How to Avoid a Surprise $100,000 Tax Bill Next April | Portus Perspectives

In this installment of the Portus Perspectives series, William walks through a real and timely situation with a client couple based in Denver, Colorado who have been in serious growth mode.

Three business locations. A short term rental property purchased last year. Accelerated depreciation taken on both the STR and a new business location, which dramatically lowered their tax liability for last year. Everything was moving fast and in the right direction.

Then William and the Portus team got their tax returns a couple of weeks ago and started working through the numbers. And what became immediately apparent was that this year's tax picture looks nothing like last year's.

The accelerated depreciation that saved them last year is not repeating this year.

The new business location that reduced profitability in year one is now generating income without that offset. 

The withholdings that covered last year's liability are not going to cover this year's.

And with the various advisors on their team, the CPA for the business and the CPA for the STR, not talking to each other or to the Portus team in a coordinated way, nobody had connected the dots yet.

William's estimate is a shortfall of somewhere between $80,000 and $100,000 in estimated tax payments for this year. The clients can handle it. But only because they found it now, with seven months of data in hand and enough runway to plan around it. If they had kept charging hard into the next opportunity without this visibility, they could have found themselves seriously overextended when April arrived.

This is what mid-year tax planning actually looks like. 

Not just reviewing what happened last year but using the current year's P&L and balance sheet to forecast where you are going to land and make decisions accordingly.

Key Topics Covered:

• The Denver Client Story: Three locations, a short term rental, accelerated depreciation, and a tax picture that changed dramatically year over year.
• When Advisors Aren't Talking: Why siloed professionals create blind spots that cost business owners money.
• Accelerated Depreciation and Its Limits: Why the tax savings from year one don't repeat in year two.
• The $80,000 to $100,000 Shortfall: How it was identified, what it means, and how the client can plan around it.
• Mid-Year Tax Planning: Why seven months of data is enough to make meaningful forecasting decisions for the full year.
• Taxes as a Necessary Evil: Why creating success means planning for the tax liability that comes with it.

If you're a business owner who hasn't looked at your current year tax picture alongside last year's return, this episode is your reminder that now is exactly the right time to do it.

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ORIGINAL MEDIA SOURCE(S): William Bissett: How to Avoid a Surprise $100,000 Tax Bill Next April | Portus Perspectives
 Originally Recorded on August 25, 2026
 Portus Perspectives: Episode 45

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