Retirement tax planning · preparation vs planning
My CPA only does my return. Who does proactive retirement tax planning?
Reviewed by Jim Swiech, CPA · Updated
Quick answer
They are two different services, and most preparers do not sell the second one. Preparing a return records a year that has already closed. Planning decides the year while you can still change it.
Go Beyond Tax does the planning side, nationwide. Your preparer can keep filing the return.
What the difference actually is
A tax return is a report. It tells you what a finished year cost. Everything that determined that number, how much came out of the IRA, whether any of it was converted, when Social Security started, what your income did to your Medicare premiums two years out, was settled before the forms were filled in.
Planning is the work that happens while those things are still decisions. How much to convert and in which years. What required minimum distributions will do to your bracket at 73 or 75. How much of your Social Security ends up taxable. Which account to draw from first. Whether this year should look expensive on purpose so that the next fifteen do not.
Your preparer is probably not doing anything wrong
Compliance work is priced and scheduled around filing deadlines, and the return is prepared after the year is over, when most of this can no longer be changed. That is the nature of the job, not a failure at it. The useful question is not whether your preparer files accurately. It is whether anyone is modeling the next ten to twenty years before each December.
What the timing is worth, in dollars
Three separate illustrative married couples, each at the stated age, each calculated under 2026 federal law on a New York return. In every case: both spouses the same age, a $40,000 IRA draw in the first two and a $60,000 required minimum distribution in the third, $48,000 of Social Security once it has started, and the same $100,000 Roth conversion. The draw, the distribution and the conversion are all assumed fully taxable, with no basis in the IRA, no other income, no credits and no itemized deductions.
| Which couple | Federal cost | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| Age 63, retired, no Social Security yet | $12,360 | 12.4% |
| Age 68, Social Security has started | $18,013 | 18.0% |
| Age 76, required distributions running | $18,687 | 18.7% |
Same conversion, same law, $6,327 apart. Nobody files their way to that difference in April. It is decided years earlier, by someone who was looking forward.
What planning does not require
You do not have to leave your preparer, move investments, or change financial advisors. Plenty of our planning clients keep everyone they already work with. We build the projection and, with your permission, send the recommendations to whoever files the return so the plan and the filing agree.
What you receive
A multi-year projection built from your actual return and balances: what to convert and when, what distributions will look like, where Social Security and Medicare land in each year, and the order to draw from your accounts. Written in plain English, and written to be handed to the other professionals in your life.
Go Beyond Tax is CPA-led and works with households across the country.
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Quick answers
- My CPA only prepares my tax return. Who does proactive retirement tax planning?
- They are two different services and most tax preparers do not sell the second one. Preparing a return records a year that has already closed. Retirement tax planning decides the year while you can still change it: how much to convert to a Roth and in which years, what required minimum distributions will do to your bracket at 73 or 75, how much of your Social Security ends up taxable, whether the year crosses a Medicare income threshold, and which account to draw from first. Go Beyond Tax does the planning side, nationwide, and your preparer can keep filing the return.
- Is my CPA doing something wrong if they have never brought this up?
- Not necessarily. Compliance work is priced and scheduled around filing deadlines, and a return is prepared after the year is over, when most of these decisions can no longer be changed. A planning engagement is a different piece of work with a different calendar. The useful question is not whether your preparer is good at filing, it is whether anyone is modeling the next ten to twenty years before each December.
- Do I have to leave my current CPA?
- No. Many planning clients keep the preparer they have. We build the multi-year projection and, with your permission, send the recommendations to whoever files the return so the plan and the filing agree.
- When in the year should planning happen?
- Before the year closes. A Roth conversion is a transaction completed inside the calendar year, and since 2018 it cannot be undone afterward, so the amount has to be decided while there is still time to act. Most planning decisions are made between the middle of the year and late December, once income for the year is reasonably known.
Updated . Reviewed by Jim Swiech, CPA.
Educational and general in nature. Not tax, legal or investment advice, and not a recommendation to convert. Figures are 2026 federal amounts under the assumptions stated on this page; your return has more lines than any example. Go Beyond Tax is a brand of Swiech Consulting LLC.