Published November 29, 2024 – Albert Nigro recently participated in a panel discussion with Business First of Buffalo

Year-end planning means looking ahead, too

The end of the year presents the annual task of maximizing financial benefits and minimizing tax liabilities for businesses and individuals alike.

A solid plan can boost financial confidence across the board, though unknowns can still cause some trepidation as the new year approaches. One looming issue is the expiration next year of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Businesses are keeping a watchful eye on the matter. It is unclear at this point if it will be renewed under the new administration in Washington D.C.

Buffalo Business First Publisher John Tebeau gathered three of the region’s top tax and financial planning experts to discuss this among year-end financial strategies.

Joining Tebeau were:

Tax-planning

The 2024 year featured one of the most divisive elections in recent memory, escalating wars and all-time highs in the stock market, a combination of events that prompted various financial planning strategies to ride out the events.

With our proprietary managed growth product, Concentrated Equity Alpha, up approximately 50% net of fees since the start of last year through mid-November, we have strategically maintained more cash on the books for equity portfolios than usual, Amoia said.

“It has been a year where the stock market has been up 15% or so in the face of so much adversity, and that is amazing on a historical basis,” he said, ‘but our advice has leaned towards being conservative, being thoughtful, and keeping clients in a position to act if a sell-off presents itself again like we experienced in late August.”

The events of 2024 behind them, Dopkins advisors are approaching the end-of-the-year tax planning from two points of view, Nigro said.

One is focused on the current year and time-sensitive areas in which taxes are mitigated for the current year and tax benefits are optimized. Another is a long-term view on the years ahead, such as implications of the expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Nigro said.

“We are going essentially on the assumption that it will not be the same, whether it fully expires, there is a new tax act that comes in for 2026 or whether provisions are extended,” Nigro said.

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For more information, contact Albert A. Nigro, CPA, CVA  at anigro@dopkins.com.