We need to talk about your taxes…

So, the last thing you want is to talk more numbers, right?!

But tax season just gave you soooo much valuable info about your business, we can't just ignore it (no matter how bad you might want to).

Let me lead you through a little post-tax season reflection…

If you're a W-2 employee who owed more than you wanted to:

Now is the perfect time to update your W-4 with the new insights you just got. Did you forget to include a spouse's job? A dependent? A side gig? All of these things can make your employer withhold less than they needed to, sticking you with a bigger tax bill than you expected.

If you're self-employed and owed more than you wanted to:

First off, congrats! That probably means you made more money than you expected to.

Orrrr it means that you didn't save enough for estimated taxes. No worries, that's an easy fix for this year.

You want to pay in at least your safe harbor payment amounts (check with your tax accountant on this). And if you're making even more this year, you probably want to set aside a little extra!

What about if you extended your return? Extensions aren't necessarily a red flag for me. Sometimes, you genuinely just need more time to file!

But (and this is a big BUT), if you extended your tax return because your bookkeeping wasn't done, that is a sign that something's wrong. If you have a good bookkeeping system in place, there aren't many good reasons that your 2025 books shouldn't have been done by March.

If you fall into the extensions group, take this as a friendly reminder from a CPA, you absolutely DO NOT have to wait until October to worry about your taxes.

As soon as you're ready, you can file. I'm talking June, while you're sipping margaritas on vacation, if you just send your files to your CPA, you won't have to worry about them this fall. Now, doesn't that sound nice?!