Elevate with intention: Make the shift in 2026

The returns are out the door. The extensions have been submitted. Your compliance obligation is fulfilled. Now comes the strategic question: Is your practice being built by design or by default?

If you’ve been in this profession for three or more years, you’ve already earned your stripes through more than one busy season. You know the grind, you know your clients, and you’ve built something real. The question now isn’t whether you can survive another tax season. It’s whether you’re building the practice you actually want.

The 2026–2027 cycle comes with a gift: legislative certainty. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OB3) signed on July 4, 2025 locked in, and expanded, many provisions that were set to expire at the end of 2025. Starting January 1, 2026, the estate tax exemption is now $15 million per individual ($30 million per married couple). The SALT cap has increased from $10,000 to $40,000. Qualified small business stock (QSBS) exclusion limits are more generous. Qualified business income deduction (QBID) is permanent. Bonus depreciation is fully restored. For the first time in years, you can advise clients on long-term strategies without a sunset clause hanging over every projection.

That certainty creates opportunity.

The shift from preparer to advisor

The practitioners experiencing meaningful growth are not simply the most efficient preparers. They are the ones who have repositioned themselves as strategic year-round advisors. That repositioning doesn’t happen overnight, but 2026 is a particularly good year to accelerate it.

In practice, that shift tends to show up in four places:

Client clarity

You can articulate precisely who your ideal client is. You are not chasing every return that comes through the door. You are building depth in the relationships that matter most and being intentional about which new clients fit that profile.

Year-round presence

You are in contact with your most important clients outside of tax season. You are reviewing financials, flagging opportunities, and having planning conversations before year-end—not after it. Clients experience you as a resource, not just a deadline.

Pricing that reflects value

You have moved away from hourly billing for advisory work. Your fees reflect the scope and outcome of the engagement, not the clock. Clients pay for your expertise and your judgment, not the hours it took to exercise them.

Deliberate relationships

You have a small network of attorneys, financial advisors, and other professionals who understand exactly who you serve and send you clients accordingly. These relationships were built intentionally and are maintained with consistency.

What OB3 means for your practice in 2026

The OB3 changes are not just technical updates, they are planning opportunities that require your guidance to unlock. Here are the areas where you can immediately step into deeper advisory work:

For your W-2 and working-family clients

• The new tip income deduction (up to $25,000) and overtime deduction (up to $12,500 per individual) benefit workers who previously had few planning levers. These clients now need you to document carefully and structure withholding accordingly. In addition, under current guidance, tips generally qualify only if they are reported on an applicable information return, which may create issues for tips paid in cash or through platforms such as Zelle. For more detail, see “No tax on tips: The Zelle problem we didn’t see coming.”
• The overtime deduction: Up to $12,500 per individual ($25,000 MFJ) of FLSA-qualified overtime compensation is deductible. The FLSA requirement is a detail that will trip up both clients and practitioners who are not prepared for it.
• DCAP exclusion increase: The employer-provided dependent care assistance exclusion increased from $5,000 to $7,500 ($3,750 for MFS). For working parents with young children or disabled dependents, a broad and often overlooked planning opportunity, this is a direct and recurring tax benefit. Open enrollment conversations are happening soon for 2027 plan years.
• The expanded SALT cap ($40,000 for most filers starting in 2025) revives itemized deduction planning for middle- to high-income clients in high-tax states, especially when combined with mortgage interest and charitable contributions.
• The senior deduction ($6,000 per qualifying individual age 65+) increases refund potential for retirees and changes withholding conversations.

For your business owner clients

• 100% bonus depreciation is restored for assets purchased and placed in service after January 19, 2025. Every business owner investing in business assets or qualified leasehold improvements should be running a depreciation strategy through your office before year-end.
• QBI deduction is now permanent. The 20% Section 199A deduction no longer has a sunset. Long-range structuring decisions around compensation, entity design, and capital investment can now be made with a multi-year horizon. The analysis you were cautious to recommend because of the scheduled expiration is now appropriate to build into the plan.
• Expanded QSBS exclusion. For stock issued after July 4, 2025, the gross asset limit rises to $75 million, the maximum exclusion increases to $15 million, and a tiered holding period structure now allows partial exclusions at three and four years. For clients with growth-stage C-corp investments or considering entity conversion, this is a multi-year advisory engagement, not a filing question.

For your high-net-worth clients

• The estate and gift tax exemption is now $15M per individual ($30M for married couples), indexed for inflation starting in 2027. The uncertainty around a potential drop back to $5 million has been removed. Planning can shift from urgency-driven decisions to deliberate, long-term strategy.
• Dynasty trust strategies and family limited partnership structures can all be executed thoughtfully rather than reactively.
• Charitable giving has been restructured. The 60% AGI cap on cash contributions to public charities is now permanent, and a new 0.5% AGI floor means the first portion of charitable giving is nondeductible. For significant donors, the bunching strategy has new variables. Model the full picture—SALT, the floor, and the cap—before advising on year-end giving.

Building the practice infrastructure to support growth

Technical knowledge is expected. Infrastructure is what determines whether you can grow without burning out.

Your pricing structure: If most of your revenue is still tied to hourly billing, growth will eventually stall. Fixed-fee and advisory retainers stabilize cash flow, reduce friction, and position you as a strategic partner rather than a timekeeper. This isn’t just about earning more. It’s about operating differently. We go deep on this topic in the August 2026 article, Value-based pricing: moving beyond hourly billing.

Your referral relationships: A practice without a functioning referral network is entirely dependent on repeat business and word of mouth, both of which plateau. Strategic partnerships with attorneys, financial advisors, and other professionals create a pipeline that compounds over time. We cover building this network in the November 2026 article, Building a high-value referral network with attorneys and financial advisors.

Your succession plan: Even if retirement is fifteen years away, the decisions you make now about your client base, your documentation systems, and your firm structure will determine what your practice is worth when you’re ready to exit or bring on a partner. We address this directly in the January 2027 article, Succession planning for your own practice: building enterprise value and planning your exit.

Your team and capacity: Solo practitioners hit a ceiling. When you’re doing everything yourself, the business is fragile and your capacity is capped. The first hire, role clarity, documented processes, and thoughtful automation are not optional for growth. They are the foundation of a scalable firm.

Editor’s note: Stay tuned for more content each month from Nadia Rodriguez, who wrote the 2026-2027 Tax Planning Guide. Get the entire guide by completing this short form.