Tax To-Do’s Before End Of 2025

It’s the last week of the year, and this is when we start hearing the same questions from clients and new people coming in the door…“Is there anything I should still do before year-end?” or “Did I miss some big tax move?” or even “Should I open another LLC before December 31?”

If you’re asking yourself some version of that right now, you’re in good company. Short answer, though: probably not — and definitely not in a panic.

We see a lot of unnecessary stress this time of year, mostly because the internet makes it sound like you’re supposed to pull off some last-minute tax magic in December. Hate to break it to ya… that’s usually not how it works. Here’s what actually matters — and what usually doesn’t before the end of 2025 when it comes to your taxes.

What Is Actually Worth Paying Attention To

1. Are your books even close to up to date?

This matters way more than most people want to admit. When your bookkeeping is months behind, there’s no “tax planning” because there’s no accurate numbers and you’re basically guessing. You don’t need perfection when it comes to your books, you just need a reasonably accurate picture of what’s happened this year — income, expenses, payroll, distributions, all of it.

This is one of the reasons we strongly prefer working with clients who already have a bookkeeper. When the numbers are clean, everything else gets simpler. And yes, we do the monthly accounting for some clients as well.

2. Don’t force expenses just to get a deduction… especially not a car.

We see this every year. Buying something you don’t actually need just to “get a deduction” almost never makes sense. Spending a dollar to save 25–30 cents in tax is still spending money you didn’t need to spend.

If a purchase is already in the pipeline, then it makes sense for your business. If not, skip it. And don’t trap yourself with a monthly car payment because “TaXeS bRo”

3. Use December to understand where the year landed — not to reinvent it

For most small business owners, December is about confirmation, not transformation. It’s best to check for things like:

• How much did the business actually make?

• Roughly what will taxes look like?

• Are there any obvious issues we should clean up before filing?

It’s not the time to completely restructure your business.

What Usually Isn’t Worth Doing at the Last Minute

1. Opening a new LLC “for tax reasons”

This is one of the most common bad ideas we hear about in December. Opening an LLC in the last week of the year almost never creates real tax savings by itself. What it does create is:

• extra filings

• more complexity

• more confusion next year

• more expensive and complicated tax return

LLCs do not automatically mean lower taxes, in fact it’s about liability. When you open an LLC in December, you need to do a tax return that coming April. But if you wait until January, you don’t have to file until the next year ;)

2. Trying to fix the entire year in one week

If the year was messy, December isn’t the time to magically clean it up. Good tax planning happens throughout the year. Last-minute scrambling usually just leads to disappointment when April rolls around.

The Bigger Picture We See Every Year

If taxes feel stressful every December, that’s usually not because you’re “bad at taxes.” It’s usually because the numbers weren’t clear during the year or everything got deferred until the end. Ready for some good news?

Thankfully that’s fixable — but it’s a process issue, not a December issue.

For most business owners we work with — people with one primary business, one owner (or a married couple), and reasonably clean books — there isn’t some giant move you’re supposed to make this week to end 2025. In fact, most of our clients met with between Sept and Nov to go over their tax situation and plan for anything.

The real win is setting things up so next December doesn’t feel like this again. Thanks.