Accounting for Dentists

Running a Dental Practice Is Running a Business

You spent years learning to practice dentistry. The financial side of running a practice is a different discipline entirely, and most dentists reach a point where the gap between what they know about teeth and what they need to know about cash flow, tax planning, and practice valuation becomes a real problem.

A dental practice is not a simple business to account for correctly. Revenue comes from multiple payers on different schedules. Overhead is high and the cost structure is specific to the industry. Equipment purchases carry significant depreciation implications. Associate agreements, partnership buyins, and practice acquisitions each carry tax consequences that need to be understood before the decision is made, not after.

Maris works with dentists and dental practice owners across Seattle, Everett, and Snohomish County who need an accounting firm that understands the industry, not one treating a dental practice like any other small business.

The Tax Opportunities in a Dental Practice Are Significant. So Are the Traps.

A dental practice owner operating as the wrong entity structure is leaving money on the table every year. The choice between an S corporation, a C corporation, and a sole proprietorship affects how income is taxed, how retirement contributions are structured, and how the practice looks to a buyer when it is time to sell.

Equipment purchases, facility improvements, and technology investments all carry depreciation and Section 179 implications that need to be planned, not discovered at filing time. Retirement plans available to practice owners, including defined benefit plans and SEP IRAs, can shelter significant income when structured correctly and early enough to make a difference.

Maris builds tax strategy around the specific financial profile of a dental practice, with the goal of reducing liability year over year, not just filing an accurate return.

What We Do for Dental Practice Clients

The work covers the full scope of what a dental practice needs from an accounting firm.

On the tax side, that means entity structure analysis, tax planning and compliance, equipment and facility depreciation planning, retirement plan strategy, and payroll tax management for clinical and administrative staff. On the business side, it means bookkeeping, cash flow and budgeting analysis, overhead benchmarking against industry standards, and financial statement preparation. For practice transitions, it means practice valuations, due diligence on acquisitions, associate and partnership agreement review, and succession planning.

Buying, Selling, or Bringing In a Partner

A dental practice transition is one of the most significant financial events in a dentist's career. The structure of the transaction determines how much of the sale price the seller keeps and what the buyer's tax position looks like going forward. Getting the allocation of purchase price wrong costs both sides money.

Maris handles practice valuations and transaction support for dentists who are acquiring a practice, selling one, or structuring a partnership arrangement. The valuation is built on recognized standards, not a back of the envelope estimate. The transaction structure is reviewed for tax consequences before anything is signed.

The Numbers Should Tell You How the Practice Is Performing

Overhead as a percentage of collections. Production per operatory. Staff cost ratios. These are the metrics that tell a dental practice owner whether the business is running efficiently or whether something is quietly eroding the margin.

Owners with accurate, current books and an accounting firm that knows the benchmarks for the industry can see those numbers clearly. Owners without that visibility find out something was wrong when it is already expensive to fix.

What a Well-Run Practice Financial Structure Looks Like

Clean books maintained monthly. A tax plan built around the practice's specific income profile. Retirement contributions maximized within the rules. An entity structure that fits the stage of the business. A current valuation on file before anyone asks for one.

That is not a complicated picture.

It is a consistent one, and it is the difference between a practice that generates wealth and one that generates income that disappears into taxes and overhead without building anything durable.

Maris & Associates CPAs provides accounting and tax services to dentists and dental practice owners across Seattle, Everett, and Snohomish County. Contact us to talk through what the engagement looks like for your specific practice.