As 2019 starts to wind to a close, now is the perfect time to check out Tax Clarity®. The software helps you quickly identify sub-optimal situations and show clients tax opportunities. Use Tax Clarity to calculate your client's effective marginal tax rate and identify dangerous points where an additional dollar of income can create a much higher effective marginal tax rate. 

Here are five reasons that right now is the perfect time to start a 10-day free trial of the software.

1. You don't have as many client meetings this time of year. With the holidays around the corner, you may be finding yourself in fewer client meetings. With less distractions from clients, this is the perfect time to try out Tax Clarity. Start your free trial, enter a few clients, run a report, and contact our expert support team for additional training. We have a quick and easy on-boarding process to make sure you’re getting the most of your free trial. 

2. There may be some end-of-year tax moves that your clients could benefit from. Start a free trial of Tax Clarity and see how the software can help you harvest capital gains, harvest capital losses or determine if you'll want to do a Roth conversion.

  • Capital Losses—each dollar of capital loss often represents a 15% tax savings as most people fall into a 15% capital gains bracket. For some, it may represent an 18.8%, 20%, 23.8%, or more, depending on the interactions with the net investment income tax and other income streams.
  • Capital Gains—harvesting capital gains can be a good option for some clients who fall in the 0% capital gains bracket, resulting in a free step up in basis. This situation is often present for those who are between early retirement and age 70 1/2. Sometimes it can make sense to harvest capital gains up to $100,000 if you can keep all the other ordinary income off the table.
  • Roth Conversions—Sometimes Roth conversions can actually be free. You can take that Roth conversion up to the beginning of the 10% tax bracket and occasionally you might not have any other ordinary income. So, getting $10,000 or $15,000 out of an IRA with zero tax bill is a real opportunity. In other circumstances, you might be able to convert right up to the point where you start to get the Social Security tax torpedo or maybe just to the edge of a Medicare premium threshold.

3. You want to get a head start before tax season. Many financial advisors know that taxes have a significant impact on their clients, however, potential compliance issues often lead to reluctance to talk about taxes. Lumping anything tax-related into "tax advice" is a disservice to your clients. You have a duty to understand, consider and explain the tax consequences of various strategies, especially as tax season rapidly approaches. 

To talk tax-efficient planning with clients you don’t have to know all of the complicated interactions between different tax provisions and different types of income. Here are a couple of ways you can help your clients make retirement strategy decisions in the most tax-efficient way this tax season.

  • Use Tax Clarity to identify opportunities where IRA contributions can be used to reduce the amount of taxable capital gains.
  • Form mutually beneficial relationships with CPAs. CPAs can add value to your practice, both by providing tax advice and by referring clients who need financial plans. Tax advice that a CPA gives is different than the advice you can give for a tax-efficient retirement plan. Most CPAs make their living off businesses and business owners with complex and time-consuming concerns, not the middle-income retirees calling with questions. Your subscription to Tax Clarity includes a free customizable CPA introduction letter to help you get started. 

4. The new version of Tax Clarity was just released, and it includes some cool updates and new features. Save and compare as many alternates as you want and experience our new, cleaner interface with easier data entry and better user experience. Use Tax Clarity during every annual client review meeting to look at the tax landscape for any given year without creating a new case.

5. You are making a New Year’s resolution to grow your practice. All financial planning software is not created equally. You want software that is tailored to you and the client base you primarily serve. Your tools are important conversation starters that can support the dialog you should be having with your clients. The right software can help you communicate complexities in a way that is easy for clients to understand. The right software should: 

  • save you time
  • make your life easier
  • help you communicate effectively with clients
  • provide you with peace of mind

If your current tech stack isn’t meeting those needs, now is the perfect time to reevaluate.

 

Start my free trial of Tax Clarity