Tax Prep — Filing-Position Consequence Cascade

Activate when: a position/election has effects beyond this year — S-corp election, depreciation/§179/bonus, accounting-method change, filing status, Roth conversion, entity choice; client asks 'should I elect X?'. Do NOT activate when: the item is contained to the current return with no carry effect.

Industry front door for second-order-thinking. Adds domain triggers, example, packs only. Parent Process unchanged. Not legal or tax advice.

Activate when: a position/election has effects beyond this year — S-corp election, depreciation/§179/bonus, accounting-method change, filing status, Roth conversion, entity choice; client asks "should I elect X?" Do NOT activate when: the item is contained to the current return with no carry effect.

Why this variant

The parent second-order-thinking traces "and then what?" across time and parties. Tax elections are pure second-order: the first-order tax cut this year can reverse into a larger liability, recapture, or lock-in later.

Domain inputs → parent's Process

For each election, trace orders of effect:

• 1st: this year's tax.
• 2nd: next-year basis, carryforwards, recapture, estimated-payment change.
• 3rd: multi-year lock-in (method changes, S-corp 5-yr re-election bar), state conformity, exit/sale treatment.
• Parties: client, spouse, entity, future buyer.

Worked example

§179 full expensing of equipment to zero out this year's profit. → 2nd order: no depreciation shield in future higher-income years; recapture if asset sold/converted; possible SE-tax and state add-back differences. Compare against straight-line across the multi-year arc before electing.

Packs

• Solo: 3-year mini-projection on any election before filing.
• Advisory: position the election inside the client's multi-year plan, not the single return.

Red flags

• Optimizing only the current-year number.
• Ignoring state non-conformity.
• Irreversible elections chosen for a one-year gain.

Verification

• Multi-year effect of the election modeled
• Recapture / lock-in / conformity checked
• Client shown the arc, not just this year

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Part of deciqAI Knowledge Skills. Core method: second-order-thinking.

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Part of deciqAI Knowledge Skills — 189 open-source thinking skills that make rigor executable for AI agents. The same skills power every deciqAI agent, which runs them autonomously to operate your company. See it run → https://www.deciqai.com/c/tax-filing-position-consequences · ⭐ Star the repo → https://github.com/deciqAI/knowledge-skills · Contributions welcome.