Boca Raton CPA
Boca after dark looks effortless. The planning behind it is not.
Tax planning, accounting and Fractional CFO support for Boca Raton business owners, medical practices, retirees and the families who moved south for the weather and stayed for the tax rules.
The short answer
A Boca Raton CPA, minus the country-club pace.
Boca clients tend to have more moving parts than most: a practice or a family business, investment accounts, a second home and children or grandchildren to plan for. The work is connecting them.
Bette Hochberger, CPA, CGMA is a boutique South Florida CPA firm that works with Boca Raton business owners, medical and professional practices, retirees and new Florida residents. The firm handles tax planning, individual, business and trust tax returns, outsourced accounting, payroll and Fractional CFO work, with most meetings on Zoom.
What changed in Palm Beach County for 2026
| Item | Through 2025 | Starting January 1, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| County surtax | 1% infrastructure surtax | 0.5% school capital outlay surtax, through 2035 |
| Total sales tax | 7% | 6.5% |
| Short-term rental taxes | About 13% | About 12.5% (6% state, 0.5% surtax, 6% tourist taxes) |
| What to do | Nothing new | Update POS and invoicing rates and check your first 2026 sales tax return |
Who we work with in Boca
Built for Boca’s busiest balance sheets.
Four groups make up most of our Boca Raton work, and plenty of families belong to two or three of them at once.
Medical and dental practices
Physician-owned practices that need entity and compensation planning, retirement plans sized for high earners and books that show which locations and providers actually make money.
02Retirees, snowbirds and new residents
Families managing required distributions, Roth conversions, Medicare premium thresholds and a clean break from a higher-tax state.
03Family businesses and founders
Owner-run companies that have outgrown their bookkeeper and want forecasting, KPIs and a plan for the next generation or the next buyer.
04Professionals and advisors
Attorneys, wealth managers and consultants with K-1s, multiple income streams and very little patience for a slow CPA.
Retired, or close to it
Retired in Boca? Your return still has decisions in it.
Retirement does not make taxes simpler. It just changes which decisions matter. Most of the savings come from timing: when income shows up, which account it comes from and how it interacts with Medicare.
- Required minimum distributions starting at 73 for most people
- Roth conversions in lower-income years before RMDs begin
- Qualified charitable distributions straight from an IRA
- Medicare premium surcharges based on income from two years earlier
- Estate and trust returns coordinated with your attorney
Florida helps: no personal income tax, no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. The federal estate tax exemption is $15 million per person in 2026, which takes most families out of estate tax entirely, but not out of income tax planning for the people who inherit.
See tax planning and strategy ↗
Medical practices
A Boca practice can be busy and still leak money.
Strong collections hide a lot. We see profitable-looking practices where owner pay, entity structure and retirement plans were set up years ago and never revisited.
For owner-physicians in an S corporation, the salary has to be reasonable for the work, and the split between salary and distributions affects payroll tax, retirement contributions and the qualified business income deduction, which is limited for medical practices once income passes certain thresholds. A cash balance plan layered on a 401(k) can let older, high-earning owners set aside far more than a 401(k) alone, but it has to fit the practice’s staff and cash flow.
On the accounting side, the questions are simpler and more important: which providers, payers and locations make money, how many days of revenue sit in receivables, and whether the practice can fund the next hire or the next piece of equipment without a line of credit.
Right-size owner pay
Set a defensible salary and distribution split, then revisit it as the practice grows.
Fund retirement on purpose
Compare a 401(k), profit sharing and a cash balance plan against your staff and cash flow.
Read the practice monthly
Provider, payer and location reporting you can act on before the quarter closes.
Questions every practice owner should answer
- When was owner compensation last benchmarked?
- Is the practice’s entity still the right one for its size?
- Would a cash balance plan pay off for the partners?
- Which payers are slowest, and what does that cost you?
- Are big equipment purchases timed with the tax year in mind?
How it works
Your advisors, finally on the same page.
Boca clients usually have an attorney, a wealth manager and an insurance advisor already. We fit into that team instead of competing with it.
Start with the year
A 15-minute call to understand what changed: a sale, a move, a new practice location or a big distribution.
Coordinate the team
With your permission, we work directly with your attorney and wealth manager so the plan matches.
Keep the books current
Monthly accounting for the business side, so planning is based on real numbers.
Plan before December
Year-end moves happen in the fall, while there is still time to make them.
Boca Raton FAQ
Questions Boca Raton clients ask first
General answers to common questions. Your situation decides the right move, so treat these as a starting point.
Sources: Florida Department of Revenue, 2026 discretionary sales surtax rates (DR-15DSS); Florida EDR, 2026 local option transient rental tax rates; IRS, Required minimum distribution FAQs; IRS, What’s new: estate and gift tax; Florida Statutes section 205.053.
Photos: Gatorfan252525, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); Christopher Ziemnowicz (CZmarlin), public domain (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons (CC0); Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0); pasa47, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
This page is general information, not tax or legal advice for your situation. Rates and deadlines shown are for 2026 and can change.
Dinner at Mizner Park. Tax plan before dessert.
Fifteen minutes is enough to see where the opportunities are this year, whether you run a practice, a family business or a very busy retirement.
Put 15 Minutes on the Calendar ↗ Call 954.639.4060 ↗