Last reviewed: September 2026.
The Tax Strategy Review is a one-page, client-facing letter. It recaps a household's filed tax return and states, in plain dollars, how much more taxable income the client could take next year before crossing into a new tax bracket. It is modeled on the classic "Tax Strategy Review" mail-merge letter, with the math and the mail merge done for you.
Available to every firm. It is not limited to the Pro plan. A firm Admin turns it on under Settings › Value Adds › Roth Conversion Letter. See "Availability" below.
This article explains how the letter is generated, where every number comes from, which line of the client's tax return feeds each field, and what you can customize.
A note on the names
You will see this Value Add under more than one name. They all refer to the same report.
Where you see it | What it is called |
Settings › Value Adds | Roth Conversion Letter |
The household page tile | Roth Conversion |
The printed letter | {Year} Tax Strategy Review, for example "2026 Tax Strategy Review" |
"Roth Conversion Letter" is the name of the Value Add. "Tax Strategy Review" is the default title printed at the top of the letter, and that title is editable at the firm level. If someone asks about the "Tax Strategy Review Value Add", they mean this report.
What makes this Value Add different
Every other Value Add is built from account data. This one is not. The Tax Strategy Review is built almost entirely from figures you transcribe from the client's filed federal tax return and store on the household's Taxes tab.
If the Taxes tab is empty, the letter cannot be generated. The letter page shows the notice "No tax data has been recorded for this household, so the letter can’t be generated yet. Add a tax year on the Taxes tab to power this letter." The letter itself renders a "Tax data needed" box in place of the body.
The only thing on the letter that comes from account data is the "Reported as of" date in the header.
1. Before you start: recording tax data
Each household stores one record per tax year. Each record holds seven fields, and only the tax year itself is required. Everything else is optional. Blank is stored differently from zero: a client with $0 taxable income is a real case, so the system never guesses.
Where the numbers come from on the 1040
This is the section most advisors ask about. Line numbers below refer to the current Form 1040 layout (2020 tax year and later). For 2019 and earlier returns, match on the printed label rather than the line number.
SurgeTK field | Form 1040 line | What to enter |
Tax Year | The year printed on the form | The calendar year the return covers, for example 2024. SurgeTK accepts years from 1990 through next year. |
Filing Status | The checkbox block at the top of page 1 | Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, Head of Household, or Qualifying Surviving Spouse. The modal shows "Not recorded" until you choose one. |
Adjusted Gross Income | Line 11 | AGI straight off the return. A negative AGI is allowed (business losses). |
Taxable Income | Line 15 | Post-deduction taxable income. |
Income Tax After Credits | Line 24, "Total tax" | See the detailed note below. |
Roth Conversion Amount | Form 8606, Part II, line 18 | The taxable amount of any Roth conversion recognized that year. Leave blank if there was none. |
Notes | Not applicable | Free text, up to 2,000 characters, for example "2023 return not filed" or "no Roth accounts". |
Income Tax After Credits: use line 24, not line 22
This field trips people up because the field name and the 1040 label do not use the same words. Enter line 24, "Total tax".
Here is why. On the 1040:
Line 22 is tax after nonrefundable credits, but before other taxes.
Line 23 is other taxes: self-employment tax, net investment income tax, additional Medicare tax, early-withdrawal penalties, and anything else from Schedule 2, Part II.
Line 24 is line 22 plus line 23. This is the client's total federal tax.
If the client has nothing on line 23, lines 22 and 24 are the same number and either works. If the client is self-employed, has large investment income, or took an early distribution, line 22 understates their real tax. Line 24 is the safe entry every time.
Do not enter:
Line 25 (federal income tax withheld). That is a payment, not a tax.
Line 33 (total payments). Same problem.
Line 34 (refund) or line 37 (amount you owe). These are the settlement, not the liability.
Entering withholding here inflates or deflates the "tax bill" bullet on the letter and skews the effective-rate figure on the Taxes tab.
