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Key Takeaways Mid-year planning gives founders time to adjust the tax-saving moves that April filing cannot fix.
Salary, entity structure and retirement contributions should be planned together with an advisor.
QBI and Augusta Rule savings require legitimate use, defensible pricing and clean documentation.
Most founders treat tax planning as a winter sport. You think about it in December, panic about it in April, and ignore it the rest of the year. That timing is backward. The moves that actually lower your bill have to be made while the year is still open, which means right now, mid-year, is when you have the most leverage.
Here are four of them. Done with intention, they can free up enough cash to cover the trip you keep putting off.
Move 1: Set your salary on purpose
If you pay yourself a salary from your company, that number is not an afterthought. It is a lever, and most owners pull it without knowing what it moves.
It depends on your entity. S-corp shareholders, partnership partners and C-corp shareholders each face a different version of the question. For S-corp owners, it matters most. The higher your salary, the more you can put into a retirement plan, and potentially the more qualified business income deduction you can claim. The flip side: Social Security and Medicare taxes are calculated on that same salary, so every dollar you add costs you there.
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