8 Tax Strategies High-Income Earners Should Run Before Their CPA Files
Sam's List Editorial | 2026-06-23
8 Tax Strategies High-Income Earners Should Run Before Their CPA Files By the time most high earners send their CPA a shoebox of 1099s in March, the game is already over. Here's the thing nobody tells you: nearly every meaningful move that lowers a big tax bill has to happen before the year closes — sometimes years before. Filing season is just data entry. The savings were decided last October. So if you're a business owner clearing $500K, or a partner, surgeon, or founder with a W-2 that makes accountants nervous, a vetted high income tax strategies are the ones you run in advance — not the ones you discover when the return is already drafted. Here are eight worth pressure-testing before anyone hits "file." 1. The high income tax strategy that shelters more than any 401(k): a cash balance plan A solo 401(k) caps out fast. A defined benefit or cash balance plan does not. These plans fund a future pension benefit, and the contribution is calculated by an actuary based on your age, income, and years to retirement — not a flat dollar cap. The older you are and the more you earn, the more you can stuff in. For a 55-year-old high earner, annual contributions in the $150,000 to $250,000 range are common. The ceiling is the maximum annual benefit under IRC §415(b), which sits around $280,000 of annual benefit for 2025. That's not the contribution — it's the benefit the plan can promise — but it's why these plans absorb so much income. If you're over 45 with strong, stable profit, this is often the single biggest lever on the list. 2. Bunch your charitable giving into a donor-advised fund If you give to charity anyway, the question isn't whether — it's when . A donor-advised fund (DAF) lets you front-load several years of giving into one high-income year, take the full deduction now, and dole the money out to charities on your own timeline later. You capture the deduction in the year your marginal rate is highest, which is exactly when it's worth the most. The math: bunching three years of $30,000 gifts into a single $90,000 DAF contribution can push you well over the standard deduction in that year — turning gifts that would otherwise yield no marginal benefit into a real one. Fund it with appreciated stock instead of cash and you skip the capital gains tax on the gain, too. 3. Section 1202 (QSBS) can exclude millions in gain — if the structure was built early This is the one that makes founders cry when they learn it too late. Qualified Small Business Stock under IRC §1202 lets you exclude a large chunk of gain when you sell stock in a qualifying...
