Year-end tax planning meeting checklist, and when to raise a possible data license

What should a year-end tax planning meeting with a business owner cover?

A year-end planning meeting should settle five things before December 31: which income and deductions can still move between years, how the owner will be paid next year, what estimated payments are due, which purchases or system changes are coming, and which major decisions (a sale, a refinancing, a succession step) sit on next year's horizon. The checklist below keeps the meeting focused.

One extra question belongs on the list for owners of established companies. The agenda that covers software renewals and headcount also shows whether a company still holds years of operational records, and some US companies license those records to AI developers for a one-time payment. Asking takes two minutes, and nothing happens without the owner's permission.

The year-end planning checklist

Before the meeting

• Year-to-date profit and loss and balance sheet through the latest close, plus a full-year projection
• Last year's returns, carryforwards and any open notices or correspondence
• Owner wages, distributions and estimated payments made so far this year
• Monthly payroll headcount, including the highest month of the year
• Planned equipment purchases, leases, vehicle changes and software replacements
• Known one-time items: asset sales, legal settlements, insurance recoveries, unusual receipts

In the meeting

• Income and deduction timing: which invoices, bonuses, prepayments and purchases can still shift, and whether shifting actually helps
• Owner compensation and distribution plan for next year
• Retirement plan contributions and funding dates
• State footprint changes: remote hires, new locations, new sales territories
• Big decisions for the next 24 months: sale, succession, refinancing, acquisitions, system migrations
• The records question (script below)

After the meeting

• Written action list with a named owner and a date for each item
• Next year's estimated payment calendar
• Notes for the client's other advisers: attorney, banker, wealth adviser, M&A adviser

Why Q4 is the moment to ask about old systems and archives

Year-end planning is when owners decide what to renew, replace and switch off, and that is exactly when archives disappear. A legacy accounting system is cancelled, a help desk is migrated without its closed tickets, a departed founder's mailbox is purged to save a license fee. Once those records are gone, they cannot be licensed or used for anything else.

The meeting also surfaces the facts a first fit screen needs. Payroll shows peak headcount, the file shows how long the company has operated, and the owner's comments reveal which systems run the business. A company deserves a closer look when it has 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), several years of documented operations, rights to its own records, and an owner, CEO, CFO or authorized representative who can sponsor the process. The who qualifies page sets out the full baseline.

Do not treat a possible license as a year-end tax move. Before any invoice, the company has to qualify, complete a data inventory, agree price and terms, wait for buyer review and sign. Payment is a one-time amount, typically within about 60 days of invoicing once the buyer selects the data. Put it in next year's notes as a possible future receipt, not in this year's projection.

Q4 timeline: tax tasks and the records question side by side

For clients you meet monthly rather than once a year, the monthly financial review meeting agenda is a natural place to revisit the question.

Who to talk to at the client

Start with the person you meet for planning: the owner, CEO or CFO. Bring in the controller or office manager only for systems facts, such as which tools the company uses and how far back each goes, and never for the data itself. Whoever approves an introduction must be the owner, CEO, CFO or another authorized representative.

Two other advisers often need to hear about it. If the owner may sell within two years, loop in the M&A adviser; how CPAs support business owners in exit planning explains where a license fits in pre-sale work. If the company has a term loan or revolver, the credit agreement may limit licensing, so check whether lender consent is needed to license company data.

What to say in the meeting

Ask right after the big-decisions item, while the owner is already thinking about next year.

If the answer is no, note it in the file and move on. If yes, send the company fit checker: a preliminary, non-binding screen that asks for no contact details. A good result is not an approval; SourceX decides after it reviews the company.

What to preserve before any system is switched off

Whether or not the owner wants to explore a license, December is when you can stop records from vanishing. Ask the client to keep a complete export before cancelling or migrating any of these:

• The old accounting system's company files and attachments, not just closing balances (see what to do with old QuickBooks Desktop files)
• Email and chat archives of departed employees
• Shared drives and document management folders
• Help desk history, including closed tickets
• CRM history with notes, activities and lost deals as well as won ones
• Project management and engineering tools

You do not take custody of any of it. The client keeps its own exports; your job is the reminder.

Fee and disclosure rules to check before you accept a reward

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company, and the reward becomes payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee. The reward comes out of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from what your client receives. No reward is guaranteed.

Tax practitioners should check their own rules before registering. State boards can be stricter than the national CPA code; the New Jersey Society of CPAs notes, for example, that a licensee there may not receive a contingent fee for preparing an original or amended tax return. Enrolled agents and attorneys answer to their own conduct rules. Any reward you receive is generally taxable income to you (IRS Publication 525). If your rules or firm policy bar a fee, the client can still apply on its own at sourcex.si/apply.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting.

When to leave the question off the agenda

• The company never reached 50+ full-time employees at peak, or its workforce is mostly contractors.
• Most records belong to the company's own clients, as at agencies and outsourcers, and those clients have not consented.
• The records are mainly consumer personal data or patient medical records.
• The company already licensed the same data for AI training.
• Archives were deleted and nobody can run an export.
• A court, trustee or assignee controls the assets and has not been involved.

Next step

Add the two systems lines to this year's planning questionnaire. When an owner says yes, register as a partner so your introduction is recorded, then share your referral link or submit the company through the referral form.