PracticeCEO
Year-end 2026 · from your AI Finance Officer

Your year-end checklist, free.

Most year-end tax moves for a dental practice have a December deadline, and several have to run through a payroll first. This is the checklist of what to look at, when, and which items are worth a conversation with your CPA. No signup, no numbers needed.

Ask your CPA: Depends on your facts or on a choice that a CPA, EA, plan administrator or other licensed professional should make. The packet turns these into questions to bring. Education: General rules, explained. Nothing here depends on a decision only a licensed professional can make.

  • Ask your CPADeadline: October to November

    Most year-end moves have a December deadline, so the planning conversation usually happens in October or November. Ask what your CPA needs from you and when.

  • Ask your CPADeadline: About Dec 20 (your last payroll)

    If you own an S corporation, your W-2 pay and what is withheld from it are set through payroll, and tax withheld counts as paid evenly through the year. Payroll changes only work if there is a payroll left to run them through.

  • Ask your CPADeadline: About Dec 20

    Some practices pay a spouse or children for real, documented work. The pay has to fit the work. For 2026 a dependent child's standard deduction is the child's earned income plus $450, up to $16,100, so wages up to that level generally produce no federal income tax for the child. Payroll tax rules depend on the business type.

  • EducationDeadline: About Dec 20 (your last payroll)

    The 2026 limit is $24,500, plus $8,000 if you are 50 or older, or $11,250 if you reach 60, 61, 62 or 63 this year. Total contributions to one person's account from all sources (annual additions) are capped at $72,000 before catch-up.

  • Ask your CPADeadline: Dec 31, 2026

    Several plan elections (safe harbor, profit sharing, cash balance) and new-plan adoptions have year-end dates. Testing can change what an owner may put in. Your plan administrator knows your plan's dates.

  • Ask your CPADeadline: Dec 31 for a 2026 federal deduction

    California lets an S corporation or partnership pay tax at the entity level (9.3% of qualified net income) for 2026 through 2030. The payment is deductible federally in the year paid, which is why the timing matters. Ask your CPA whether it fits your entity.

  • Ask your CPADeadline: Dec 31, 2026

    Equipment counts for the year it is ready and available for use, not the year it is ordered. Federal rules allow first-year expensing: section 179 (a rule that lets a business deduct qualifying equipment in the first year, up to $2,560,000) and 100 percent bonus depreciation for qualifying property. California caps section 179 at $25,000 and allows no bonus depreciation. A deduction returns only part of what you spend.

  • EducationDeadline: Dec 31, 2026

    A conversion is taxed as income in the year it happens and must be completed by December 31. People look at it in unusually low-income years. This is general education, not a suggestion to convert.

  • EducationDeadline: Dec 31, 2026

    Selling at a loss can offset gains in a taxable account. Wash-sale rules can disallow the loss. Your adviser and CPA decide what, if anything, to do.

  • EducationDeadline: Dec 31, 2026; custodians cut off earlier

    Giving appreciated stock held over a year directly to charity is treated differently from giving cash. Limits and paperwork apply; ask your CPA.

  • EducationDeadline: Early December

    Look for loans booked as expenses, owner draws booked as expenses, estimated tax payments booked as expenses, equipment booked as an expense, personal items, and anything missing. Your CPA decides what is deductible.

  • Ask your CPADeadline: Dec 31, 2026

    For a dental practice the 20 percent qualified business income (QBI) deduction starts to phase out at $403,500 of taxable income on a joint return ($201,750 on others) and is generally gone at $553,500 ($276,750). The child tax credit and other benefits also phase out.

  • Ask your CPADeadline: Jan 15, 2027

    The fourth federal installment for 2026 is due January 15, 2027. California has its own schedule.

Checkmarks are saved on this device only. The calendar file holds dates and item names, nothing about you.

Tax planning

Bring these numbers to your CPA for tax planning.

Where the figures come from

Last checked October 21, 2026. Each figure lives in one file in the code with its source and how firmly it was confirmed.

