Your Taxes Aren't a Spring Problem
Back in January, you told yourself this year was going to be different. This was the year you'd get ahead of taxes. No more finding out in April.
Now it's the first week of October. The summer was a blur of jobs, and you finally have an afternoon to catch up. QuickBooks is open. Every transaction is matched, and the bank still won't reconcile. There's a pile sitting in "Ask My Accountant." You pull up the profit and loss and honestly can't tell how this year is going to end.
You called your tax preparer last week and left a message. Your phone still hasn't rung.
So a quiet thought shows up: I'll just wait for spring. Start fresh. Do it right next year.
This year isn't lost.
I hear that thought every fall, and I understand it. Spring feels like a clean slate. But spring is when you find out. By the time you're handing over the folder, every decision that shaped this year's bill has already been made. Waiting for spring means letting December 31 make them for you.
March is the best time to put a plan in place. Last year is on paper, and you can sit down and say, "Here's what we're going to do differently this year." The second-best time is right now. There are ninety days left, and still time to change where this year lands.
Why the plan never happened.
Your preparer isn't brushing you off. He was hired to do your 2025 return, and he did it. Right now he's deep in the extended returns due October 15, the busiest stretch of his fall.
Your questions are about 2026. And nobody was hired to answer those.
That's why "this year will be different" didn't turn into a plan. You meant it. You just never had anyone whose job was to sit down with you and build it.
Your questions already have a name.
Look at what you were trying to figure out this week:
You wanted to know how this year is actually going to end, and the report in front of you couldn't tell you.
You wondered whether the profit number in QuickBooks is the number you'll owe tax on, or whether that pile in "Ask My Accountant" is about to change it.
You had a feeling there's something you should be doing before December, and no one to ask what.
Put those together and they have a name. It's a year-end tax plan: a plan for the next ninety days, built on your real numbers, made while there's still time to change the result.
And you've already started one. Opening QuickBooks on a free afternoon to figure out where the year is headed is the first step. You took it in October, at your desk, with no one to hand the questions to.
Preparer, partner, strategist.
These are three different jobs. Most people use one word for all of them.
A preparer works on last year. You bring the finished year in the spring, and they turn it into a correct return. That's real, skilled work. It's the right fit for a taxpayer — someone with a paycheck, a mortgage, maybe a rental. Most of their year is decided before it starts.
A partner works on this year when you ask. You call with a question, and they help you think it through. You still have to know what to ask, and when. In a business your size, the questions you don't know to ask are the expensive ones.
A strategist already has the year-end meeting on the calendar. She walks in with your numbers, already read, and a short list of decisions that are still open. You don't chase her.
Your year gets decided while you're living it. Every payroll you run, every job you price, every truck you buy moves the number. That's why a preparer alone is right for taxpayers and wrong for business owners.
What only moves before December 31.
A few decisions close when the year does. After that, the best preparer in Michigan can only report what already happened.
How you pay yourself. How much you take, and how, gets set by the last payroll of December. Come January, it's history.
When bills get paid and invoices go out. Paying a supplier on December 28 or January 4 is the same bill. For a lot of contractor businesses, it lands on two different tax years. The same goes for the invoice you send the week before Christmas or the week after New Year's.
When equipment goes into service. The truck has to be bought, delivered, and working on a job by December 31 to count this year. I walked through why the purchase alone isn't a plan in Buying a Truck in December Isn't a Tax Plan.
Each one is a decision you make with your numbers in front of you and someone who has already read them. So that when January comes, you're filing a year you planned instead of finding out how it went.
This is the month I sit down with my clients.
October is when my year-end meetings happen. They're already on the calendar. They were set months ago, before anyone had a question to leave on a voicemail.
I walk in with their numbers. We go through what's still open before December 31: how they're paying themselves, what's due in and out over the next ninety days, whether the equipment they're thinking about makes sense this year or next. They leave knowing how the year ends, with time left to change it.
That's what I want for you. You don't have to wait for spring to keep the promise you made in January. You have ninety days, and that's enough to finish this year on purpose.
If you want someone to look at your year before it closes, book a Year-End Walkthrough. We sit down with your real numbers, go through what's still open before December 31, and you leave with a punch list of what to tackle before you close the year out. Let's Talk
Leslea Burnett-Little, EA, is the founder of Simply Balanced Accountants. She works exclusively with women who own and operate contractor businesses in Michigan — helping them get clear on their numbers, keep more of what they earn, and build a business that works for their family.
