Dentists
You learned to practice dentistry. Nobody taught you to navigate practice acquisitions, equipment depreciation, or exit planning.
The Career Follows a Path
The dental profession follows a predictable arc. You graduate, work as an associate, and eventually face the decision to buy into a practice or purchase one outright. Years later, you sell. At each stage, the tax stakes change and the planning decisions matter more than most dentists realize.
Dental school trains clinicians, not business owners. Most dentists have a tax preparer filing returns every April and maybe a bookkeeper tracking collections. What they do not have is someone planning ahead for the transitions that define a dental career. We work with dentists the same way we work with physicians and medical practices, through a planning-first approach that catches these decisions while there is still time to make them.
Dentists at Every Stage
Dentists at Every Stage
Whether you are still an associate weighing your first ownership opportunity, a mid-career owner expanding or upgrading equipment, or planning your exit in the next several years, the work looks different at each stage. We serve dental practices across this entire lifecycle.
The Four Roles
The Four Roles
Every dental practice needs a tax preparer, a tax advisor, a bookkeeper, and someone watching the whole financial picture. Most practices have the first and third and wonder why April keeps bringing surprises. We cover all four.
Buying a Practice
When you purchase a dental practice, the total price is just the starting point. What matters for tax purposes is how that price gets allocated among the assets you are actually buying. Equipment, patient records, goodwill, real estate if included, and any restrictive covenants each carry different tax treatment under current law. The allocation affects what you can depreciate and how quickly, which shapes your tax picture for years after the purchase.
This matters on both sides of the transaction. If you are buying, you want as much value as possible allocated to assets that can be expensed quickly under current rules. If you are selling, some of those same allocations create ordinary income instead of capital gain. Buyers and sellers have competing interests, and the allocation negotiation is where real money changes hands without either party fully understanding the stakes.
The Buyer's Position
The Buyer's Position
Equipment may qualify for immediate expensing under Section 179 or bonus depreciation as current law permits. Goodwill and other intangibles amortize over fifteen years. A purchase price allocation that favors equipment puts deductions on your return sooner. We model the options before you sign anything.
The Seller's Position
The Seller's Position
The same allocation that helps a buyer can hurt a seller. Value assigned to equipment or a covenant not to compete may be taxed as ordinary income rather than long-term capital gain. Understanding this before the negotiation matters, not after the deal closes.
Running the Practice
Once you own the practice, the annual tax picture depends heavily on how the business is structured and how you pay yourself. For most dental practices above a certain income level, an S corporation election combined with a reasonable salary and distributions can reduce self-employment taxes meaningfully. The exact threshold where this makes sense depends on your income and circumstances, but it is one of the first conversations we have with practice owners.
Equipment purchases continue throughout the life of the practice. Chairs, imaging systems, CAD/CAM units, and office build-outs all carry expensing decisions that should be made with the full tax picture in mind. Retirement plans are equally important. Dental practice owners often have room for significant retirement contributions, ranging from standard 401(k) plans through profit sharing and, for higher earners, cash balance or defined benefit plans that can allow much larger annual contributions depending on age and plan design.
Entity and Compensation
Entity and Compensation
Choosing the right entity structure and getting your compensation right are connected decisions. We evaluate whether an S corporation makes sense for your practice, set a reasonable salary that meets IRS requirements, and structure distributions to keep your total tax burden as low as the rules allow.
Equipment and Retirement
Equipment and Retirement
Every major equipment purchase is a tax decision. We coordinate expensing elections with your overall tax plan and help you design a retirement plan that fits your practice. That might mean a simple 401(k) or an advanced plan structure that shelters six figures annually for the right situation.
Planning the Exit
The sale of a dental practice is typically the largest single tax event in a dentist’s career. How you structure the sale, what gets allocated where, and when you receive the proceeds all affect the after-tax number you walk away with. These are not decisions to make at the closing table. They require planning that starts years before you list the practice.
Most dental practice sales are structured as asset sales rather than stock sales. That means allocating the sale price across the same categories that mattered when you bought in. Your negotiating position, your tax situation, and the buyer’s preferences all influence the outcome. Installment sales can spread recognition of gain over multiple years when that helps. And retirement plan contributions in your final working years, particularly through cash balance or defined benefit structures, can shelter a meaningful portion of the proceeds.
Sale Structure and Allocation
Sale Structure and Allocation
We help you understand what a proposed deal structure actually means in after-tax dollars. That includes modeling different allocation scenarios, evaluating installment sale treatment, and coordinating with your attorney and the buyer’s advisors so the transaction closes with your interests protected.
Retirement as an Exit Tool
Retirement as an Exit Tool
Cash balance and defined benefit plans allow much larger contributions than standard 401(k) plans, and the limits increase with age. For dentists in their final years of practice, these plans can shelter substantial income in the years surrounding the sale. If you are thinking about buying, already own, or planning your exit, book a consultation to see how this approach works for your situation.
Planning-First Tax & Accounting
The Next Step:
Start a Conversation
We begin with a clear understanding of your business, then define the engagement and establish pricing from the outset.