Roth Conversion Amount: enter the taxable portion
The projection math subtracts this figure from taxable income to build next year's baseline. That only works if the amount you enter was actually included in taxable income. So enter the taxable portion of the conversion:
Form 8606, Part II, line 18: the taxable amount of the conversion.
If the client had no after-tax basis in the traditional IRA, this equals the gross conversion (Form 1099-R, box 2a).
Leave the field blank if there was no conversion. Do not enter $0 unless you specifically mean "we checked and there was none".
Blank and $0 in the Tax Year modal
The modal says: "Leave a figure blank if it is not available — blank and $0 are stored differently." Two things to know:
Do not type text such as "N/A" or "none" into a money field. The modal strips the letters and saves $0. Leave the field blank instead.
You cannot add the same tax year twice. The second attempt returns "A record for that tax year already exists for this household". Open the existing year and edit it.
Three ways to get tax data in
1. Manually, one household at a time
Open the household, go to the Taxes tab, and click Add Tax Year. Type the figures and click Save Tax Year. This is the fastest path for a handful of households.
2. Bulk spreadsheet import
Open the import tool, choose Import Client Data, then the Household Taxes tile. Click Download the Household Taxes template. The template arrives pre-filled with a row for every household you can see, with the Household ID and Household Name already in place, so you never have to look an ID up. Fill in the tax columns, upload, map, and process.
Template columns, in order:
Household ID | Household Name | Tax Year | Filing Status | Adjusted Gross Income | Taxable Income | Income Tax After Credits | Roth Conversion Amount | Notes
Import behavior worth knowing:
A blank cell leaves the stored value alone. The import merges; it does not wipe. To clear a value, use the Tax Year modal instead.
Text that is not a number is rejected, not coerced. "N/A", "none", and "Not filed" fail the row rather than becoming $0.
A template row you never filled in is skipped. A row that has a year but no tax figures is reported as failed with "No tax figures supplied for {year}", so a file of untouched rows never looks like a successful import.
Leave the Tax Year column blank. You pick the tax year for the whole file on the upload step, and it defaults to last year. A value in the Tax Year column wins over that choice, which is how you load several years from one file. A year that cannot be read fails the row.
Accounting notation works: (25.00) reads as negative twenty-five. Currency symbols and commas are fine.
Negative AGI is allowed (business losses). Taxable income, income tax, and Roth conversion cannot be negative.
A filing status SurgeTK does not recognize fails the row. Abbreviations such as "MFJ" and "HOH" are understood.
If the same household and year appears twice, the last row wins and the summary flags it.
3. Zoho CRM sync
If your firm syncs Zoho and tracks tax figures in a Zoho Taxes module, map the fields under Settings › Integrations › Zoho › Map Fields › Taxes tab. The card says: "Each Zoho Taxes record becomes one Tax Year row on the household's Taxes tab. Blank Zoho fields never erase figures entered in SurgeTK."
The same rules apply: map the 1040 total tax line to Income Tax After Credits, and never map withholding.
A few behaviors worth knowing:
Blank Zoho fields never erase figures entered in SurgeTK. The sync merges, the same as the spreadsheet import.
A Zoho field that has a value overwrites the SurgeTK figure on every sync. If you correct a figure on the Taxes tab but Zoho still holds the old value, the next sync puts the old value back. Correct it in Zoho, or leave the Zoho field blank.
Filing-status values are normalized automatically. SurgeTK recognizes many spellings and abbreviations, including Zoho's own picklist variants. An unrecognized value is counted as a warning and does not overwrite the stored status.
Records with no recognizable tax year are skipped.
Zoho is the only CRM that syncs tax figures. Redtail firms use the Tax Year modal or the spreadsheet import.
What the Taxes tab shows you
Once a household has at least one tax year on file, the Taxes tab leads with the most recent one under the heading "{Year} Tax Year" and "Most recent return on file", with a View button:
Five stat cells: Adjusted Gross Income, Taxable Income, Income Tax After Credits, Roth Conversion, and Effective Rate.
