The short answer is yes — but only if they're doing more than just filing your return.
This is the part of the conversation most people never have with their tax professional. They assume that accurate filing is the same as optimized filing. It isn't. A return can be perfectly accurate and still cost you significantly more than it should.
What Saving Money on Taxes Actually Means
First, let's be clear about what this isn't.
Saving money on taxes doesn't mean hiding income, inflating deductions, or anything that crosses into fraud. The IRS has seen every variation of that and the consequences — back taxes, penalties, interest, and in serious cases criminal prosecution — are never worth it.
What it does mean is making legal decisions — about your business structure, your timing of income and expenses, your retirement contributions, your deductions — in ways that reduce what you legitimately owe. The tax code is full of provisions designed to reward certain behaviors. Using them isn't a loophole. It's the system working as intended.
A good accountant knows where those provisions are and makes sure you're using the ones that apply to your situation.
The Biggest Place People Leave Money Behind
Business structure is where most small business owners lose the most money — and where a good accountant can make the biggest difference.
A sole proprietor pays self-employment tax of 15.3 percent on every dollar of net profit. That's both the employee and employer share of Social Security and Medicare, because when you work for yourself you pay both sides.
An S-Corp owner can split their income between a salary — which is subject to payroll taxes — and distributions — which are not. On $100,000 of net profit with a $60,000 reasonable salary, the owner pays payroll taxes only on the $60,000. The remaining $40,000 in distributions avoids that 15.3 percent hit entirely. That's $6,120 in annual savings on that one decision alone.
This isn't exotic tax strategy. It's one of the most common and well-established tax planning moves for small business owners. But it requires someone to look at your situation, run the numbers, and initiate the conversation — because it won't happen automatically.
The biggest savings come from decisions made during the year, not deductions found in April. Let's look at what's still open for you.
Retirement Contributions
Every dollar you contribute to a qualifying retirement account reduces your taxable income by the same amount.
A solo 401k allows combined contributions of up to $72,000 in 2026 for business owners under 50. A SEP IRA allows contributions of up to 25 percent of compensation — roughly 20 percent of net self-employment earnings for sole proprietors. These aren't small numbers.
A business owner with $150,000 in net profit who maxes out a solo 401k can reduce their taxable income substantially — potentially dropping into a lower federal bracket.
Most small business owners contribute far less than they could. Often because nobody told them what was possible.
Timing of Income and Expenses
The calendar year matters more than most people realize.
If you're having a high-income year and expect next year to be lower, deferring income where possible — delaying invoices, pushing certain payments — can shift taxable income into a lower-rate year. If you're planning to make a major equipment purchase anyway, doing it before December 31 rather than January 2 can generate a deduction in the current year instead of the next.
These aren't complicated moves. But they require someone paying attention to your situation before year end — not after.
Deductions Most People Miss
Beyond the obvious ones — business meals, mileage, home office — there are deductions that frequently go unclaimed because people don't know they exist or aren't sure they qualify.
The Qualified Business Income deduction — Section 199A — allows eligible pass-through business owners to deduct up to 20 percent of qualified business income from their federal taxable income. On $100,000 of qualifying income, that's a $20,000 deduction. Many small business owners either don't claim it or don't claim it correctly.
Health insurance premiums for self-employed individuals are fully deductible as an above-the-line deduction — reducing adjusted gross income regardless of whether you itemize. This one gets missed more often than it should.
The home office deduction gets avoided because people fear it triggers audits. A properly documented, legitimately used home office is a real deduction and worth taking.
What Your Accountant Needs to Actually Help You
Here's the practical side of this.
An accountant can only work with what they know about your situation. If you never mention that you've been thinking about buying equipment, they can't tell you whether to do it this year or next. If you don't tell them your income is significantly higher than last year, they can't suggest adjustments to your quarterly payments or year-end moves.
The relationship works best when it goes both ways. You tell your accountant what's happening in your business. They tell you what it means for your taxes and what options you have.
That requires more than one conversation a year at filing time. It requires a professional who asks the right questions and a client who answers them honestly.
The Honest Qualifier
Not every accountant does this work. Some are focused on accurate filing and nothing more — and for simple situations, that's sufficient.
If your finances are complex, growing, or changing — and you want someone actively working to reduce what you owe — ask your accountant directly what tax planning looks like as part of their service. The answer will tell you quickly whether you have a filing relationship or a planning relationship.
Planning isn't an add-on in our practice; it's part of the work. For small business owners especially, the difference between filing and planning shows up directly in what you keep at the end of the year.