What a CPA actually does
A Certified Public Accountant's primary function, in practice, is compliance. The work is taking the financial data of the prior year, W-2s, 1099s, brokerage statements, K-1s, business income, and producing an accurate filing of what is owed under the rules that were in effect during that year. It is meticulous, regulated, and necessary work. The CPA who does it well is doing something the U.S. tax system depends on.
What it is not, structurally, is design work. A compliance engagement begins after the year ends. By February, the decisions that would have changed the year's tax outcome, whether to elect S-Corp, whether to fund a SEP, whether to harvest losses, whether to exercise ISOs in this calendar year or next, whether to bunch charitable contributions, whether to defer or accelerate revenue, have all already happened or already failed to happen. The CPA's job at that point is to characterize accurately what occurred, not to alter what could have.
This is a structural feature of the compliance model. It is not a failure of effort, talent, or care on the CPA's part. It is the model itself doing what the model is designed to do.
What a strategic advisor actually does
A strategic tax advisor works on the opposite side of the calendar. The engagement begins before the year, ideally in January, sometimes in late November of the prior year, and runs continuously throughout. The work is design, not characterization.
In practice, this looks like a projected-tax model built early in the year, updated each quarter, that integrates: base income, equity-compensation events, business income, deduction strategy, retirement contribution capacity, charitable timing, and any anticipated liquidity events. The model tells you, with reasonable precision, what your tax outcome will be under the current plan, and what it would be under alternative plans. From that, decisions get made. From the decisions, the work gets executed. And by the time the compliance work begins in February, the year has already been planned to its tax-efficient conclusion.
The difference between the two jobs is not effort. It is timing. The compliance CPA looks backward at twelve months that have ended. The strategic advisor looks forward at twelve months that have not yet begun. They are doing different jobs.
The two jobs, side by side
| Compliance-only CPA | Strategic Tax Advisor | |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement timing | Begins after year-end | Begins before year-start |
| Core question being answered | What do I owe? | What should I do? |
| Contact frequency | Annual; sometimes quarterly | Continuous; quarterly minimum |
| Projected-tax modelling | Not standard | Foundational deliverable |
| Entity restructuring | Mentioned, not designed | Designed and executed |
| Equity-event planning (RSU, ISO, QSBS) | Reported on the return | Planned in advance |
| Retirement architecture (DB, Roth, HSA stack) | Not their mandate | Designed and integrated |
| Coordination with other advisors | Limited | Standard practice |
| Year-one tax outcome impact | Negligible | $25K–$80K typical recovery |
This table compares engagement structures, not individual practitioners. Many CPAs would happily do strategic work if their engagement model permitted it; most engagement models don't. The constraint is structural.
$40K–$80K
Typical year-one tax recovery, high-earner engagement
IRS-compliant strategies missed by compliance-only CPAs. The recovery typically exceeds the year-one engagement fee by a 4-8× multiple.
This isn't the CPA's fault
It's important to be precise about this. The structural compliance model is not a moral failing of accountants. It is a consequence of how the industry has historically been organized: per-return fees, January-through-April crush periods, regulatory continuing-education focused on filing rules rather than strategy, and software stacks built for tax-return production rather than year-round modelling.
A CPA who wants to do strategic work, in a compliance-firm structure, faces a real problem: the strategic work doesn't bill the way compliance does. It takes longer, requires more thinking, and produces a deliverable that's harder to price by the hour. Most CPAs who attempt to do both end up doing compliance under the pressure of deadlines and squeezing in strategy when they can, which is usually never.
MicroTax's existence is not a critique of CPAs. It is an alternative engagement model, one built specifically for the strategy job, with the compliance work either integrated through the network or coordinated with the client's existing CPA. We work alongside good CPAs frequently. We replace bad-fit ones occasionally. The point is to put the strategic work into the hands of someone whose job is to do that work, full-time, year-round, with the right tools and the right time.
What the strategy work actually looks like
In practice, MicroTax's tax strategy engagement runs across four cadences:
Around those cadences, the strategic work happens continuously: equity events (RSU vests, ISO exercises, QSBS qualification timing), entity decisions (S-Corp elections, partnership additions, restructures), retirement plan sequencing (DB plan setup, Backdoor Roth execution, Mega Backdoor when permitted), and life events that have tax consequences (marriage, divorce, real estate purchases, relocation to or from a state with income tax).
This is what is meant by "proactive." Not more frequent contact for its own sake. Continuous design against a moving picture.
Year-one outcomes, by segment
The dollar impact of moving from compliance-only to strategic tax planning varies materially by client profile. Below is what we see, on average, in year one across the segments we serve most:
| Segment | Typical income | Avg. year-one recovery | Highest-leverage move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tech executives & senior engineers | $300K–$1.5M | $40K–$80K | RSU withholding correction + §7702 layer |
| Startup C-suite & founders | $200K cash + equity | Up to $10M (QSBS event) | QSBS §1202 preservation |
| Physicians & attorneys | $300K–$1M | $50K–$80K | DB plan + S-Corp election |
| Business owners & operators | $300K+ owner-comp | $25K–$80K | Entity restructure + retirement stack |
| Real estate investors (4+ properties) | Varies | $30K–$100K | Cost segregation + REPS |
Illustrative averages, individual results vary materially with income composition, entity structure, prior planning quality, and the depth of dormant opportunity in the prior return. The discovery session puts a precise figure on what's available in your specific situation.
The dollar figures are large because the strategies were always there, sitting in the tax code, fully compliant, waiting for someone to go and get them.
How MicroTax handles tax strategy
Tax strategy is the foundational service in the MicroTax stack. It is also, structurally, the door, the engagement most clients begin with, and the engagement from which the more advanced services (§7702 TFRA, wealth coordination, estate, fractional CFO) layer in over time.
The engagement begins with a complimentary 30-minute Strategy Session. We review your full picture, identify the top three to five opportunities visible from a single conversation, and tell you in dollars what they're worth. There's no commitment to proceed; many of the prospects we speak with don't end up engaging, and that's the right outcome when fit isn't there.
If you do proceed, the formal engagement begins with the year-start projection and continues across the four cadences described above. Fees are calibrated to the work and to the savings recovered, not to a flat retainer or AUM percentage. The year-one fee is typically a small multiple smaller than the year-one recovery. Pricing is quoted before any work begins.