Year-end tax planning typically involves reviewing legislation passed by Congress or regulations issued by the Treasury and determining the impact. In what is becoming an unfortunate theme, no significant tax legislation has yet been enacted in 2015, and taxpayers are again faced with uncertainty. However, just because Congress has not provided taxpayers a roadmap for the 2015 tax year does not mean that taxpayers cannot begin planning.

As the 2015 year comes to an end, we will be discussing with our clients the following issues as part of our year-end tax planning process:

• Preparing tax projections for 2015 business and individual activity.
• Reviewing tax withholdings and tax estimates for federal, state and local.
• Defer 2015 income into next year and accelerate deductions into 2015.
• Net 2015 realized stock gains against losses held in portfolio by realizing those losses before year-end.
• Year-end capital equipment acquisitions which would qualify for accelerated depreciation and expensing.
• Maximizing the tax benefits within your employer/employee retirement plan before year-end.

We will issue a more definitive tax planning document later this month as 2015 tax legislation becomes law.

Even though many valuable tax provisions, such as bonus depreciation, are currently expired, we expect legislation to retroactively reinstate these provisions. In any event taxpayer will need to revise their tax plans quickly if necessary.