and local income taxes and the qualified business income deduction are intentionally excluded. The $24,500 employee deferral is a per-person annual limit and is assumed unused through any other employer. Actual results depend on the complete tax return, reasonable-compensation analysis, eligibility and documentation.
Some strategies reflected in the S-corporation example may also be available to a sole proprietor depending on the facts. Implementation and documentation support for advanced strategies may not be included in BCT’s lower-fee sole-proprietor engagement.
Tax projections and payments
Waiting for the return
Payments are based on estimates, prior-year information or incomplete numbers.
Maintaining the roadmap
The projection is updated using current income, withholding, payroll and payments so the next action is understandable.
Next decision: what to send, and when
The goal is not to predict every dollar perfectly. It is to avoid making major decisions blind.
Business deductions
Paid directly by the business
Ordinary expenses already flowing through the business accounts, captured by the bookkeeping as they happen.
Paid personally and recorded or reimbursed
Business costs that went out of a personal account. We identify them and decide whether they are recorded or reimbursed.
Planned and documented in advance
Strategies that only hold up with the right facts and records in place before the expense occurs.
Our job in each layer is the same: find the expense, get it into the records correctly and keep the support that makes it stand up later. The third layer is where the order matters most, because the documentation has to exist before the expense, not after it.
Retirement coordination
Retirement contributions do not exist separately from the tax plan.
What can be contributed depends on the tax structure, so the two are worked out together rather than in sequence.
Contribution capacity is generally based on adjusted net earnings from self-employment.
Owner withdrawals do not create contribution capacity on their own.
If you also participate in an employer retirement plan, the limits have to be coordinated across both plans — and the plan type and funding deadline decide when the decision has to be made.
Situations we check for
These come up often enough to check, and rarely enough that they should not crowd the main plan. Open one if it sounds like your situation.
Where you live, where the work is performed and where the payor is located can each create a filing. We identify which states apply and how the credits interact so the same income is not taxed twice by accident.
Whether premiums are paid personally or through the business changes how they are deducted and reported, and an HSA has its own contribution limits and deadlines to coordinate.
Rental property, a building used by the practice or a short-term rental each bring their own rules. Cost segregation can accelerate depreciation, but it requires the right facts and a study to support it.
New employees or contractors introduce payroll, filings and benefits questions, and the growth itself may change the entity and retirement decisions that were right at a smaller size.
FROM IDEAS TO IMPLEMENTATION
A recommendation is only useful if it gets implemented.
The roadmap turns the facts into decisions, deadlines and assigned work.
Current facts
What the income, entity, books, payroll and payments actually look like today.
Why it matters
Every recommendation depends on starting from the real numbers.
What happens next
The facts become the projection.
Full-year projection
Where the year lands if nothing changes.
Why it matters
It converts a vague worry about taxes into a number you can plan against.
What happens next
The projection exposes the priorities.
Priorities
Which decisions carry the most weight this year.
Why it matters
It keeps attention on the few items that change the outcome.
What happens next
Priorities become specific decisions.
Decisions
Entity, salary, reserves, contributions and purchases.
Why it matters
These are the choices that are yours to make, with our recommendation attached.
What happens next
Each decision gets a date and an owner.
Deadlines and ownership
What is due, when, and who is doing it.
Why it matters
A decision without a date and an owner does not get implemented.
What happens next
The work starts.
Implementation
Payroll run, elections filed, contributions funded, records updated.
Why it matters
This is the step most often missed after good advice.
What happens next
The year closes on a known position.
Tax return
The filing that reports the work already done.
Why it matters
No surprises, because the decisions were made while they could still be changed.
What happens next
The next year's roadmap begins.
The roadmap keeps recommendations from disappearing into an email.
A CPA YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MANAGE
You should not have to manage your CPA.
Before
Scattered across your calendar, inbox and memory.
Business Casual Tax handles
- Keeping the relevant information current
- Updating the projection
- Identifying decisions before deadlines
- Coordinating bookkeeping, payroll and tax payments
- Tracking agreed-upon implementation
- Preparing the applicable tax returns
We bring you
- The decision
- The relevant numbers
- Our recommendation
- The deadline
- Exactly what we need from you
You will still make the decisions that belong to you. Our job is to make those decisions clear, timely and easier to act on.
A SCOPE BUILT AROUND THE SITUATION
The engagement should match the work.
After we understand the situation, we recommend the scope that fits it.
Your written engagement confirms:
What Business Casual Tax is handling
What remains with you or another professional
The fee
What happens during the first 30 days
Nothing begins until you have reviewed and signed the engagement.
BEFORE YOUR FIRST PAYMENT
The first-30-days promise
By the time your first payment is due, you will have seen how I approach the work and what the plan looks like. If you do not see the value, you can cancel immediately. No notice period. No cancellation fee.
Sign & schedule
Sign the engagement letter, place a payment method on file and schedule the diagnostic review.
Diagnose & build
Over the next 2–4 weeks, I review the current setup and prior filings, identify the gaps and build the initial tax roadmap.
Review & decide
Before the first payment is charged on day 30, we review the roadmap together. Continue—or cancel immediately with no notice period or cancellation fee.
ONCE YOU SIGN
We get moving.
Onboarding is the beginning of the work—not an administrative waiting period.
Welcome and access
- Welcome information
- Secure portal access
- Initial requests
- Clear instructions for the next step
Initial documents
We request the information needed to understand the current setup. We do not begin by asking for every document that might theoretically become relevant.
- Most recent personal and business tax returns
- Entity-formation documents
- S corporation election documents
- Current bookkeeping information
- Payroll reports
- Estimated-tax payments
- Relevant retirement-plan information
Personally paid expenses
You complete a focused questionnaire identifying business expenses paid personally and any reimbursements that may need to be addressed.
Discretionary-expense review
We collect the additional facts needed to evaluate strategies involving vehicle use, home office, equipment, accountable-plan reimbursements, legitimate family employment and business use of the home.
Diagnosis and roadmap
We review the current setup, identify the priorities and begin building the initial roadmap.
You will know what we are reviewing, what we need from you and what happens next.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The proposal makes it official. Then we begin.
After the call, we will send a written proposal confirming the recommended scope, responsibilities and fee.
Once it is signed, onboarding begins and we start building the initial roadmap.
Already spoke with Kevin? Watch for your written proposal and next-step instructions.