Show the published figures and their sources (57)
  • $32,200 Standard deduction, married filing jointly (2026). Source
  • $16,100 Standard deduction, single (2026). Source
  • $24,150 Standard deduction, head of household (2026). Source
  • see Rev. Proc. 2025-32 tables Federal income tax brackets for 2026 (all three filing statuses). Source
  • $1,350 Dependent's standard deduction: greater of this amount or earned income plus $450 (2026), up to the regular amount. Source
  • $450 Added to a dependent's earned income to find the dependent's standard deduction (2026). Source
  • 20% Qualified business income (QBI) deduction rate (section 199A(a)). Source
  • $403,500 QBI threshold amount, joint returns (2026). Source
  • $201,750 QBI threshold amount, all other returns (2026). Source
  • $553,500 QBI phase-in range ends, joint returns (2026). Source
  • $276,750 QBI phase-in range ends, all other returns (2026). Source
  • yes Dentists are in the health field for the specified service business rule. Source
  • $2,200 Child tax credit per qualifying child (2026). Source
  • $400,000 Child tax credit phase-out begins, joint returns (modified adjusted gross income, AGI). Source
  • $200,000 Child tax credit phase-out begins, other returns (modified AGI). Source
  • $50 Child tax credit reduction per $1,000 (or fraction) of modified AGI over the threshold. Source
  • $2,560,000 Federal section 179 expensing limit (2026). Source
  • $4,090,000 Federal section 179 phase-out begins at this cost of property placed in service (2026). Source
  • 100% Federal additional first-year (bonus) depreciation for qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025: 100 percent, permanent. Source
  • $25,000 California section 179 maximum deduction. Sourceconfirm
  • $200,000 California section 179 limit is reduced dollar for dollar by the cost of section 179 property placed in service over this amount. Sourceconfirm
  • no bonus California does not conform to federal bonus depreciation (section 168(k)). Sourceconfirm
  • Dec 31 Equipment counts for the year it is placed in service (ready and available for use). Source
  • $24,500 401(k) elective deferral limit (2026). Source
  • $8,000 Catch-up contribution, age 50 or over (2026). Source
  • $11,250 Catch-up contribution for those who attain age 60, 61, 62 or 63 in 2026 (replaces the $8,000). Source
  • $72,000 Defined contribution annual additions limit, section 415(c) (2026); catch-up contributions are on top. Source
  • $360,000 Annual compensation limit, section 401(a)(17) (2026). Source
  • $290,000 Defined benefit annual benefit limit, section 415(b) (2026): a limit on the benefit, not on the contribution. Source
  • $150,000 Roth catch-up wage threshold: prior-year (2025) Social Security wages above this make catch-up contributions Roth under section 414(v)(7). Source
  • $17,000 SIMPLE IRA / SIMPLE 401(k) salary reduction limit (2026), standard case. Source
  • $4,000 SIMPLE catch-up, age 50 or over (2026). Source
  • $5,250 SIMPLE catch-up for those who attain age 60 to 63 in 2026. Source
  • 25% Employer deduction limit for profit-sharing contributions: 25 percent of eligible employees' pay. Source
  • $184,500 Social Security wage base (2026). Source
  • 6.2% Social Security tax rate, employer share. Source
  • 1.45% Medicare tax rate, employer share. Source
  • see source Child under 18 on a parent's payroll: payroll-tax exemption depends on business type. Source
  • $250,000 Additional Medicare Tax (0.9 percent) threshold, married filing jointly. Source
  • $200,000 Additional Medicare Tax (0.9 percent) threshold, all other taxpayers (single, head of household). Source
  • $250,000 Net Investment Income Tax (3.8 percent) MAGI threshold, married filing jointly. Source
  • $200,000 Net Investment Income Tax (3.8 percent) MAGI threshold, single or head of household. Source
  • 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax rate. Source
  • 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax rate. Source
  • $40,400 State and local tax deduction limit (2026). Source
  • $505,000 SALT limit begins to shrink at modified AGI above this amount (2026). Source
  • 90% Estimated tax safe harbor: 90 percent of this year's tax. Source
  • 100% Estimated tax safe harbor: 100 percent of last year's tax. Source
  • 110% Estimated tax safe harbor: 110 percent of last year's tax when last year's AGI was over $150,000. Source
  • $150,000 Prior-year AGI above which the 110 percent safe harbor applies ($75,000 if married filing separately). Source
  • see source Tax withheld from wages is treated as paid evenly through the year. Source
  • Jan 15, 2027 Fourth-quarter 2026 federal estimated tax installment due date. Source
  • 9.3% California PTE elective tax rate on qualified net income. Sourceconfirm
  • $1,000 California PTE: the June 15 payment is the greater of $1,000 or 50 percent of the prior year's PTE tax. Sourceconfirm
  • 50% California PTE: June 15 payment as a share of the prior year's PTE tax (if greater than $1,000). Sourceconfirm
  • 12.5% California PTE: for 2026 to 2030, a short June 15 payment no longer voids the election; the owners' credit is reduced by this share of the unpaid portion. Sourceconfirm
  • deductible in year paid Federal treatment of entity-level PTE tax payments. Source

Worth confirming with your CPA:

  • California PTE elective tax details (rate, years available, June 15 payment, credit reduction): confirm against current Franchise Tax Board guidance.
  • California section 179 ($25,000 limit, $200,000 phase-out) and no bonus depreciation: confirm against the 2026 FTB instructions when they are published.