Individuals
Tax Planning for Individuals Whose Income Has Outgrown Basic Filing.
Most individual tax returns are simple. Yours probably is not. Once your income includes equity compensation, consulting revenue, rental property, K-1 distributions, or a second state, the return stops being a data entry exercise. It becomes a record of decisions you already made, well or badly, months before anyone opened the file.
The individuals who come to us are rarely unhappy with the accuracy of their filing. They are unhappy with the silence between filings. Nobody told them when to exercise the options, whether the rental should have been held differently, what the estimated payments should have been, or how much the vesting schedule would cost until the bill arrived in April.
SG Inc CPA works with individuals whose tax picture has real moving parts: high-income professionals with equity and investment income, independent and incorporated professionals, and real estate investors. This page covers what we do, who we work best with, and where to start.
- WHO WE WORK WITH
Three Situations We See Most
Individual clients almost always arrive in one of three situations. The details differ. The underlying problem does not: income complex enough to plan around, and a CPA relationship that only engages once a year.
01
High-Income Professionals and Executives
- For physicians, attorneys, consultants, and technology professionals with equity compensation
- A large W-2 does not create tax opportunities on its own. Everything around it does: RSU and option vesting schedules, bonus and deferral timing, retirement plan elections, charitable strategy, and investment income that pushes you into surtax territory nobody warned you about. We work with physicians and specialists across the DFW metro, and with technology professionals, startup operators, and executives across the Bay Area, whose compensation is weighted toward equity and whose returns often span more than one state. If your only conversation with your CPA happens in March, every decision that mattered was already made the year before.
02
Independent and Incorporated Professionals
- For 1099 consultants, solo practitioners, and single-owner S-Corps
- When you work for yourself, the tax code stops being something that happens to you and becomes something you can structure. Entity choice, reasonable compensation, retirement plan selection, and expense treatment each carry a measurable annual cost, and most of them are decided once and then never revisited. We work with consultants, independent contractors, solo practitioners, and individuals who run an incorporated practice or a side business alongside employment income. If you formed an LLC or an S-Corp because someone recommended it, and nobody has revisited the structure since, that is worth a conversation.
03
Real Estate Investors
- For landlords, individual property owners, and investors building a portfolio
- Real estate is where the individual tax code is most generous and most easily missed. Depreciation, cost segregation, passive activity limits, real estate professional status, and 1031 exchanges all live inside the personal return, and every one of them depends on decisions and documentation that happen long before filing season. We work with individuals who own one property or several, including short-term rental operators and investors who hold property alongside a W-2 income or a practice. If nobody has walked you through cost segregation or passive loss limitations, there is likely money on the table.
Not sure whether you need planning or just a better filing?
- SERVICE SCOPE
What We Do for Individuals
Filing is the smallest part of the relationship. It is the part everyone can see, and the part almost every CPA does adequately. The value sits in the eleven months around it.
- Service
- what it covers
- Who it matters most for
- Individual tax preparation
- Form 1040 and every supporting schedule, including multi-state returns, K-1s, rental schedules, and equity compensation reporting.
- Every Client
- Proactive tax planning
- Year-round modelling of income, deductions, and timing so decisions are made before the year closes, not reported after it.
- Anyone with income above roughly $300K or more than one income source
- Equity compensation planning
- RSU vesting, ISO and NSO exercise timing, AMT modelling, 83(b) elections, and concentration risk.
- Technology professionals, executives, startup employees
- Rental property and real estate strategy
- Depreciation, cost segregation, passive activity limits, real estate professional status, and 1031 planning.
- Landlords and individual investors
- Self-employment and entity structure
- Entity selection, reasonable compensation, retirement plan design, and expense treatment for 1099 and incorporated income.
- Consultants, contractors, solo practitioners
- Estimated payments and cash flow
- Quarterly calculations that reflect the actual year, not last year, so April holds no surprises and no penalties.
- Anyone with variable or non-withheld income
- IRS notices and prior-year cleanup
- Response to notices, amended returns, and correction of prior filings where an opportunity was missed or an error was made.
- New clients arriving mid-problem
- Coordination with your other advisors
- Working alongside your financial advisor and attorney so the tax plan and the wealth plan point in the same direction.
- Clients with an existing advisory team
- WHERE YOUR SITUATION FITS
Where Your Situation Fits
Many of our clients span more than one category. A physician who also owns rental property. A consultant with an S-Corp and a vesting equity position from a former employer. Use the table below as a starting point, then book a call if you want to talk through what a coordinated plan looks like for your specific situation.
- If you are…
- Your primary need
- Start here
- A W-2 professional with equity compensation
- Timing vesting and exercises so the tax bill is a decision, not a surprise
- A physician or specialist employed by a group
- Coordinating high W-2 income, retirement elections, and investment income
- A 1099 consultant or independent contractor
- Entity structure, retirement plan selection, and quarterly payments
- An individual landlord with 1 to 3 properties
- Depreciation, cost segregation, and passive loss treatment on the personal return
- A real estate investor with a growing portfolio
- Entity structure, lender-ready books, and portfolio-level tax strategy
- Someone who moved between Texas and California
- Residency, multi-state allocation, and the filings that follow a relocation
- Someone with an IRS notice or a prior-year problem
- Resolving the immediate issue, then preventing the next one
How to get
Started
Review
We read your last two returns and ask about the parts of your financial life the return does not show.
