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14 Weeks Left: Your Year End Tax Playbook (Part 1)
Let’s be honest. Over your lifetime, taxes will likely be your biggest expense. Bigger than your house. Bigger than college for your kids.
And here’s the part most people miss: your 2026 tax bill is still being written right now.
Today is September 26. That gives us about 14 weeks until December 31. And really , thats 11 weeks when you strip out a week at Thanksgiving and the back half of December for Christmas. After that, the door closes. When you talk to our office in March, the planning is over. We just report what already happened.
So for the next 4 weeks, we want to help you use those 14 weeks well.
What’s Coming in This Series
Every Saturday for the next 4 weeks, you’ll get 1 part of the playbook:
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Part 1 (today): Why these 14 weeks matter, and what changed in the tax law
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Part 2 (Oct 3): Business owners. How to build a tax smart business
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Part 3 (Oct 10): Real estate investors and LPs. Depreciation, rentals, and K1s
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Part 4 (Oct 17): Big income years. Roth conversions, charity, and what a real tax plan looks like
Each one gives you real moves you can use. No fluff.
Something We Should Have Told You Sooner
Most of you know us as the firm that does your tax return. And we’re good at it. But I realized something this year. A lot of our clients have no idea we do more than that.
So let me fix that. We work with clients in 3 ways:
1. Compliance. Your return, done right and on time. Audit protection included. We meet once a year to walk through it. Think of this as your rearview mirror. It shows you where you’ve been.
2. Clarity. Everything in Compliance, plus we look ahead. We run a tax projection before the year ends, so you know what’s coming before it hits. We meet twice a year and give you a short written summary of where you stand and what to do next. Think of this as a GPS check. It tells you where you are and if you’re on course.
3. Vision. This is the most complete work we do. My senior team and I build a custom tax plan around your whole picture: your businesses, your real estate, your investments, and your goals for the next few years. We show you what your taxes look like with a plan and without one. Then we meet every quarter to put it into action. Think of this as the full road map.
Here’s the simple way to think about it. If your tax life is pretty simple, Compliance may be all you need. If you own a business, have rentals, or had a big year, you’re likely leaving money on the table without Clarity or Vision.
You can get more information here and here
What Changed (The Short Version)
The big tax bill passed in July 2025, and a lot of it is now permanent. Here are the pieces that matter most to our readers:
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100% bonus depreciation is back, and it’s permanent for qualifying property bought after January 19, 2025. That’s huge for real estate and equipment buyers.
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The 20% business income deduction (QBI) is here to stay. Business owners can keep planning around it.
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Section 179 expensing jumped to $2.5 million. More room to write off equipment in the year you buy it.
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The estate and gift tax exemption is $15 million per person in 2026 ($30 million for a married couple).
New rules mean new chances. But only if you use them before the year ends.
3 Things to Do This Week
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Get your books current through September. We can’t plan off guesses. Clean numbers come first. You need help with that, email us. We have a whole department dedicated to just accounting.
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List your big events for 2026. Did you sell something? Buy a property? Get a bonus? Start a business? Write it down.
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Ask yourself 1 question. “Do I know roughly what I’ll owe for 2026?” If the answer is no, that’s your sign.
What 1 Smart Move Looks Like
Let me tell you about a client. We’ll call him Todd.
Todd and his wife earn about $300K a year from their jobs. They bought a short term rental and wanted to do it right.
We ordered a cost segregation study. That unlocked a $175,000 deduction in year 1 and saved them $50,000 in taxes.
But we didn’t stop there. We used that deduction to convert Todd’s 401(k) to a Roth IRA. That move would normally cost about $79,000 in tax. Todd paid $15,000.
Now that money grows tax free. In 15 years at 7%, it could be worth $482,000. Left in the 401(k), it could have cost him $178,000 in tax later.
That’s the difference a plan makes. And none of it would have worked if we waited until April.
Win a Free Vision Tax Plan
To kick off this series, we’re giving away 1 Vision tax plan to a reader of The Ledger. Clients invest $5,000 to $25,000 for this work.
How to enter: Share The Ledger with business owners, real estate operators, and fund operators who’d get value from it. Every qualified friend who signs up with your link earns you 1 entry.
The giveaway closes October 24. We’ll announce the winner October 26.
Qualified referrals must be active subscribers who sign up between September 26 and October 24, 2026. 1 winner, announced October 26. Winner must complete a tax plan discovery call. No cash value.
Oct 15th Deadlines
We got through our toughest deadline of the year. September 15th is always a doozy, and this year was no different. Thank you to all of you who trusted us to push out your K-1s. And if you have a personal tax return or C-Corp due in mid October, reach out to our team for an update. If we need information from you, you can upload it here: Our Portal
We’re hiring
We just launched our new careers page, and we are hiring a Senior Tax Manager. This is not a seat where you grind out returns. You lead a tax team, own a portfolio of clients, sit in the advisory conversations, carry final technical review on the hard ones, and build the people under you. The work is worth leading. Our clients are entrepreneurs, real estate investors, and fund syndicators, so the desk is full of partnership returns, K-1s at scale, syndication structures, cost segregation, and 1031 exchanges. And the path is written down. Every role here has one, from intern to equity partner. The ceiling is ownership, not a title. Know the right person? Send them our way.
Your Next Steps
Want to save on taxes, or just want to know where you stand? Not sure which level fits you? Let’s talk.
Book a free 30 minute discovery call. No paperwork. No documents. Just a real conversation about where you are and whether Clarity, Vision, or neither makes sense for you.
👉 Book a tax plan discovery call
14 weeks goes fast. Let’s make them count.
Until next week. Your success is our success. Thanks for reading !
Vince & the P&C Team
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