Only 48% of Founders Feel Confident About Their Taxes — Here’s How to Join Them

Almost three out of 4 founders admit they go into each submitting season with gnawing doubt about whether or not they paid the correct quantity, overpaid or missed a key incentive. QuickBooks’ 2025 Monetary-Literacy survey exhibits that fewer than half of business owners (48%) really feel assured they’re paying taxes appropriately — a confidence hole that scales to roughly seventy-plus p.c who really feel uncovered in a roundabout way.

Moreover, the share of householders rating “taxes” as their single largest drawback jumped to 18%, the very best studying since November 2021, based on the NFIB’s March 2025 Small Enterprise Financial Traits report.

It is affordable to really feel anxious in the event you wait till April to think about taxes. By then, key strategies like switching your small business entity, timing bonus depreciation or funding a cash-balance plan are already out of attain. However the excellent news is, the identical tax code that retains you up at night time can turn out to be a development engine when you combine it into each quarter’s working cadence.

Associated: 4 Tax Strategies Every High-Earning Entrepreneur Needs to Know

Begin your tax season in Q1

When my management workforce gathers throughout the first week of each quarter, we place tax projections on the identical web page as income, hiring and product plans. That one technique has helped us realign each future resolution from pricing to payroll round its true after-tax influence.

For one, it provides the workforce money readability all yr. Rolling 24-month fashions present precisely when quarterly estimates, R&D credit or PTET funds hit the financial institution. CFOs can stage stock builds or advert pushes with out cash-flow whiplash.

One other profit is that strategic home windows keep open. If you need Section 179 to offset new tools, plan the acquisition whereas there may be nonetheless time to put the order. When you want a brand new holding-company construction to seize international earnings, get paperwork drafted earlier than summer time so state filings are reside on January 1st of the next yr.

Use tax insights for higher enterprise choices

As soon as taxes transfer from a “report card” and begin being a built-in part of your marketing strategy, they instantly form the three development levers founders care about most:

1. Money-funded hiring. Understanding the exact week a credit score lands enables you to schedule a senior engineer or enterprise rep in the identical pay interval, successfully letting the IRS subsidize the primary month of payroll.
2. Launch timing with margin in thoughts. One shopper deliberate to ship a brand new {hardware} SKU in September. Our forecast confirmed that delaying tooling bills till October would push the majority of deductible spend into the following fiscal yr, inflating taxable earnings now and ravenous This autumn money. We flipped the sequence: cap-ex first, launch in November. We had been capable of unlock six figures in year-end liquidity.
3. Cheaper capital. Banks like certainty. Once we refinanced an eight-figure line this winter, presenting lender-ready tax fashions alongside GAAP statements shaved 150 basis points (BPS) off the speed as a result of underwriters trusted our free-cash-flow math.

Actionable tax methods and execution suggestions

Some tax strikes do not make splashy headlines however quietly swing six-figure outcomes for mid-market corporations — in the event you catch them earlier than the calendar locks.

Begin with an accountable plan for reimbursement. Whenever you formalize how the corporate repays house owners for enterprise bills, you progress these prices from after-tax to pre-tax {dollars} and lift take-home pay with out bumping wage. Put the plan in place earlier than submitting the return; with clear receipts, you’ll be able to even back-date advantages to January 1st.

Subsequent, mix a 401(ok) with a cash-balance pension. The pairing can shelter wherever from $200,000 to $350,000 a yr, however the paperwork have to be signed by September fifteenth to assert the deduction within the present yr.

A well timed pass-through entity tax (PTET) election is one other missed win. In states that supply it, PTET sidesteps the $10,000 SALT cap and returns roughly 4-6% of certified earnings — but the benefit disappears in the event you miss the early-year election window or delay the quarterly estimates that observe.

Lastly, by no means ignore revenue-recognition administration. Adjusting contract phrases or launch dates to clean earnings spikes retains earnings in decrease brackets and steadies Earnings Earlier than Curiosity, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) multiples — a bonus that exhibits up the second you begin courting lenders or acquirers. Coordinate any ASC 606 tweaks together with your product-launch calendar so compliance retains tempo with development.

Associated: 7 Advanced Tax Strategies for the Self-Employed

Partnership advantages and vital notes on extensions

A year-round CPA partnership is what turns this record into money. Steady check-ins floor mid-season regulation adjustments, maintain mileage logs and cost-seg research audit-ready and let your inner finance workforce deal with operations as an alternative of parsing Congressional markup.

Whereas submitting an extension may be sensible in the event you’re ready on Okay-1s or nonetheless closing the books, keep in mind that an extension delays paperwork, not fee. When you miss the unique due date, you may rack up penalties, curiosity and — if numbers look sloppy — heightened audit danger. Poor tax administration additionally unnerves lenders and buyers who comb your returns for crimson flags. Use extensions strategically, however pair them with correct estimated funds and a residing forecast so that you by no means commerce one stress for a much bigger one.

The shift to ongoing tax administration

Taxes stay the only largest controllable expense for many growth-stage firms. When you proceed to disregard them till April, they may pull your money out of the enterprise. Construct them into each quarter’s dash assessment in order that they actively drive your hiring initiatives, assist funding launches and assist scale back the price of capital.

The code is dense and, sure, specialist expertise is scarce, however that complexity is your moat when you grasp it. Begin every Q1 with a residing forecast, insist that each strategic initiative carries a tax situation, and associate with an advisor who sees past the return itself. Try this, and as an alternative of bracing for tax season, you may begin utilizing it as a software to fund what’s subsequent. This can flip tax anxiousness right into a aggressive edge and unlock development that the IRS not will get to tax.