The IRS recently issued its 2026 cost-of-living adjustments for more than 60 tax provisions. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) makes permanent or amends many provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), including updates to deductions, thresholds, and exemptions. As you implement 2025 year-end tax planning strategies, these 2026 figures should be part of your consideration.

As 2025 winds down, business owners and managers are ramping up their planning efforts for the new year. Part of the annual budgeting process involves identifying ways to lower expenses and strengthen cash flow. When looking for cost savings, think beyond the obvious adjustments like wages, benefits, or employee headcount. Cutting too deeply in these areas can make it harder to attract and retain skilled workers, potentially affecting work quality and productivity.

Here are three creative ways to help boost your company’s bottom line without sacrificing performance or growth potential.

Many small businesses offer discounts to employees, friends, family, or loyal customers as a gesture of appreciation. While these programs can strengthen relationships and build goodwill, they can also open the door to misuse, fraud, and unnecessary revenue loss if not properly managed.

As 2025 comes to a close, it’s a good time to review your business expenses and identify which costs qualify as deductible. Accelerating deductible expenses into this year can help reduce your 2025 tax bill and may even provide permanent savings. It’s also important to consider the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which makes several provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) permanent while modifying others.

If you’re age 50 or older, you have a unique opportunity to strengthen your retirement savings through additional “catch-up” contributions to your tax-favored retirement accounts. These extra contributions can make a bigger impact on your long-term financial security than many people realize.

A major tax change is here for businesses with research and experimental (R&E) expenses. On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) reinstated the immediate deduction for U.S.-based R&E expenses, reversing rules under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that required businesses to capitalize and amortize these costs over five years (15 years for research performed outside the United States).

Beginning September 30, 2025, all payments made to or from the IRS must be electronic under Executive Order 14247, Modernizing Payments to and From America’s Bank Account. This major shift is designed to increase efficiency, improve security, and reduce the costs of paper-based processing.

This transformation empowers the U.S. Department of the Treasury to overhaul the government’s payment infrastructure, aiming to reduce costs, minimize fraud, and eliminate operational inefficiencies associated with paper-based transactions.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law on July 4, 2025, introduces new federal income tax deductions for eligible employee overtime pay and tips. To comply, employers should act now on payroll, reporting, and withholding updates.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS have issued proposed regulations identifying nearly 70 “customarily tipped” occupations eligible under the OBBBA’s “no tax on tips” provision. Occupations are grouped into eight broad categories: