MML #066: Tax season is over. Tax planning is just getting started.

Most attorneys finished their returns a few weeks ago. Maybe you signed off, handed it to your CPA, and mentally moved on. That's understandable — tax season is exhausting, even here at First Light Wealth. Lots of coordination between clients and CPAs. 100% worth it.

But before you stash it in the drawer & forget about taxes until next year, I’d like to encourage you to review a few items. Quite honestly, it becomes one of the most useful planning tools you have for the rest of the year. 

Every number on that document is telling you something about what's possible between now and December 31st.

So let’s get into it. Here are five tax planning areas worth revisiting before you file it away:

1. Capital Gains — Check Your Carry-Forwards (Schedule D)

Long-term capital gains get preferential tax treatment — meaning they're taxed at lower rates than ordinary income. And for any losses? Well, they don't just disappear. They can be carried forward and offset gains you take this year.

If you have a carry-forward loss sitting on last year's Schedule D, that's a resource. It affects the decision you make about selling appreciated positions, rebalancing your portfolio, or taking distributions from a taxable brokerage account.

There's also a threshold worth knowing. In 2026, a married couple filing jointly can have up to $98,900 in taxable income and pay 0% on long-term capital gains. And remember — taxable income is after deductions. With the standard deduction at $32,200, that means a couple could have at least $131,100 in gross income and still owe nothing on long-term gains. Add the additional senior deduction of $1,650 per spouse and the new $6,000 senior deduction for those 65 and older, and that number climbs higher.

I just saw an example of this with a client this week while reviewing their return. It involved a larger distribution from a taxable brokerage account that would incur a long-term capital gain. 

His spending looks substantial on paper, but because much of it is return of after-tax principal, his taxable income stays well below the threshold. A distribution that felt like it would trigger a tax bill turns out to be completely tax-free. 

But you can only get clear on that decision making when you know where you stand in the capital gains tax brackets.

2. QBI Deduction — Know Where You Stand

If you're still running a law practice, the 20% qualified business income deduction is one of the most valuable deductions available to you. The One Big Beautiful Bill made it permanent and expanded the phase-in range for married filing jointly taxpayers by $50,000 — pushing the phaseout range from $394,600–$494,600 up to $394,600–$544,600.

That wider range means more planning room to qualify, even as a specified service trade or business.

The strategies to get there — retirement plan contributions, income timing, deferred compensation — often work together. One move lowers income enough to unlock another benefit, which compounds into a third. QBI planning is one of those areas where the whole ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. I've written quite extensively on income reducing strategies, but it starts with knowing where last year's income landed relative to those thresholds.

3. Retirement Plan Contributions — Is There a Better Structure?

Your tax return shows exactly how much you contributed to your retirement plan last year — and whether you're leaving money on the table.

For attorneys still in practice, there’s more to the equation than just maxing out your SEP or 401(k). It's whether your current plan structure is actually right for your situation.

A 401(k) gives you both employee and employer contribution capacity, plus the option to make Roth contributions (in most plans). But for attorneys in their peak earning years who want to move serious money out of taxable income quickly, a cash balance pension plan layered on top of an existing plan can dramatically increase what you're able to shelter — sometimes by six figures annually.

The window to make prior-year contributions may be closed, but the window to restructure for this year is wide open. If your income last year was higher than expected, that's a signal worth acting on now rather than in March next year.

4. Charitable Giving — Are You Optimizing? 

If you gave to charity last year and just wrote checks, you may have left a cleaner option on the table.

Two strategies worth considering going forward: donor-advised funds and giving clusters.

A donor-advised fund lets you contribute appreciated securities directly — bypassing the capital gain entirely — and then distribute the funds to charity over time. You get the deduction when you fund it, not when you give it out. If you're sitting on appreciated positions, this is often more tax-efficient than selling and donating cash.

Clustered giving means bunching two or more years of charitable donations into a single year to clear the itemized deduction threshold, then taking the standard deduction in the off year. It requires some planning ahead, but it often produces a better outcome than giving the same amount every year and never fully optimizing either approach.

Last year's Schedule A tells you whether either of these would have made a difference. That's the place to start.

5. SALT and Schedule A — The New Deduction Is Bigger, But It Phases Out

The SALT (State & Local Tax) deduction cap has been raised to $40,000 under the new legislation — a meaningful increase from $10,000. But for high earning attorneys, there’s a catch:: the higher limit phases out starting at $500,000 of income and is reduced back to $10,000 by $600,000.

If your income is in or near that range, this becomes  an income management question. Strategies that bring taxable income below $500,000 not only reduce your tax rate, but can unlock the full SALT deduction, potentially adding tens of thousands of dollars in additional write-offs.

Additional retirement plan contributions, a cash balance plan, or income-deferral strategies can all move the needle here. And when those moves also push income lower for QBI purposes, you're starting to see the cascading effect that makes proactive planning worth the effort.

Look at your Schedule A from last year. Did you itemize? Did you come close? The answer shapes what's worth prioritizing between now and year-end.

Tax season is over. Tax planning is just getting started.

While your return is certainly a record of what happened last year, it's also a roadmap for what's possible moving forward. The attorneys who use it that way tend to end up in a very different place than those who file it away until next April.

If any of these five areas jumped out at you, that's probably where to start.

And just a quite reminder that we review tax returns for all clients in the month of May. If you’d like us to take a look at yours, we include this with every prospective client as well. Is starts with a conversation - you can book that here. 

Cheers, Dave

P.S. — A quick reminder: we review tax returns for all clients every May. If you're not a client yet, we include that same review for prospective clients — no obligation. It starts with a conversation. Book one here.