Premium Services Corporation
Tax strategy
Preparation records what already happened and files it. Strategy happens during the year, while decisions can still change the outcome. PSC works on the planning side year-round rather than only at filing time.
What it actually means
Most owners have someone who files. Far fewer have someone who plans. The difference is not effort or ambition, it is timing: a return is written after the year has closed, when almost every decision that moved the number has already been made.
The planning side is ordinary and unglamorous. How the business is structured. How the owner takes money out. When income and costs land. What was documented well enough to stand up. None of it is clever, and all of it has to happen while the year is still open.
When the books are current, everything downstream gets easier.
What gets looked at
- Structure
- What the business is, and how it is taxed. Two separate decisions, often made once by accident at the beginning and never revisited.
- How you pay yourself
- Salary, draw or distribution changes both the tax bill and how the books read. Worth deciding deliberately rather than by habit.
- Timing
- When revenue is recognised and when deductible costs are paid, so the year is shaped on purpose rather than merely reported.
- Retirement
- The long-term structure around what you are building, set up so it does its work on the tax side as well as the saving side.
- Records
- What was really spent, documented well enough to claim. This is where most missed deductions actually go.
- Estimated payments
- Calibrated as the year runs, rather than guessed at once and then penalised for being wrong.
How a planning year runs
Review
Your current structure, your income, your last return and what you are trying to do next. No assumptions, and no template answer.
Plan
A plan for the year: structure, timing, retirement, estimated payments, and what has to be documented as you go rather than reconstructed later.
Adjust
Revisited while the year is still open, because a business rarely ends a year the way it was projected to start it.
File
The return at the end is the record of decisions already made, rather than the first time anybody looked.
Who this is for
Size is not the filter. One-person businesses and ordinary households are ordinary work here, and if something genuinely is not a fit you will be told that on the first call rather than sold something anyway.
- Starting out
- Getting structure, books and payroll right at the beginning is far cheaper than unpicking them two years in.
- Growing
- Revenue is up and the tax bill is rising faster than it should. That is usually a structure question wearing a different hat.
- More than one entity
- Several companies, and a picture that only makes sense when somebody looks at them together.
- Working for yourself
- Freelance, consulting or contracting, and paying self-employment tax on every dollar without ever having asked whether that is right.
The five questions people actually ask
- What is the difference between tax preparation and tax strategy?One writes down the year you had. The other happens while you are still having it.
- How much can a tax strategy save me?Nobody can tell you before they have looked. Here is what it actually turns on.
- Should my business be an LLC or an S-Corp?They are not the same kind of thing, which is why the question usually has a third answer.
- When should I start thinking about tax strategy?The decisions that matter start on day one, and the year stops being changeable when it ends.
- Can we do this in Spanish?Say which language you want to be contacted in, and that is the one that gets used.
Also asked
Do you do tax returns?
Yes: business and personal returns, and often together, because for most owners they are the same picture seen twice. Here the return is the end of a year's work rather than the whole of it — the books and the planning behind it are what decide what it ends up saying.
How should I pay myself as the owner?
How you take money out, salary, draw or distribution, changes both your tax bill and how your books read, and the right mix depends on your entity and your income. It is worth deciding deliberately rather than by habit, and it is one of the first things reviewed with a new client.
Do I have to pay estimated tax quarterly?
When tax is going to be owed at the end of the year and nothing is being withheld along the way, the IRS expects it in instalments and charges a penalty when they are missed. Whether that applies to you depends on your income, your entity and what else is already being withheld — it is a short review, not something to guess at.
What can I write off?
That depends entirely on your business, your records and the year you actually had, and anyone answering it in a chat window is guessing with your money. It is one of the first things gone through with a new client, line by line against what was really spent. Call (401) 405-8407.
When are the tax deadlines?
Business returns fall due about a month before personal ones, and both move when the date lands on a weekend or a holiday, so a date you read online last year may not be this year's. Marla Yanice keeps the calendar for the entities she files for. Ask for this year's dates for yours and you will get them.
I haven't filed in years.
It is more common than people think, and it gets worse quietly rather than loudly. Bring whatever you have, including almost nothing — the first job is working out which years actually need to be filed and in what order, and that is a conversation rather than a form. Call (401) 405-8407.
Do I owe state tax if the business made nothing?
In Rhode Island a registered entity generally owes a minimum amount at state level whether or not it earned anything, which is why a company someone stopped using but never closed keeps accruing quietly. If you have a dormant entity sitting out there, mention it — that is usually worth cleaning up rather than leaving alone.
Can I switch from my current accountant?
Yes, and books that are behind or badly structured are a normal starting point rather than a problem. Reviewing an existing setup, correcting the structure and reclassifying what went to the wrong place is often the first work done with a new client.
Bring the year you are actually having.
The office answers within one business day.