Pro Tax Planning Tips For Physicians

Most physicians find whoever does their taxes the same way they find a dentist: a colleague mentions a name in the lounge, and that's that. Sometimes it works out. Often it's fine for a few years, until you pick up a 1099 contract, open a practice, or form an S corporation, and your return outgrows your preparer's process. If you're figuring out how to find a good CPA, look for four things: A credential that lets them represent you before the IRS Regular work with physicians, so your income...

If your QuickBooks file only gets real attention in March, you know the drill. Your tax team asks for a clean P&L, you find $38,000 sitting in "Uncategorized Expense," and your weekend disappears into bank statements. It doesn't have to go that way. QuickBooks for medical practice bookkeeping works fine once the file matches your tax return and you close it every month. Nail those two things and your tax team gets to spend its time planning with you instead of chasing receipts. In This Blog...

Maybe you went fully 1099 this year, or you picked up locum shifts on top of a hospital job. You opened a solo 401(k) because a colleague said it was the best account for self-employed physicians. Then you looked up the limit, saw $72,000, and assumed that was your number. It probably isn't. Your real limit turns on your income and your entity type, and a hospital plan can quietly eat into it. Below are the 2026 solo 401(k) contribution limits and the math for your income type, plus the trap...

You closed on a duplex in July, handed the paperwork to your preparer, and the return came back with a depreciation number that looks like it was pulled from a hat. It was not. It came from three inputs: what the building cost, how many years the IRS says it lasts, and which month you started renting it. Here is the short answer to how to calculate depreciation on rental property. Take your purchase price, subtract the value of the land, and divide what is left by 27.5 years for a residential...

You bought a rental property. Your tax team ran depreciation, and on paper the property lost $30,000 last year. Then your return came back, and that $30,000 didn't touch your W-2 income at all. It sits on a form called 8582 with a label that sounds like a diagnosis: "suspended." Those are the passive activity loss limitations at work. For most attending physicians, they are the main reason a rental loss doesn't lower this year's tax bill. A suspended loss isn't a lost loss, though. It carries...

Somewhere between a hallway conversation and a cost segregation sales call, you heard that 100% bonus depreciation is back. It is. What it means for your 2026 return depends on two questions those conversations tend to skip: when you acquired the property, and whether the tax code will let you use the deduction this year. This guide covers the 2026 bonus depreciation schedule under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, what qualifies (the imaging system in your practice, not just rental buildings),...