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

Practically 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 reveals 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 indirectly.

Moreover, the share of homeowners 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 Tendencies report.

It is cheap to really feel anxious should you wait till April to think about taxes. By then, key strategies like switching your online 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 develop into a progress 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 crew gathers through 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 determination from pricing to payroll round its true after-tax influence.

For one, it provides the crew money readability all 12 months. 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. Should you want a brand new holding-company construction to seize overseas income, get paperwork drafted earlier than summer time so state filings are reside on January 1st of the next 12 months.

Use tax insights for higher enterprise selections

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

1. Money-funded hiring. Figuring out the exact week a credit score lands allows 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 subsequent fiscal 12 months, inflating taxable earnings now and ravenous This fall 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. After 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 — should you catch them earlier than the calendar locks.

Begin with an accountable plan for reimbursement. Once you formalize how the corporate repays homeowners 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 12 months, however the paperwork have to be signed by September fifteenth to assert the deduction within the present 12 months.

A well timed pass-through entity tax (PTET) election is one other missed win. In states that provide it, PTET sidesteps the $10,000 SALT cap and returns roughly 4-6% of certified earnings — but the benefit disappears should 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 easy earnings spikes retains income in decrease brackets and steadies Earnings Earlier than Curiosity, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) multiples — a bonus that reveals up the second you begin courting lenders or acquirers. Coordinate any ASC 606 tweaks along with your product-launch calendar so compliance retains tempo with progress.

Associated: 7 Advanced Tax Strategies for the Self-Employed

Partnership advantages and necessary notes on extensions

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

Whereas submitting an extension might be good should you’re ready on Okay-1s or nonetheless closing the books, do not forget that an extension delays paperwork, not fee. Should you miss the unique due date, you will 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 an even bigger one.

The shift to ongoing tax administration

Taxes stay the one largest controllable expense for many growth-stage corporations. Should you proceed to disregard them till April, they’ll pull your money out of the enterprise. Construct them into each quarter’s dash evaluation so that they actively drive your hiring initiatives, assist funding launches and assist cut 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 state of affairs, and accomplice with an advisor who sees past the return itself. Try this, and as an alternative of bracing for tax season, you will begin utilizing it as a device to fund what’s subsequent. This can flip tax nervousness right into a aggressive edge and unlock progress that the IRS now not will get to tax.