Gnomon Tax Gnomon Tax
Our approach

The Gnomon Method

Calibrate, Indicate, Orchestrate, Compound. The Gnomon Method describes our systematic approach to working with clients that seeks not only to help clients identify opportunities, but to follow through on the plan while planning windows are open to optimize their position. Choose a stage below to see what it involves.

What you get

The Calibration Plan sets the terms for the whole year

It is not a summary of your return. It is the document that establishes where you stand, what is worth doing, and — once you have chosen your step sizes at the Review — the specific goals and figures every later update is measured against.

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The Calibration Plan
Life, calibrated.
The Calibration Plan
Where you stand

Three years read together, your position against the lines that matter this year, and which tax rates actually touch you.

The indications

Every finding numbered, with the rule behind it, what it is worth against your own numbers, and three sizes of step.

Orchestration

What happens when, who owns it, and the short list of things only you can do.

For the record

The figures behind every recommendation, so nothing in the plan has to be taken on trust.

At the Review we go through it together and you choose a step size for each indication. Those choices become the goals; the figures behind them become what we track.

Calibrate

How we keep you calibrated

Where your income sits against the lines that matter, how much room is still open, and the record that keeps it current through the year.

Threshold scale
Your income
$200,000
Roth phaseout begins
$242,000
A surtax begins
$250,000
$160k$180k$200k$220k$240k$260k

$42,000 of room before the first line, and $50,000 before the second. In March you can still choose where the year lands. In December you mostly cannot.

Room remaining
Workplace retirement deferral $12,000 of $24,500
Room to the limit: $12,500. We would take this to at least $18,000 before December.
Health savings account, family $3,000 of $8,750
Room to the limit: $5,750. This one we would simply fund to the cap.
Roth contribution $0 of $7,500
Fully available at this income — but the phaseout begins at $242,000, so the order matters.
Used so far What we would recommend Room to the limit
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Sightline Update Quarterly
Life, calibrated.
What you receive · Quarterly Sightline Update

The running record of the year — the goals you set at the Review, where each one stands, and what changed since we last looked.

It is also where a Gnetwork specialist gets named when something needs one we do not do in-house, and it is the simplest way to send us what has changed on your side. One place holding what you are aiming at and how far along it is.

Indicate

Indications

Every finding is numbered, written the same way, and given a weight — the rule behind it, what it is worth against your own numbers, and three sizes of step.

Indicate

What a finding looks like

Two indications as they are written, and the autumn pass that catches whatever is still open.

Indication 01
As filed $40,000
Corrected $36,000
Tax recovered $4,000

A suspended loss must be carried forward and applied before anything else. If a past return did not, amending is generally routine. The first thing we find is often money that was already yours.

Indication 02
A small step
Fund the HSA to the cap
~$1,000
A bigger step
Raise the deferral to $18,000
~$3,500
The full move
Deferral, HSA, and a partial conversion
~$8,000

Three real options, given three different weights. You choose the step; the plan shows what each one is worth.

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Sunset Review Autumn
Life, calibrated.
What you receive · Autumn Sunset Review

The year-end pass: every indication still open while there is time to act, and a check of the books.

Orchestrate

Orchestration

Who does what, and when — with the short list of things only you can do, raised early enough to be decisions.

Orchestrate

How the year is run

The calendar with owners and dates, and the returns that come out the other end.

The year
Decision window Deadline Completed
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
January to February
Prior-year correction filed and accepted.
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April 15
Prior-year contribution deadline. Miss it and the option is gone.
You
July to November
The conversion window. Room is widest before December income lands.
Together
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Your returns Filing season
Life, calibrated.
What you receive · Filing season Your returns

Federal and state, prepared by the same person who worked the plan all year.

Compound

What it adds up to

Each year starts from the last one, not from scratch.

Compound

What four years look like

What has been recovered and protected, what each year added, and what the same discipline projects forward.

Cumulative value
Recovered and protected to date
Cumulative value
$18,000
Over four years
$2,000
$6,000
$11,000
$18,000
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year bars
Y1
Y2
Y3
Y4
What each year added. This year is still open.
The next ten years
With the plan
Without
The same discipline, projected.
Since we started
$18,000
Recovered and protected
11
Indications orchestrated
4
Years calibrated
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Compound Report Year end
Life, calibrated.
What you receive · Year end Compound Report

What was captured, what is banked, and what rolls into next year.

Round figures, chosen to show how the graphics read. Nothing here is a projection or a promise.

All of this, with your numbers in it.

That is what the Calibration Plan is. It starts with a conversation.

Let's talk