Hire a flat-fee CPA for retirement tax planning

For households with substantial traditional IRA and 401(k) balances, our planning considers how Roth conversions, retirement withdrawals, and future tax obligations interact. See our published $1.5 million IRA case study for an example.

Who does the work

Jim Swiech is a CPA with more than 18 years of experience, based in Lockport, New York. He personally leads the planning, reviews the analysis, and discusses the recommendations with you. Read more about Jim.

We work with clients virtually across the United States. State tax rules can affect the planning, so we confirm the applicable state requirements and the scope of the engagement before beginning work.

A Go Beyond Tax tax-planning engagement does not require you to move your investments or replace your current financial advisor. We build the tax plan and, with your permission, coordinate the tax recommendations with the professionals you already use.

What you are actually buying

This is more than preparing an annual tax return. Our Comprehensive Plan includes multi-year retirement tax planning and preparation of the federal and resident-state individual income tax returns covered by the engagement. We do not manage your investments as part of this service.

For the Comprehensive Plan, Jim starts from your actual Form 1040, your retirement account balances, your income sources and what you intend to spend. He then compares strategies over multiple years, convert nothing, convert to a bracket line, convert to a Medicare line, and so on, including Roth conversions, future RMDs, Medicare premiums, and retirement withdrawals. The analysis incorporates federal taxes and applicable state tax considerations within the agreed scope.

The Comprehensive Plan provides a written recommendation explaining the strategy, proposed conversion amounts and timing, withdrawal sequencing, key assumptions, and actions to review as circumstances change. With your permission, Jim can coordinate the tax recommendations with your financial advisor or tax preparer.

The full scope of each service, and what sits outside it, is on the pricing page.

What it costs

Every fee is fixed and quoted in writing before any work begins.

The Snapshot and the Assessment are narrower engagements and do not prepare returns. If you begin the Comprehensive Plan within 30 days of the Assessment results meeting, the Assessment fee is credited toward it. The Annual Strategy requires a completed Comprehensive Plan and is priced separately. Published fees cover the services described. Work outside the agreed scope is quoted separately before it begins.

Evidence: what the planning looks like when it is done

Rather than describe the work, we published one complete case. A retired New York couple, both 65, with $1.5 million in traditional IRAs, $100,000 in Roth IRAs and a $250,000 brokerage account, run four ways for 26 years through 2051. We tested the case-study calculations against a separately written Python model. We also deliberately introduced errors to verify that the reconciliation checks would detect them.

The plan sized under the first Medicare line ends with the most Roth and the lowest combined income tax and surcharge cost. Without conversions, the couple ends with $2,675,508 in traditional IRAs, $580,735 in Roth accounts, and $974,014 in taxable investments. Future distributions from the traditional IRAs may generate income taxes. These account balances cannot be compared dollar for dollar as though they all have the same after-tax value.

How to judge anyone you are thinking of hiring

Capable CPAs and financial planners do this work. Whoever you consider, including us, ask these questions and expect a plain answer to each.

• When your situation calls for detailed tax planning, do they review your actual tax returns and verify the financial information used in their projections?
• Do they compare each conversion strategy against converting nothing, year by year?
• For married couples, do they model how taxes, Social Security benefits, and retirement income could change after the death of either spouse?
• Do they build in required minimum distributions and the Medicare IRMAA lines, including the two-year lookback?
• Do they explain the scope, deliverables, fees, and any potential additional charges in writing before work begins?
• Who is responsible for implementing the recommendations, and how is each professional involved compensated?

What happens next

The first step is a free 30-minute video call with Jim. It is a conversation about your situation and which service fits, or whether none of them does. It is not the analysis itself. If a plan makes sense, you get the scope and the fee in writing before anything starts.