By Christopher Clepp, ChFC® · Building Towards Wealth
What Year-End Tax Moves Should Business Owners Make Before December 31?
Year-end tax moves are the moves you can no longer make after January 1. For business owners, the highest-leverage decisions usually involve retirement plan funding, equipment timing, charitable giving, and how income and expenses land across the calendar.
Every year the same thing happens. The calendar flips to December, owners look up from running their businesses, and the scramble begins: buy something, fund something, give something, quick, before the ball drops. Some of that scrambling helps. A lot of it burns cash to feel productive.
So here’s the calm version: the year-end moves that tend to matter for business owners, roughly in order of leverage, with the honest math on each. Work this list in November if you can. December works too, but November gives your CPA time to think instead of react.
Retirement funding: fast-twitch and slow-twitch
The retirement plan question splits into two piles: what has to happen by December 31, and what can wait until you file.
2026 limits: $24,500 deferral, +$8,000 catch-up (age 50+), +$11,250 catch-up (age 60–63). These elections run through payroll. Miss December and the room is gone.
Profit sharing and defined benefit funding can typically be made up to the return filing deadline, extensions included. Combined 415(c) cap: $72,000 for 2026.
Section 179, bonus depreciation, and the truck math
Equipment timing is one of the few year-end moves with real discretionary dollars attached, and it’s also where the worst December decisions get made.
“Casual cash giving got less tax-efficient for high earners in 2026. Deliberate structure got more valuable. The gap between the two is real dollars.”
Charitable giving with a brain
Year-end is when most charitable dollars move, and 2026 changed the rules in ways worth knowing before you write the checks. Itemizers can now deduct charitable contributions only above a floor of 0.5% of adjusted gross income, and the value of the deduction is capped for those in the top bracket. The net effect: casual cash giving got less tax-efficient, and structure got more valuable.
Income and expense timing
For owners with discretion over when revenue lands and when expenses get paid, December is when the choices have teeth.
- Cash-basis businesses can pay January’s vendors in December and defer billing where contracts allow.
- Accrual-basis businesses have less room but still control bonus accruals and certain prepaid expenses.
- S-Corp owners have flexibility on distribution timing.
The five mistakes that cost the most
After enough Decembers, the expensive mistakes start to rhyme.
The cleanest year-end is the one with the fewest surprises. For the fuller checklist that sits around these moves, Year-End Financial Planning: Your Ultimate Guide walks the broader ground.
Let’s talk
If your year-end tax planning has historically been a December scramble, the fix is a November conversation inside a plan that runs all year. That’s how I work with business owners through the Abundant Wealth Process.
Disclosure: This article is provided for general educational and informational purposes only and is not personalized tax, legal, accounting, or investment advice. Examples involving dollar amounts are hypothetical and illustrative only; individual results vary based on specific circumstances. Tax laws and IRS thresholds change frequently; 2026 figures cited above reflect IRS-published limits as of this writing and should be verified before reliance. Christopher Clepp, ChFC®, is a financial advisor and not a CPA or attorney; consult with qualified tax, legal, and accounting professionals regarding the application of any strategy to your specific situation. References to internal blog content are educational only and do not constitute a solicitation.
