We love preparing tax returns for our clients.
Sure, there are a few “fire drills” in the final days before April 15 (see our team photo above), but even those are part of the process. It’s always a sprint to the finish but I’m happy to report things went great for our clients and us. We truly enjoy the work.
Personally, this was my 59th tax season, going back to 1968 when I started as a junior in college working for a local CPA firm. A lot has changed since then, but one thing hasn’t: helping clients navigate taxes thoughtfully is both challenging and rewarding.
We love preparing returns because they’re a critical piece of a much bigger objective—tax efficiency.
What We Mean by Tax Efficiency
Tax efficiency has three key elements:
1. Knowing the tax law
We stay current through ongoing education, professional courses, and research. When there’s uncertainty, we dig in to verify the right approach.
2. Knowing our clients
This is where we have a real advantage. We meet with our clients 3–4 times each year, and taxes are always part of the conversation. We review life events, financial decisions, and run tax projections throughout the year—not just at filing time.
3. A willingness to do the work
We roll up our sleeves, sharpen our pencils, and look for opportunities to reduce taxes. It’s a challenge we enjoy—finding thoughtful, creative, and fully compliant solutions that benefit our clients.
More Than Just Taxes
Of course, tax efficiency is just one part of what we do.
Our work is built on three core services:
– Financial Planning
– Tax Efficiency
– Investment Management & Stewardship
Everything starts with financial planning—for both our clients and their businesses. Planning is focused on key objectives for our clients:
– Achieving financial independence without unnecessary sacrifice
– Using their wealth confidently to support their families
– Living fully today while planning for tomorrow
– Aging without financial fear
Financial planning leads the way and DWM’s disciplined investment management brings the plans to life.
These three areas are interconnected. Together, they form DWM’s holistic process—designed to help ensure your financial life is organized, intentional, and aligned with your goals.
Looking Ahead to 2026
With tax season behind us, we’re already turning our attention to what’s next.
Our quarterly client meetings resume next week. These meetings cover not only financial planning, tax efficiency and investment stewardship but also estate planning, insurance review and charitable giving. The current meetings will be updating financial plans and continuing work on 2026 tax projections. In fact, we’ve already started this process with many clients earlier this year.
There are several new developments on the horizon for 2026. We’ll be sharing a more detailed update in a blog later this month, but here’s a preview of a few key areas:
“Trump Accounts”
– Available starting July 1
– Particularly beneficial for children born between 2025–2028, with a $1,000 government contribution per account
– Children under 18 can also receive contributions from parents and grandparents up to $5,000 per year.
– Funds grow tax-deferred (similar to an IRA) and, under current rules, can be converted to a Roth IRA when the child turns 18 or later.
Charitable Giving Changes
– Non-itemizers can deduct up to $2,000 (for married couples) in cash contributions starting in 2026
– Itemizers will see a reduction equal to 0.5% of adjusted gross income (AGI)
– Example: A couple with $250,000 of AGI would see a $1,250 reduction in deductible contributions
529 Plan Enhancements
– Expanded use for K–12 education
– Annual withdrawal limit increased to $20,000 per student (up from $10,000)
-Last year’s law includes use of 529 withdrawals for education and licensing in trades and bar and CPA exams as well.
We’ll be providing more detailed insights on these and other changes in the coming weeks.
Now it’s time to take off our fireman uniforms (though we will stay in our “firefighter mode”)—and enjoy a well-earned weekend.