Contributed by: Lauren Adams, CFA®, CFP®
One of the most rewarding types of clients we have the honor of working with are business owners. These folks have built their companies from the ground up across a wide variety of industries or worked their way up through the ranks to now serve at their company’s helm. They are masters of their fields of expertise and savvy strategists. However, they are often frustrated when their expertise in their domain doesn’t translate into know-how to manage their finances. This is why many choose to outsource the management of their finances to professionals. If you are a business owner devoted to your business and perhaps putting your own planning on the back burner, we’ve put together a few questions for you to consider.
1. Are you optimizing your retirement savings?
Two of the most popular retirement savings vehicles for small business owners are the SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) IRA and the solo 401(k).
SEP IRAs are one of the most common retirement accounts for self-employed individuals and small business owners; they are popular for their simplicity and flexibility. They are similar to traditional IRAs in many ways but with some twists. With a SEP IRA, you can most likely contribute much more than a traditional IRA. Depending on your business entity structure, a business owner’s limit is generally the lesser of 25% of compensation (up to $69,000 in 2024). These accounts tend to be ideal for folks who have very few (or zero) other employees because owners must contribute proportional amounts for each eligible employee.
SEPs also offer a lot of flexibility: you can freely roll over the account into a Traditional IRA in the future, and you can make contributions until your taxes are due the following year. Some limitations to consider: you don’t have the ability to take a loan from your SEP IRA (like you can from a 401(k)), there is no Roth contribution option with SEPs (contributions will always be tax deductible up front and withdrawals will always be taxed when taken out), and typically the self-employed person would need to earn a lot to be able to max out their annual contribution limit ($300k+ in 2024).
Solo 401(k)s are a simplified version of the popular corporate 401(k) savings plan. They might be a fit for owner-only businesses whose only employees are the owner or the owner and spouse. With solo 401(k)s, the owner gets to decide how much to contribute as the employee and the employer. Contributions can be pre-tax or Roth, and 401(k)s do allow for tax-free loans (if the proper procedure is followed). There are some nuances to the employee and employer contribution limits, but solo 401(k)s have the same high contribution rate as SEP IRAs, and typically, you can get there faster (with an overall lower level of total compensation) than the SEP. A downside of solo 401(k)s is that they have some added cost and complexity. Plan documents need to be established, and the IRS requires owners to file a Form 5500 if it has $250,000 or more in assets at the end of the year.
Luckily, these are both great savings options for business owners to build long-term retirement savings and diversify the wealth they are building inside their businesses. We have experience assisting our business owner clients with both types of plans.
2. Are you taking advantage of the QBI deduction?
The qualified business income (QBI) deduction is a potential 20% deduction for self-employed individuals and owners of pass-through entities like LLCs, partnerships, and S corps that was created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. There is a threshold and phaseout of this deduction if you make too much money, and the rules and calculations around it are complex. We won’t get into the nitty-gritty here, but we want to ensure it is on our business owner clients’ radar. In our experience, many business owners are not aware of this deduction, or they may be paying themselves too high a salary than legally necessary (thus increasing their FICA taxes and limiting their profits and the amount of the potential deduction they are eligible for).
Also, this benefit is scheduled to sunset on December 31, 2025 (unless Congress votes to extend it). So you want to make sure you’re making the most of it while you can, as it can translate into potentially large tax savings under the right circumstances. Don’t wait – call your CPA today and discuss ways you can maximize this benefit while it is still around.
3. Are you planning for the future?
As business owners ourselves, we understand how easy it is to get caught up in working “in” the business instead of “on” the business. That’s why we’ve found helpful tools like Gino Wickman’s Traction and the EOS Resources (https://www.eosworldwide.com/). Dedicating time to work on the business itself can pay dividends in your own quality of life and the equity value of the business itself.
If you are contemplating a sale in the future, don’t assume that you need to wait until after you cash out to call a financial advisor. We can employ many tactics leading up to your business sale (such as tax-loss harvesting strategies like direct indexing or tax-advantaged charitable giving) to help mitigate the tax bite of this watershed moment in your life.
We hope these questions have helped get you thinking about some opportunities you might be missing and showcase how important prioritizing your own financial planning can be. Reach out to talk through your personal situation together. We’d love to help!
Lauren Adams, CFA®, CFP®, is a Partner, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, and Director of Operations at Center for Financial Planning, Inc.® She works with clients and their families to achieve their financial planning goals.
The foregoing information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that it is accurate or complete, it is not a statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision, and it does not constitute a recommendation. Any opinions are those of Lauren Adams, CFA®, CFP® and not necessarily those of Raymond James. While we are familiar with the tax provisions of the issues presented herein, as Financial Advisors of RJFS, we are not qualified to render advice on tax or legal matters. You should discuss tax or legal matters with the appropriate professional.
Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc.
Center for Financial Planning, Inc. is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services.