Tax for dental practices
A CPA for dentists in private practice
Dentistry is capital intensive and transaction heavy. The two events that move a dental practice tax position most are buying or selling a practice and putting equipment in service, and both are decided by documents rather than by the return.
Where this return differs
What is actually different about dentists at tax time
Not a longer version of the same advice. These are the places this practice type reliably differs from the return next to it.
A practice purchase is won or lost in the allocation
How the purchase price is split between equipment, goodwill, a restrictive covenant and supplies determines how fast you recover it, and buyer and seller want opposite answers. The allocation belongs in the purchase agreement, which means it needs attention before closing, not at filing.
Equipment recovery is an annual decision
Chairs, imaging, mills and CAD systems can be recovered at different speeds. Taking the fastest deduction available is not automatically right, particularly in a year where it would push income below the level that makes other deductions useful.
Associates and hygienists raise classification questions
Whether an associate is an employee or a contractor depends on the arrangement rather than the title on the agreement, and it drives employment tax, retirement plan coverage and what a defensible owner salary looks like.
How it works
What working together looks like
A call first
Thirty minutes to hear what you have and whether this is a fit. If it is not, we will say so and point you somewhere useful.
A written scope and a fixed fee
You get both in writing before work starts, so the return you expected does not arrive with an hourly surprise attached.
Documents through a secure portal
Upload once, in one place, rather than emailing a K-1 with your Social Security number sitting in the attachment.
The questions, while they still matter
Anything that changes your number gets raised when it can still be acted on, not in a footnote after filing.
Then the next twelve months
Estimated payments, an entity change, a new state, a sale. Tax years are consecutive and treating them that way is most of the value.
What this firm does, and what it does not
PizzelloCPA, PLLC is a licensed CPA firm registered with the North Carolina State Board of Certified Public Accountant Examiners as firm no. 35339. It prepares returns and does tax planning. It does not perform attest services: no audit, no review, no compilation. If a lender or a landlord has asked you for an audited or reviewed financial statement, that is a different engagement at a different firm, and we will say so rather than stretch to fit it.
Books and the return are two different jobs. bookkeepz, LLC, an affiliated company, keeps monthly books for dentists and other private practices, and its bookkeeping page for dentists covers that side. bookkeepz is not a CPA firm and does not do tax work. Most clients who need both use both, under separate engagements.
Questions
What dentists ask
I am buying a practice. When should a CPA be involved?
Before the purchase agreement is signed. The allocation of the price across asset classes is negotiated in that document and drives your deductions for years afterward. Once it is executed there is very little left to plan.Should I elect S corporation status for the practice?
Often it is worth running, but the answer depends on profit, on what a defensible salary is for a practicing dentist who also owns the business, and on whether you have staff whose retirement plan coverage changes the arithmetic.How is a DSO transaction treated?
It depends entirely on the structure, including what is sold, what rolls over into equity, and whether you continue working there. These are structured well before closing, and the tax outcome is largely fixed by the time the documents are final.Do you handle the monthly books?
No. This firm does the return and the planning. bookkeepz, LLC, an affiliated company, does monthly bookkeeping and is not a CPA firm.Talk to a CPA who has seen this practice before
Thirty minutes, no charge. Bring last year’s return and the thing you were not sure about.