Structure review
Sole proprietor, LLC, partnership, or S-Corp — compared on total tax, self-employment tax, and the real administrative cost of each at your profit level.
Tax Planning & Compliance · Las Vegas, Nevada
Tax planning while the year is still open.
Most of what people wish they had done about taxes had to happen before December 31. We model entity structure, reasonable S-Corp salary, retirement and equipment decisions, and estimated payments against your real numbers — then handle the compliance calendar so the plan actually lands.
- Projections built from your actual books, not last year's return
- Entity, salary, retirement, and timing decisions modeled side by side
- Federal and Nevada compliance calendar managed, not just advised on
What we model, and when.
Reasonable compensation
For S-Corp owners, a defensible salary figure documented against duties and industry data — the line that most often draws IRS attention.
Retirement vehicles
SEP-IRA, SIMPLE, or solo 401(k) compared on contribution room, deadlines, and cash-flow reality rather than the theoretical maximum.
Equipment & expense timing
Vehicle and equipment purchases, depreciation elections, and deferring or accelerating income across the year-end line where it helps.
Estimated payments
Quarterly amounts set from a live projection, with safe-harbor targets, so April is a formality instead of an emergency.
State compliance
State business license renewals, modified business tax where applicable, and Commerce Tax filings once gross receipts cross the threshold.
The return is a scoreboard; planning is the game
By the time a return is on the desk in March, the decisions that mattered are already history. The entity was what it was, the salary was what it was, the retirement contribution window for most vehicles has closed, and the equipment was bought in January instead of December. A preparer at that point is a scorekeeper, and the honest answer to "can you do anything about this number" is usually no.
Planning moves the conversation to September through December, when the year's revenue and expenses are known well enough to project accurately and there is still time to act. That is when we can run a projection, see the tax coming, and change the inputs: elect or unwind an entity status, adjust an owner's salary for the remaining pay periods, fund the right retirement vehicle, decide whether to buy the truck this year or next, and reset the final estimated payment so nothing is a surprise.
It also produces something a return never does: a number you can plan cash around. Business owners in Las Vegas commonly get hit twice — an unexpected balance plus the first quarter's estimate due at the same time — and that combination is what turns a manageable tax bill into a collection case. Knowing the figure in October is worth a great deal.
Nevada specifics worth knowing
Nevada has no state personal income tax, which is genuinely valuable and also slightly misleading, because it leads owners to assume the compliance load is trivial. Federal self-employment tax is often the largest single line on a Las Vegas owner's return, and it is not reduced by living in a no-income-tax state. Choosing the right entity is one of the few levers that meaningfully affects it.
On the state side there is still a calendar: the annual state business license and entity filings, modified business tax for employers, and the Commerce Tax return once gross revenue crosses the statutory threshold — a filing that catches growing businesses off guard because it appears suddenly at a revenue level, not at a profit level. Short-term rental owners, contractors working across state lines, and entertainers with multi-state income have additional filing questions that are much cheaper to answer in advance.
We keep this as a maintained calendar for clients rather than as advice given once. Compliance failures — a lapsed license, a missed Commerce Tax filing, a skipped estimate — cost more in penalties than the planning does in fees.
Planning tied to the books and the filings
A projection is only as good as the numbers feeding it, which is why planning here starts with the books. If the bookkeeping is behind or the categories are unreliable, we clean that up first — otherwise the plan is built on guesses and the strategy that looked clever in October collapses in February.
Because we also prepare the return, run payroll, and file the entity paperwork, nothing gets lost in a handoff between an advisor who suggested a strategy and a preparer who never heard about it. The salary decision shows up in the payroll runs. The retirement contribution actually gets funded before the deadline. The S-Corp election is filed on time rather than discovered a year late.
Kevin has spent 21+ years on returns, books, and IRS problems and is an IRS Authorized Representative (CAF # 0316-73651). Goodfella's is 100% virtual, headquartered in Las Vegas and serving clients across Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah, and the rest of the country. Fees are flat and quoted before the work starts, and the first conversation is a free twenty minutes.
Tax planning questions.
- What is the difference between tax planning and tax preparation?
- Preparation reports what already happened; by the time a return is being filed, most of the outcome is locked. Planning happens while the year is still open, when entity choice, salary levels, retirement contributions, equipment timing, and estimated payments can still be changed.
- When should planning happen?
- The highest-value window is roughly September through December, when the year's numbers are known well enough to project but decisions can still be made. A second useful checkpoint is right after the return is filed, while the pain of the number is fresh.
- Does Nevada's lack of state income tax mean planning matters less?
- It removes one layer, but the federal side is where the money is, and self-employment tax is often the largest single line for a Las Vegas business owner. Nevada also has its own compliance calendar — state business license, modified business tax where applicable, and Commerce Tax filings above the receipts threshold.
- Will an S-Corp election save me money?
- It depends on profit level, whether you can support a reasonable salary, and how much administrative cost you are taking on. It is genuinely powerful above a certain profit threshold and a net loss below it. We model your actual numbers both ways rather than applying a rule of thumb.
- How do you charge for planning?
- A flat fee quoted before the work starts, based on the complexity of the situation. You approve the number in writing first — no hourly meter.
- Do you handle compliance as well as strategy?
- Yes. Planning that nobody implements is worthless, so we also handle the estimated payments, entity and payroll filings, bookkeeping, and the return itself, which keeps the strategy and the filings in the same hands.
Related: tax accountant Las Vegas, bookkeeping & tax services, fractional CFO, 1099 contractor taxes, the S-Corp savings guide.