In the final months of the year, you probably know much more about your financial picture than you did back in January. Your income is taking shape, business results are clearer, investment gains and losses have accumulated. Maybe a property has been bought or sold, or you have retired, changed jobs, relocated, welcomed a new family member, or experienced another financial change.

Bottom line: Your tax picture has likely been changing, and that’s what makes the dozen or so weeks leading up to Dec. 31 particularly useful for tax planning. Instead of waiting until your tax return is prepared to find out where you stand, a year-end tax projection provides an earlier look at your expected tax liability and helps identify issues or planning opportunities while the tax year is still open.

Tax Preparation Looks Back, A Tax Projection Looks Ahead

Tax return preparation and tax projections serve different purposes. When your tax return is prepared, the year has already ended. Most of the income has been earned, transactions have occurred, and end-of-year deadlines have passed. The job at that point is largely to determine how the tax rules apply to what happened during the previous year.

A year-end tax projection happens earlier. It uses information available now, together with reasonable estimates for the remainder of the year, to develop a working picture of your expected tax position. That distinction helps because knowing about a potential issue before year-end may give us time to help you evaluate your options. Discovering the same issue during tax season may simply tell you what already happened.

A Lot About Your Finances Can Change in a Year

Your prior-year tax return provides useful information, but it does not necessarily predict what will happen this year. Consider what may have changed since your last return.

Perhaps you started a new job, received a raise, accepted a bonus, or benefited from another form of compensation. You might have started or sold a business, experienced a substantial change in business income, sold real estate, or received income from a new source. Your investment portfolio, including any cryptocurrency you possess, may have generated significant gains or losses. Retirement even could have changed the sources of your income.

Personal changes can matter, too. Marriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, buying a home, and other life events can affect different parts of a tax return.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) itself recommends checking federal withholding when tax law changes or when taxpayers experience changes involving employment, income, family circumstances, home purchases, retirement, and certain other events.

A year-end tax projection brings all of these developments together instead of considering each one in isolation.

Federal and State Tax Laws Change, Too

Your financial circumstance are only one part of the equation. The rules used to calculate your taxes can change as well, and that is particularly relevant for 2026. Federal legislation enacted in 2025 made numerous changes affecting individual and business taxation, while annual inflation adjustments changed tax brackets, deductions, exclusions, and other amounts for the 2026 tax year.

The practical effect of all of this will, of course, depends on your unique individual circumstances. While a change in the law does not automatically mean that your taxes will increase or decrease, it does mean that assumptions based on an older tax return may no longer tell the whole story. A year-end tax projection appointment like the one we offer here at SWC provides an opportunity to apply the rules in effect for the current year to a more current picture of your finances.

A Tax Projection Answers an Important Question: Where Am I Headed?

One of the most useful outcomes of a year-end tax projection is relatively straightforward: an estimate of your potential tax liability based on the information currently available. Your estimate can then be compared with federal income tax already withheld and estimated tax payments already made.

Federal income tax generally operates on a pay-as-you-go basis. Employees commonly satisfy that obligation through withholding, while business owners, investors, and others receiving income that is not subject to sufficient withholding may need to make estimated tax payments.

If income or other financial circumstances changed during the year, the amount being paid toward your eventual tax liability may no longer align with the current projection. Finding that out before tax season can provide time to review whether an adjustment should be considered.

A Tax Projection Is Still Just an Estimate: A tax projection depends on the information and assumptions available when it is prepared. Income, deductions, investment activity, business results, and other events that occur later can change the final outcome. The objective is to develop a useful planning picture, not to guarantee the amount that will appear on your eventual tax return.

The Calendar Matters in Tax Planning

A year-end tax projection can do more than estimate a balance due. It can also help identify issues worth discussing before the calendar flips over to January. Some tax-planning decisions are tied to actions that must occur during the applicable tax year. Others may involve different deadlines or require enough time to coordinate with an investment adviser, attorney, payroll provider, retirement-plan administrator, or another financial services sector professional.

That is why timing deserves your attention. A clearer picture of your expected tax position gives you more time to evaluate available planning opportunities and consider their financial implications, as well as coordinate any appropriate action before the end of the year.

Meet with SWC for a Tax Projection Before Year-End

Our 2026 Year-End Tax Projection Appointments are available with our financial leaders — Laura Stees, CPA and Marni Walker, CPA — from Thursday, Oct. 1 through Monday, Dec. 21, 2026. During your appointment, we can review your current financial picture, discuss significant changes that occurred during the year, start to estimate your potential 2026 tax position, and consider tax planning matters that may warrant attention before year-end.

Want the details at a glance? Download our 2026 Year-End Tax Projection Meeting flyer for a summary of the meeting, important dates, and instructions for scheduling your appointment.

To schedule your Year-End Tax Projection Meeting:

  1. Visit the SWC Contact Page at www.SWC.cpa/Contact.
  2. Click “Schedule an Appointment.”
  3. Select “Tax Projection (October – December).”
  4. Select Laura or Marni from the advisor options.
  5. Choose your preferred date and time.
  6. Enter your contact information.
  7. Confirm your meeting preference — in person, online, or by phone — and click “Book.”

We will follow up with a confirmation email and appointment reminders.

A year-end tax projection cannot tell you everything that will happen between now and Dec. 31. What it can do is give you a better-informed view of where you may be headed while there is still time to consider what comes next.