Dental Practices
Tax planning, entity structure, acquisition support, and outsourced accounting for single-location practices, multi-location groups, and dental service organizations.
Overview
Dental practices are businesses with high equipment costs, significant payroll, and owners who are often both clinicians and managers. A single-location practice needs reliable books, thoughtful tax planning, and a retirement plan that fits the owner’s goals. Multi-location groups and dental service organizations add consolidated reporting, management service agreements, and acquisition activity. Pease Bell works with dentists and dental groups at each of these stages, bringing tax, accounting, and transaction advisory under one roof.
Our work with dental practices draws on a healthcare practice that has served providers for about 20 years. We help owners choose and maintain an entity structure, plan for taxes on practice income, and evaluate retirement plan options. When a practice is buying, selling, or joining a DSO, we provide valuation and diligence support so owners understand what the numbers say before they sign.
How We Help Dental Practices
Dental Tax Planning
Year-round tax planning for practice owners, including equipment purchases and depreciation, compensation decisions, and how health-field rules affect the qualified business income deduction under IRC Section 199A.
Entity Structure
Advice on choosing and maintaining the right entity for your practice, such as an S corporation or partnership, and on separate entities for real estate or management services.
Practice Acquisitions
Financial and tax diligence for dentists buying or merging practices, including review of collections, payer mix, and overhead so you understand what you are acquiring.
Practice Valuation
Valuation support for buy-ins, buyouts, partner transitions, and sales to DSOs, based on the practice’s earnings, production, and normalized owner compensation, so each party can negotiate from the same numbers.
Outsourced Accounting
Monthly bookkeeping, payroll coordination, and financial reporting for single and multi-location practices, with reporting by location that helps owners compare production, overhead, and profitability across offices.
Retirement Plan Design
Help evaluating 401(k), profit sharing, and cash balance plan options for owners and staff, coordinated with your tax plan and plan administrator so contributions fit both owner goals and staff benefits.
Challenges We Help Dental Practices Address
- ✓High practice income with limited tax planning during the year
- ✓Choosing between independence, group affiliation, or a sale to a DSO
- ✓Location-level reporting that is hard to compare across offices
- ✓Partner buy-ins and buyouts without an agreed valuation approach
- ✓Retirement plans that no longer fit owner income or staff size
Featured Insights
Frequently Asked Questions
Do dentists need a specialized CPA?
Not necessarily, but a CPA familiar with dental practices understands production and collections reporting, equipment-heavy depreciation, health-field limits on certain tax deductions, and how DSO transactions work. That context helps with planning and practice decisions. Pease Bell works with single-location practices, multi-location groups, and dental service organizations.
Should a dental practice be an S corporation?
Many dental practices operate as S corporations because it can help manage self-employment taxes through a reasonable salary and distributions. Whether it fits depends on your income, state rules, number of owners, and long-term plans. We can model the options for your practice and help you maintain the structure correctly.
How is a dental practice valued?
Dental practices are commonly valued based on normalized earnings, often after adjusting the owner’s compensation to a market level, along with factors such as collections trends, payer mix, location, equipment, and patient base. DSO buyers frequently focus on adjusted EBITDA. Pease Bell provides valuation and diligence support for buyers, sellers, and partners.
What is a DSO?
A dental service organization provides business support, such as billing, HR, purchasing, and marketing, to dental practices, often through a management services agreement. Dentists typically keep clinical control while the DSO handles non-clinical operations. We help practices evaluate DSO offers and help DSOs with consolidated accounting, tax, and acquisition diligence.
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