Financial Advisor and CPA for Salespeople
A flat-fee CPA and Financial Planner team that gives you personalized, holistic advice across your taxes and financial plan. We plan around uneven commission checks, clawbacks and RSUs, and file your returns.
What we handle for salespeople
Your base is steady. Your commission depends on when deals close, how your plan pays and whether a customer stays.
- 01
Commission withholding
Commissions are supplemental wages. Paid as their own check they are often withheld at a flat 22%, too little once a strong year puts you in a higher bracket. Paid with salary, they can be withheld as if every check were that size, which takes too much.
- 02
A back-loaded year
Accelerators pay a higher rate above quota, so the biggest checks often land in the fourth quarter. Extra withholding on those checks counts as if it were paid evenly through the year, so raising it in the fall closes the gap without an underpayment penalty.
- 03
Clawbacks of commissions already taxed
A clawback repaid in the same year reduces that year’s wages. Repaid in a later year, it is deductible only above $3,000, and then Section 1341 lets you take the better of the deduction or a credit for the tax the commission added when you were paid. Smaller repayments are not deductible.
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Payroll tax on a clawback
Social Security and Medicare tax on a commission you repay in a later year does not come back on your return. Ask your employer to refund it, and if it will not, your CPA claims it on Form 843 with the employer’s statement.
- 05
RSUs on top of commission
Vesting shares are supplemental wages too, usually withheld at 22% while commission pushes your top rate higher. Your CPA projects both together. The equity side is on tech professionals.
- 06
Expenses your employer does not pay
Unreimbursed travel, client meals and a home office are not deductible against W-2 pay: the deduction stopped in 2018 and the 2025 tax law made that permanent. Getting them reimbursed under your employer’s expense policy is the only way to recover them.
How Nino helps salespeople
Your income is set by a comp plan, a quota and a close date, and your withholding sees none of them. On an Advisor plan your CPA and Financial Planner plan your taxes and cash from your actual pipeline and file the return that follows.
Book a free consultation-
A plan in your first two weeks
Your CPA and Financial Planner build your tax and financial plan around your base, quota, accelerators and vest schedule, then revisit it every quarter and after a large deal closes.
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Withholding set from your comp plan
Your CPA projects the year from what has closed and what is likely to, then sets a W-4 change or an estimated payment before the shortfall builds. Nothing is filed until you approve the return.
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Ask before you sign
Connect your bank, brokerage and 401(k) read-only, then ask Nino’s AI what a big quarter, a clawback or a job offer does to this year’s taxes and your cash.
What should salespeople decide early?
Four choices that decide how much of a good year you keep.
How big a cash reserve to hold
Size it to a quarter with no commission, not to an average one. The usual starting point for commission pay is 6 to 12 months of essential expenses, kept apart from the tax you still owe on commissions already paid. See cash flow planning.
How to use your 401(k) in a big year
The 2026 employee limit is $24,500 across every employer. A percentage election can reach it on one large check, and if your plan matches each paycheck with no year-end true-up, later checks get no match. If your 2025 wages there topped $150,000, catch-ups go in as Roth.
Whether your deferrals will stick
Pay above $160,000 in 2025 generally makes you a highly compensated employee at that employer for 2026. If the plan fails its annual nondiscrimination test, part of what you deferred can come back to you as taxable pay, so plan other savings for that case.
When to change jobs
Your comp plan decides whether you are paid on deals that close after you leave, so time a move after your largest payouts. Two employers each withhold Social Security up to the $184,500 wage base, and the excess comes back as a credit on your return. See a new job in the same year.
Pick your plan
Every Advisor plan includes a CPA and Financial Planner team, federal and state tax filing, and our Ultra software.
Essential
- Everything in Ultra software, plus:
- A dedicated CPA and Financial Planner team for you
- Single-filer return, quarterly taxes included
- Retirement & equity planning
- Quarterly advisor access
- Rentals
- 0
- K-1s
- 0
- States
- 1
- Brokerage
- 3
Plus
Most Popular- Everything in Essential, plus:
- A dedicated CPA and Financial Planner team for you and your spouse
- Married filing jointly return, international coverage included
- One coordinated plan for both of you
- Quarterly and ad hoc advisor access
- Rentals
- 2
- K-1s
- 5
- States
- 3
- Brokerage
- 5
Premier
- Everything in Plus, plus:
- Business bookkeeping and tax filings, priced by complexity
- Joint or single return, complex international coverage
- Advanced equity & estate planning
- Priority advisor access
- Rentals
- 5
- K-1s
- 10
- States
- 5
- Brokerage
- 10
Software plans starting from $20 a month
Our AI financial assistant on its own, with a 7-day free trial.
Guides for salespeople
Read up on these decisions, or run your own numbers.
Tax Strategies for High-Income W-2 Employees
A W-2 earner can't deduct against wages. The tax levers are payroll forms: the W-4, 401(k) and mega backdoor elections, HSA and FSA picks, equity, and deferred comp.
Read guide401(k) Contribution Limits for 2026
The 2026 employee limit is $24,500. See age-based catch-ups, employer contribution limits, and the Roth catch-up rule.
Read guideRSU Tax Withholding
RSUs are taxed like salary. Here is why a vest loses so many shares to withholding, why it can still leave you owing in April, and how sell-to-cover works.
Read guideRSU Vesting, New Job, Same Year
When RSUs vest at two employers in one year, each payroll withholds as if it were your only job. Here is how to size the gap and close it with W-4 withholding or estimated payments.
Read guideBonus Tax Calculator
Compare the 22% federal withholding on a bonus with the tax it actually adds at your brackets, and what you may owe in April.
Open calculatorRSU Tax Calculator
Compare estimated RSU tax with a simplified federal withholding calculation.
Open calculator
More people we work with
See how our CPA and Financial Planner team helps people in situations like yours.