It can sound like a blinding flash of the obvious, but you can do more on your taxes if you look at it before the yearend rather than after. Sure, there might still be some things that you can do if you look at it late. You might be able to reallocate some expenses and there are some costs that you might find that could be accrued and then paid for by the time you file your tax return so you get a deduction on your corporate taxes. Plus things like retirement spending, which allows you to pay for them after the end of the year.

However, you still have a lot less wiggle room, a lot less that you can operate with by waiting until after yearend. If you start earlier like in September that gives you three months left. With more time, you can do a lot more fine tuning. For example:

1. Capital expenditures. You might be able to move some capital expenditures up or defer some expenditures into the early part of the next year depending upon your tax situation. The IRS gives a wonderful tax break on capital expenditures up to a certain dollar amount where you can deduct those items in the year you buy rather than having to depreciate them over time. That’s a great number to make sure you take advantage of.

2. Operating expenses. You can determine what kind of level of operating expenses you might need in order to get at the taxable income number you’re looking for. There may be some services that you could move up or others that you could push back, again depending upon where you need to build up or reduce your taxable income.

3. Collections. You may be able to vary some of the timing of your revenues in particular if you’re reporting on a cash basis.

4. Compensation and benefits. Salaries, bonuses, retirement spending can be adjusted by looking at this ahead of time. You can make sure you’re taking advantage of the maximum that you’re allowed on retirement programs.

There are lots of things you can work with before the year is up that you can’t work with if you wait until after the year. Taxes are a big expense take a look at the number and make sure you’re headed towards where you want to be. Make the adjustments you need to get towards that taxable number you want to achieve for this year.