★★★★★
She approaches finances holistically rather than a "one product fits all" sale. I've worked with several advisors before, this experience was genuinely different.
Business Owner
Entrepreneur · Silicon Valley
For Business Owners & Operators
MicroTax for the
people who built it
and want to keep what they built
Founders and owner-operators of profitable privately-held businesses at $1M–$10M+ in revenue. Professional services firms, agencies, e-commerce, technology, manufacturing. Where the entity structure determines the tax bill, and the entity structure is usually wrong.
A profitable sole-prop or single-member LLC pays self-employment tax on every dollar of net profit. The S-Corp election typically saves $15,000–$25,000 annually for owners taking $250K+ in distributions. Most owners who would benefit, haven't filed.
The financial life of a successful owner-operator scales faster than the financial advice supporting it. Entity, retirement plan stack, owner-comp design, §199A optimization, and succession architecture all need to evolve as the business grows, and almost never do, because no one on the team has the mandate. MicroTax is the team that does.
Section 01 · Audience
Who this serves
Founders and owner-operators of profitable privately-held businesses, professional services firms, agencies, e-commerce operators, technology companies, manufacturers, typically generating $1M–$10M in annual revenue with the owner taking $300K+ in compensation. The business is past founding-stage scrappiness and into operational maturity, with the owner increasingly thinking about the next decade rather than the next quarter.
The defining feature is that the business succeeded faster than the structural advice supporting it caught up. The entity that was right at $200K of revenue is rarely the right entity at $5M. The retirement plan stack that made sense at thirty doesn't optimize at fifty. The succession plan that should have started five years before exit usually starts six months before exit, when most of the available structuring has already lost its time value.
This is the audience where proactive design pays the largest absolute dollars, and where reactive compliance has the highest opportunity cost. The good news: every move is well-established and IRS-compliant. The work is in identifying which moves apply, sequencing them correctly, and executing on time.
Section 02 · Diagnostic
What's typically going wrong
Each is well-documented and routinely missed, because the business has scaled past the original entity, the original plan, and the original advisor without an integrated review.
Seven recurring problems in this segment
SE tax maxed, no S-Corp election.
A profitable sole prop or single-member LLC pays self-employment tax on every dollar of net profit. The S-Corp election typically saves $15,000–$25,000 annually for owners taking $250K+ in distributions. It is one form. It is rarely filed.
SEP / SIMPLE / Solo 401(k) line blank.
Owners eligible for $60K+ in retirement deferrals routinely contribute zero, because nobody set up the plan. Years of foregone deferrals compound into a structural retirement-funding gap.
No defined benefit plan.
For owners over 45 with consistent profitability, a defined benefit plan can shelter $200K+ of income annually, frequently the single largest legitimate deduction available to a business owner. Designed correctly, it stacks on top of the 401(k); total annual deferral capacity for the right profile can exceed $300K.
§199A QBI deduction unclaimed or sub-optimal.
Twenty percent of qualified business income. Often left partially or wholly on the table because the entity isn't structured to qualify, the activity classification is wrong, or the owner-comp split is mistuned against the threshold limits.
R&D credits not claimed.
Software development, product development, process improvement, and engineering work routinely qualifies for federal and state R&D credits. The credit is routinely missed because nobody set up contemporaneous documentation. Reconstructed documentation is far weaker than the credit it supports.
Owner compensation set by intuition.
The split between W-2 salary and S-Corp distributions materially affects total tax, through payroll tax, retirement contribution capacity, and §199A interactions. It is rarely modelled; usually set to whatever felt reasonable at the time of the election.
No succession or exit plan.
A sale or transition five years out needs structural work today. Buy-sell agreements, basis documentation, key-employee retention structures, and tax-efficient deal architecture all take time to put in place. Last-minute succession is the most expensive succession.
Section 03 · The change
What changes under a MicroTax engagement
Seven specific moves, sequenced through the F.A.S.T. Steps method, entity work first, retirement architecture next, succession last.
1
Entity audit & S-Corp election
Current structure reviewed against the optimal structure for the income profile, the activity, and the multi-state exposure. S-Corp election filed where it makes sense; restructure recommended where it doesn't.
2
Owner-comp design
W-2 salary and distribution split modelled against payroll tax, retirement contribution capacity, §199A thresholds, and reasonable-compensation safe harbors. Defensible, optimized, documented.
3
§199A QBI optimization
Entity, compensation, and activity tuned to maximize the 20% QBI deduction. For high-income owners near or above the threshold, often the difference between claiming and not claiming the full deduction.
4
Retirement plan stack, Solo 401(k) + DB / Cash Balance
Solo 401(k) or SEP for the foundational layer, plus a defined benefit or cash balance plan layered on top for older owners with consistent profitability. Total annual deferral capacity for the right profile can exceed $300K.
5
R&D credit assessment & documentation
Eligible activity identified across software development, product development, process improvement, and engineering work. Contemporaneous documentation set up. Credit claimed federally and at the state level where applicable.
6
Fractional CFO services
For owners at $1M–$10M revenue who need strategic finance, cash-flow forecasting, KPI design, and board-ready reporting without a full-time hire. Integrated with the tax and retirement architecture rather than running in parallel.
7
Succession & exit planning
Multi-year structural work to prepare for sale, transition, or transfer: buyer readiness, basis documentation, key-employee retention, buy-sell agreements, and tax-efficient deal structuring. Started years before the exit, not at the closing dinner.
Section 04 · Outcomes
Indicative year-one outcomes
$25K–$80K
Avg. year-one tax recovery for owner-operators
$300K+
Total annual deferral capacity via 401(k) + DB stack
20%
§199A QBI deduction, fully captured when optimized
Illustrative, strategy applicability depends on entity, activity, owner age and profile; individual results vary. DB plan capacity depends on actuarial assumptions and consistent profitability. §199A eligibility depends on income and activity classification.
Section 05 · A client voice
From an owner who did the math
Section 06 · Go deeper
Related strategies for owner-operators
Service · Operations
Fractional CFO for business owners
Strategic finance, cash-flow forecasting, KPI design, and board-ready reporting, without a full-time CFO hire. Integrated with the tax and retirement architecture rather than a parallel function. How it works →
Service · Flagship
§7702 Tax-Free Retirement, properly explained
Once the qualified-plan stack is full, the §7702 vehicle adds tax-free retirement income outside the contribution ceiling. Particularly valuable for business owners whose deferral capacity is high and whose post-exit income needs are predictable. Read the explainer →
Article · Entity Structure
S-Corp election done correctly
The decision matrix, the reasonable-compensation safe harbor, the interaction with §199A, and the mistakes that get reasonable owners audited. The S-Corp election is rarely complicated; it's rarely done right either. Read the article →