Year-Round Tax Planning & Consulting
Proactive tax strategy for individuals and business owners who want to make tax-saving decisions before year-end.
Year-Round Tax Planning
Most strategies that lower a tax bill have to be in place before the year closes. By April the options are gone.
GT's tax consultants plan year-round for small businesses and individuals across Los Angeles, Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena. We build the strategy around your entity structure, your investments, your goals, then adjust it when the law changes.
Our Tax Planning & Consulting Services Include:
- Year-end tax planning
- Multi-year tax projections
- Multi-state tax planning
- Evaluation of entity structure
- New business formation & incorporation
- Analysis of federal and California tax law changes, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed July 4, 2025
- Minimizing alternative minimum tax for high net worth individuals
- Tax strategies for investment planning and capital gains
- IRC Section 1031 exchanges of investment or business properties
- Retirement planning
- Medical care tax planning (Affordable Care Act)
- Analysis of tax carryovers
- Amended returns for tax refunds
Planning works alongside tax preparation. Real estate investors: our real estate tax practice covers 1031 exchange consulting and calculations.
Estate & Trust Tax Returns
Estate, gift, and trust tax work sits inside our planning practice, because the returns depend on the strategy behind them. We prepare the three federal returns involved, with the planning done in the same engagement.
- Form 709, gift tax return. Gifts to any one person above the annual exclusion ($19,000 per recipient for 2025 and 2026) are reported on Form 709, due April 15 of the year after the gift. Filing is required even when no tax is due, since taxable gifts count toward the estate tax filing threshold later.
- Form 706, estate tax return. Required when the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts exceeds the filing threshold: $13,990,000 for deaths in 2025, $15,000,000 in 2026. The return is due nine months after the date of death, with a six-month extension available on Form 4768. A surviving spouse's portability election is made on this return, which can make filing worthwhile for estates under the threshold.
- Form 1041, fiduciary income tax return. The trustee or executor files it to report the income, deductions, gains, and losses of a trust or a decedent's estate, along with what was distributed to beneficiaries. An estate files once its gross income reaches $600 for the year. A trust files if it has any taxable income or $600 or more of gross income. Calendar-year returns are due April 15.
Our trust and estate tax organizer gathers what Form 1041 needs. The legal documents themselves, wills and trust instruments, come from your attorney. We work from them.
Estate & Trust Tax Questions
When is a federal estate tax return required?
Do I need to file a gift tax return?
What is Form 1041 and who files it?
Does a trust have to file every year?
When Tax Planning Is Especially Valuable
Equipment purchases, retirement plan contributions, entity elections, income timing: each closes on December 31, so we review client positions in the fall while there is still time to act. Some years call for more than the fall review.
- Starting a business or changing its entity, where formation or restructuring sets the tax treatment for years to come
- Selling a business, a practice, or a large block of stock
- Buying, selling, or exchanging real estate
- A high-income year from a bonus, a liquidity event, or a one-time gain, the situations our high net worth practice plans around
- Moving to or from California, or running a business with staff or customers in other states
- A change in how you are paid, or a shift in your investment mix
Request a Free Tax Consultation
Bring your prior-year return plus a picture of the year ahead. We will name the planning moves worth making before year-end.