Tax planning for athletes and artists.
A short window.
Most people earn over forty years. You might earn most of it in four. The default outcome is paying the top rate in the big years and getting nothing back in the quiet ones.
More than one state.
Play in twelve states or tour in twenty, and most of them want a return. What you owe, where, and what one state credits against another is a planning question, not a filing question.
What planning does.
The decisions that lower the bill get made before the money arrives, not in April: how you're set up, what you set aside and when, retirement plans that take large contributions in big years, the timing of income and spending across years, where you live and when that counts, and estimated payments so there is no surprise. It is the ordinary planning people with ordinary careers get over decades, compressed into the years you have.
Records first.
A plan built on guesses is a guess. So the first thing I do is get your records in order: every dollar in and out, by state and by source. Then we plan from numbers we both trust, and at year end I prepare your return from the same records.
What it costs.
Planning engagements from $3,400, or from $900 a month when the income repeats. Quoted after we talk.
A conversation, not a form.
If you're an athlete, artist, agent or manager, book 15 minutes and tell me the situation. I'll tell you what I'd look at.
Dean Akeel, CPA. In accounting since 2017, a CPA since 2022, Michigan CPA license no. 1101042895, issued to Dean Abu-Akeel. Played four years of Division 1 soccer at Oakland University.