As we wind down tax season, you may be thinking to yourself, ‘what now?’.

The most important thing to ask yourself in order to prepare for the year ahead is, ‘Are there any changes to your financial information that you may have forgotten to mention to your CPA?’. Changes could include anything from the number of dependents, joint filing status, home state, or even properties and vehicles. If you have changes, these could affect the estimated taxes that were calculated for you for the remainder of the year. If you don’t get your estimated taxes recalculated, you may end up owing more money upon annual filings.

Another great question to ask is, ‘Are you contributing enough to maximize your return on your retirement accounts?’. Whether you are contributing to a SEP IRA, a traditional IRA, or a Roth IRA, it’s important to check in with your accounting and financial planning team to make sure you are getting the max benefit possible on taxes. If you make these changes this early in the year, it can help to lessen the cash blow come tax time next year.

Take a look at our next blog post in the series where we discuss important questions to ask yourself about your business taxes.