The Drake Tax Planner is designed to help you assist your clients in planning for the future. By comparing a client’s current tax situation to different scenarios that could occur—such as marriage, the birth of a child, buying or selling a house, or change in income—you can see how these changes may affect their finances and tax liability. Because scenarios are set up using the same Drake Tax Data Entry Menu and data entry screens you’re already familiar with, building your different scenarios is quick and easy.

To get started, open a client's return and click the Tax Planner icon to open the Tax Planner dialog box. The original return is listed as are any other scenarios you have created. Multiple scenarios can be created as needed.

Toolbar Button Functions

• New - Click New to create a new scenario for 2023 or 2024 (2024 scenarios incorporate known tax changes for the coming year, once available*). Select the tax year, enter a scenario name, and click OK. A new scenario, containing data from the original return, appears in the list, available for you to open to data entry.

• Open - Select a scenario and click Open to open it. A scenario opens as a return.

• Remove - Select a scenario from the scenario pane and click Remove to delete the scenario.

• Compare - Select up to three scenarios and click Compare to compare them to the client’s original return.

• Help - Click Help to get explanations and direction for using the planner.

• Exit - Click Exit to close the planner and return to regular Drake Tax data entry. You can also exit the planner by opening the original return from the scenario list.

*If you choose a 2024 scenario, while the printed forms will continue to show the current year values, future rates are applied wherever possible. For example, on the tax computation worksheet, the tables will display the 2023 amounts, but the 2024 rates will be used in the actual calculated tax amount.

Scenarios

Each scenario looks and behaves like a normal return, except,

• The main data entry menu displays Tax Planner.

• Documents in View/Print mode display a Tax Planner watermark (except letters).

For more assistance, contact Drake Support at (828) 524-8020.

Depreciation

The Tax Planner does not consider the current year's depreciation in calculating depreciation in the next year scenario.

The basis used in the current year return is also used by the Tax Planner for next year's scenario. For example, in a 2023 return, the starting basis for the 2023 tax year is used by the software to calculate depreciation for 2023, and it also is used by the Tax Planner to calculate the 2024 tax year scenario.

In the Tax Planner next year scenario, the prior depreciation can be adjusted on screen 4562 to include the current year depreciation amount.