Year-Round Tax Planning That Changes What You Owe — Before the Filing Deadline

Tax preparation reports what already happened. Tax planning changes what happens next. If you're finding out your tax bill in April, you're not getting planning — you're getting a receipt.

What a Real Tax Planning Engagement Looks Like

Most people have never seen a written tax plan. They've seen a return. A return is a summary of decisions already made — or missed. A tax plan is a forward-looking document that names specific strategies, projects their dollar impact, and lays out the steps to implement each one before the deadline passes. That's what every planning engagement with Sherry Aland PC produces.

 

The process starts with a full review of your income, entity structure, and holdings. From there, a written plan is built around your situation — not a generic checklist. That plan gets revisited in recurring monthly meetings, so strategies stay on track, projections get updated as your income changes, and nothing falls through the cracks between January and December.

Ten Years Inside Real Estate Before Advising It

Sherry spent a decade as controller for a real estate group, then worked with a property management company that grew from 21 to 90 apartment complexes. That background isn't incidental — it means the planning starts from an understanding of how real estate actually operates, not just how it's reported. The entity structures, the cash flow patterns, the depreciation timelines — they're familiar from the inside, not just from the return.

What Tax Planning Costs

Tax planning is priced as part of a monthly advisory engagement, not as a standalone project fee. Monthly advisory covers recurring planning meetings, tax projections, strategy implementation support, and annual preparation for the entities and returns included in the engagement. Pricing depends on the complexity of your holdings, entity count, and the scope of services included. The Zero Tax Blueprint Survey is the starting point — it's free, takes under two minutes, and returns an estimate of your potential savings before any conversation about fees.

Strategies by Audience — Real Estate Investors and High Earners

Real Estate Investors

Real estate creates more tax planning opportunity than almost any other asset class — but only when the strategies are actually run. For buy-and-hold landlords, short-term rental owners, flippers, and small multifamily and commercial owners, the planning work centers on:

 

  • Depreciation strategy, including cost segregation to accelerate deductions into earlier years
  • Short-term rental treatment under IRC §469 to unlock losses that passive rules would otherwise block
  • Real estate professional status qualification and documentation
  • 1031 exchange planning to defer capital gains on disposition
  • Entity elections and structure to match how income flows and how it's taxed

 

These aren't obscure maneuvers. They're IRS-recognized strategies written into the tax code. Most investors don't access them because their accountant isn't running them.

High-Income W-2 Earners and Business Owners

If you earn a strong income and feel like you're paying full price on every dollar, the issue usually isn't the tax code — it's that no one has applied it to your specific situation on purpose. The planning strategies for this audience include:

 

  • Retirement contribution structures that reduce taxable income dollar-for-dollar
  • Entity selection and compensation structure to reduce self-employment and payroll tax
  • Income timing and deferral strategies to shift taxable events across years
  • Real estate as a tax-reduction vehicle for high earners who aren't full-time investors
  • Quarterly estimated tax planning to eliminate underpayment penalties and surprises

The Monthly Advisory Model

Annual tax work is reactive by design. You hand over documents in February and find out the result in March. Monthly advisory is built differently. Planning meetings happen throughout the year, projections are updated as your income picture changes, and strategy decisions get made when there's still time to act on them. The goal is that you know your estimated liability in October — not April.

A Written Plan with Numbers In It

Every planning engagement produces a written deliverable. Not a conversation summary. Not a general recommendation. A document that names the strategies being implemented, the projected savings attached to each one, and the steps required to execute. You see the numbers before you decide to move forward on anything.

MSCTA Certification and Training Depth

Sherry holds the Main Street Certified Tax Advisor (MSCTA) designation through Mark Kohler's program — one of the most rigorous tax strategy training programs available to CPAs. That certification covers more than 70 specific tax strategy topics, the same body of strategies used by advisors serving investors and business owners across the country. It's the same tax code every CPA has access to. The difference is knowing which sections apply to your situation and running them.

Serving Oklahoma City, Edmond, and Tulsa

Sherry Aland PC works with real estate investors and business owners across Oklahoma. The practice serves clients in Oklahoma City, Edmond, and Tulsa, as well as investors statewide who want ongoing advisory rather than annual filing. Engagements are structured for remote collaboration, so geography doesn't limit access to the work.

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Tax Planning Questions

  • What's the difference between tax planning and tax preparation?

    Tax preparation is the process of filing an accurate return based on what already happened during the year. Tax planning is the work done before the year closes — reviewing your income, identifying applicable strategies, and making decisions that change what you owe. Preparation reports the result. Planning shapes it.

  • When should I start tax planning?

    The most effective planning happens throughout the year, not in the weeks before the filing deadline. Strategy decisions — retirement contributions, entity elections, income timing, depreciation elections — have deadlines that fall well before April. A monthly advisory model keeps those decisions on the calendar when there's still time to act.

  • What does a tax plan actually include?

    A written tax plan names the specific strategies that apply to your situation, the projected dollar savings attached to each one, and the implementation steps required to capture them. It's a working document, not a conversation summary, and it gets updated as your income and holdings change through the year.

  • How much does tax planning cost?

    Tax planning is priced as part of a monthly advisory engagement rather than a one-time project fee. The scope — and the cost — depends on the complexity of your holdings, your entity count, and the services included. The Zero Tax Blueprint Survey is the starting point. It's free and returns a savings estimate before any discussion of fees.

  • What tax reduction strategies are available for high-income earners?

    The most common strategies for high earners include retirement contribution structures that reduce taxable income dollar-for-dollar, entity selection and compensation structure to reduce payroll and self-employment tax, income timing and deferral to shift taxable events across years, and real estate investment as a tax-reduction vehicle. Which strategies apply depends on your income sources, entity structure, and goals.

  • Do I need to be a real estate investor to work with Sherry Aland PC?

    No. The practice serves real estate investors, high-income W-2 earners, business owners, and small businesses needing bookkeeping and CFO support. Real estate tax strategy is a core specialty, but the planning work extends to any client whose situation calls for proactive, year-round advisory.

  • What is the MSCTA certification?

    The Main Street Certified Tax Advisor designation is issued through Mark Kohler's certification program and covers more than 70 tax strategy topics relevant to business owners and investors. It's one of the more rigorous tax strategy training programs available to CPAs and represents a body of knowledge that goes well beyond standard compliance training.