Identify Gaps
We show you where the current setup is costing money, and quantify it where we can.
Build a Plan
We build a tax and financial plan that covers your full picture — business, personal, retirement, and entity — not just what needs to be filed, but what can be done before year-end.
Stay Engaged
Quarterly contact, estimated payments that reflect reality, and answers between filings.
How to get Started
The first conversation is a review, not a pitch. If we cannot find enough opportunity to justify the fee, we will say so.
Review
We read your last two returns and ask about the parts of your financial life the return does not show.
Identify gaps
We show you where the current setup is costing money, and quantify it where we can.
Who this page is for?
The individuals who get the most from working with SG Inc CPA share a similar profile. They have meaningful income and real complexity. They suspect they are paying more than they should. And they have reached the point where an accurate return is no longer enough, because accuracy reports the past and planning changes the future.
- Household income above roughly $300K, or income that arrives from more than one source
- A financial picture that includes equity compensation, self-employment income, rental property, K-1s, or more than one state
- A current CPA relationship that is accurate but reactive, filing correctly without ever planning ahead.
- A willingness to make decisions during the year, when they still change the outcome.
- A need for answers between January and April, not only inside it.
We are candid about the other side of this. If your return is a single W-2 and a standard deduction, you do not need us, and software will serve you better and cheaper. Tax planning has a fee, and that fee only makes sense when there is enough complexity for planning to recover it several times over.
Serving DFW and the Bay Area — led by a Certified Tax Coach.
SG Inc CPA operates from two offices, Plano, TX (serving the DFW metro) and Milpitas, CA (serving the Bay Area and San Jose market), with the ability to serve individual clients remotely across both regions.
The firm is led by Shweta Garg, CPA, CTC — a Certified Tax Coach with specialized training in proactive tax reduction strategies The CTC designation is held by a small number of CPAs nationwide and reflects a commitment to planning that goes well beyond standard tax preparation. For clients in complex industries, that distinction is the difference between a CPA who reports what happened and one who changes what will happen.
- Dallas–Fort Worth / Plano, TX
Plano, TX — DFW Metroplex
SG Inc CPA
Serving professionals, independent contractors, and individual real estate investors across the Dallas–Fort Worth metro
- 555 Republic Dr, Suite 500, Plano, TX 75074
- (214) 315-6392 | (214) 723-7553
- reachus@sginccpa.com
- Mon – Fri: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM CT | Sat: By appointment
- https://sginccpadallas.securefilepro.com/
- Bay Area / Silicon Valley / Milpitas, CA
Milpitas, CA — Bay Area / Silicon Valley
SG Inc CPA
- 428 S Main Street, Milpitas, CA 95035
- (408) 942-1450 | (408) 426-5151
- info@sginccpa.com
- Mon – Fri: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM PT | Sat: By appointment
- https://sginccpa.securefilepro.com/portal/
Frequently asked questions
Do I need tax planning, or just tax preparation?
Tax preparation records what already happened. Tax planning changes what happens next. If your income is a single W-2 with standard withholding, preparation is usually enough. If you hold equity compensation, rental property, self-employment income, K-1s, or income across more than one state, planning is where the money is. A useful test: if your April tax bill regularly surprises you, nobody is planning.
How much does it cost to work with SG Inc CPA as an individual?
Fees depend on the complexity of your return and whether you want planning alongside filing. Individual preparation is priced per return. Planning engagements are priced on scope, and we quote before any work begins. We only recommend planning when the expected tax savings comfortably exceed the fee, and we will tell you directly when they do not.
I have equity compensation. Can you handle RSUs, ISOs, and AMT?
Yes. Equity compensation is one of the most common reasons individuals come to us, particularly in the Bay Area. We model vesting and exercise timing, calculate AMT exposure on ISO exercises, plan around concentration risk, and coordinate the tax outcome with your financial advisor. The decisions that matter are made before you exercise, not when the return is filed.
Can you file in both Texas and California?
Yes. We maintain offices in Plano and Milpitas and file across both states, including part-year and multi-state returns. Relocations between Texas and California raise residency questions that are worth handling deliberately, because the difference between getting residency right and getting it wrong is often the largest single item on the return.
I own rental property. Is that enough complexity to need a CPA?
Usually, yes. Rental property brings depreciation schedules, passive activity limits, and cost segregation opportunities into the personal return, and it changes what documentation you need to keep during the year. One property is enough for the rules to matter. Several properties, or a short-term rental, make professional planning close to essential.
My current CPA is fine. Why would I change?
Most of our clients said the same thing before their first review. Accuracy is the baseline, not the differentiator. The question worth asking is whether anyone contacted you between filings, whether anyone modelled a decision before you made it, and whether your effective tax rate has ever been discussed. If the answer is no, a review costs you an hour and tells you what the gap is worth.
- Related Resources
Related pages and guides
Find Out What Your Current Setup Is Costing You.
Book a confidential review. We will read your last two returns, identify where the planning gaps are, and tell you what a coordinated plan looks like for your income, your property, and your situation. If there is nothing worth fixing, we will tell you that too.