Fractional CFO CostWhy tax planning belongs inside a fractional CFO fee
You're looking for tax planning in a fractional CFO fee, and you want to know whether you'll pay extra for it. Tax CFO Steven Palmieri leads this practice, and Steven and his team treat planning as part of the month, never as a product sold on top. Here is how that works and why we think it's the fair way to price it.
Ask how planning fits
Planning as part of the month
Most fractional CFO fees buy a reading of the books. If you want taxes planned, a second bill often follows, from a second person who has to learn your business from scratch. With a Tax CFO, the planning happens in the same monthly work. When the month closes, the numbers are right there for the next estimate, the next decision and the next question. The fee list on what a fee should include shows where planning sits.
Estimates set from closed months
An owner whose tax isn't withheld pays during the year in four installments. Those land four times a year for a calendar-year filer, and Publication 509 lists them. Each installment can be a guess, or it can be worked out from the months already closed. We work it out. That gives each payment a reason you can read.
The decisions that live in the fall
By October you can see roughly where the year is heading, and a handful of choices can still change the outcome. Say the owner of an S corporation works in the business. The IRS expects that owner to draw reasonable pay as wages before any other distributions, and the amount deserves a look against the year's profit, as the IRS explains. Equipment can be bought now or later, and each choice affects cash and tax. Retirement contributions have deadlines that depend on the kind of plan.
Nothing here promises a saving. It's about making the choice while there's still a choice to make.
The return from the same books
Whether the return sits inside the monthly fee or is priced separately is said up front, in writing. Either way, it's prepared from the same closed books the planning used. That's the point. The person who planned the year also prepares the return, so nothing is re-entered and nothing is explained twice.
Why splitting it costs owners twice
When planning and bookkeeping live with different people, each one has to learn your business. You pay one to count and another to decide. Then you pay for the meetings in between, where each explains your numbers to the other. A single team that does both removes that second learning curve, which is a cost you never see itemized.
A small example in words
Suppose an owner finishes September with a strong profit and wonders about a truck. With a closed month and a planning conversation, the question is answered in a call, with cash and tax both on the table. Without them, the same question waits for a spring conversation, when the choice has already been made one way or the other.
What this isn't
It's not a promise of lower taxes. It's not a quarterly product with its own price. It's a regular part of the monthly work, and it shows up on the fee list as included. If a quote prices it separately, ask why, and ask what the monthly fee covers without it.
Inside the fee. For this page's subject, a fair fee names tax planning as part of the monthly read, says whether the return is in or out, and gives you the answer before work begins. Add to that the extras that can hide in a quote and you can see where each fee draws its line. Anything that is separate gets a price before it starts.
Will you pay extra for tax planning?
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.