How-to

Run your year-end checklist

Use Ironlake's situational year-end checklist to see which pre-December-31 tax items apply to your household, each with its own math and deadline.

2 min read

The Year-End Checklist assembles a situational, pre-December-31 list from your own profile, accounts, and current-year data - so you see the items that actually apply to your situation, not a generic article. It is an orchestrator: each item carries its own one-line math, a countdown, and a deep link to the tool that owns the precise calculation.

Step 1 - Open the checklist

Go to Tax → Year-End Checklist. (There is also a public version at the year-end tool if you want to see the shape before signing in.)

Step 2 - Read the situational items

The checklist only shows what is relevant to your situation. Depending on your profile and data, items can include:

  • RMDs - including the deferred-first-year grace window into the new year.
  • Estimated-tax safe harbor - with the prior-year Q4 grace window.
  • Tax-loss harvesting - if you have imported lots, gated on an actual lot-level loss; if you hold taxable positions but haven't imported lots yet, a prompt to import them so harvesting candidates can be found.
  • Roth conversion bracket-fill - when there is pre-tax room to model.
  • QCD, 529 contributions, and annual gifting - each gated on the relevant facts.

Items you have no exposure to simply do not appear.

Step 3 - Follow each item to its tool

Every item links to the surface that owns the exact math - the loss-harvesting scanner, the Roth conversion modeler, the gifting tracker - so the checklist's quick proxy never contradicts the precise calculation behind it. You decide which moves to make; Ironlake shows the math and the deadline.

Step 4 - Record what you decide

As you act, log the decision in your Decision Journal so next year's review has the rationale. The checklist is about surfacing the timely questions, not pushing any particular action.

A note on timing

The checklist is most useful in Q4, but the items respect their real deadlines - including the January grace windows for RMDs and estimated tax - so it stays accurate across the year boundary.

Ironlake surfaces the math and the deadline for each item; it does not tell you which actions to take. Consult your own tax and financial professionals before acting.

Open your year-end checklist