A "{Year + 1} Planning Outlook" block: "Ordinary bracket", "Long-term capital gains", "Room left in the X% bracket", and "Additional room inside the Y% bracket". These are the same projection figures the letter's "Conversion options" bullets use.
A basis note, for example "Based on $101,024 of recurring taxable income — last year's $30,000 Roth conversion is excluded as a one-off." or "Based on $131,024 of taxable income."
A history table of every year on file, newest first, with the columns Year, Status, AGI, Taxable Income, Income Tax, Roth Conv., and Notes.
Two things about the outlook block are easy to misread:
The "Ordinary bracket" and "Long-term capital gains" rates in the outlook are next year's rates applied to the reduced baseline (taxable income minus the Roth conversion). The letter's recap bullets use the filed year's rates on the full taxable income. The two can differ. See "The math".
If the block reads "Add filing status and taxable income to see the conversion outlook.", either one of those two fields is missing from the record, or SurgeTK has no bracket table for next year yet.
Editing tax data here marks the household's Value Adds stale, so they refresh with the corrected figures.
2. Header and branding
Logo. Pulled from your firm's saved company logo. Editable under Settings › Firm Info.
Branding color. Uses your firm's branding color. The default is a dark gray. It colors the left border and the lead-in line of the "Conversion options" callout, and the border of the "Tax data needed" box.
Report title. Defaults to {{letterYear}} Tax Strategy Review, which prints as "2025 Tax Strategy Review" for a household whose latest return is 2024. The letter prints the title in capital letters. The title supports data points, so the year updates itself as clients file. Editable under Settings › Value Adds › Roth Conversion Letter › Title.
If a household has no tax data at all, the title still prints a year: the current calendar year. Today that is "2026 Tax Strategy Review". A plain "Tax Strategy Review" appears only when a custom title uses a data point that cannot be resolved and nothing else is left.
3. Reported as-of date
The "Reported as of" date in the header is the most recent valuation date found across all of the household's accounts. It is the one figure on this letter that comes from account data rather than the tax record.
The system scans every account in the household and takes the latest valid as-of date.
If no account carries a date, today's date is used.
The format is M/D/YYYY, for example 2/4/2026.
This date is automatic and cannot be edited. It is not the date the return was filed, and it is unrelated to the tax year the letter reviews.
4. Client name line
Pulled from all clients linked to the household and shown in the header as Last, First with superscript ages, for example Smith, John⁶⁵ & Jane⁶².
Deceased clients are filtered out automatically as long as at least one living client remains.
Separately, the {{householdName}} data point used in the salutation renders in friendly form, "John & Jane Smith", rather than the last-name-first header format.
5. The letter, section by section
The letter renders top to bottom in this order. Every text block is editable at the firm level. The default copy for each block is shown exactly as SurgeTK ships it, with its data points.
Salutation
Default: {{householdName}}, which renders as "John & Jane Smith,".
Hidden entirely if the household has no client records or if you clear the field, so the letter never opens with a stray comma.
Intro paragraph
Default: "While we don’t prepare your taxes and we’re certainly not tax professionals, our involvement in your financial life uniquely positions us as your tax ‘helper.’ In this role we help gather tax information to make tax season easier for you. We provide tax strategy help based on your financial goals and because of our extensive record keeping, we can provide invaluable assistance should the IRS ever have questions for you."
Static prose by default, but it accepts data points if you want it personalized.
Tax year recap
A lead-in line plus a bulleted list recapping the return. Defaults:
Lead-in: "As a bit of education, based on your {{taxYear}} tax return:"
"Your ‘taxable’ income was
{{taxableIncome}}."Sub-bullet: "Of which,
{{rothConversionTaxYear}}was a strategic ROTH IRA conversion."
"Based on this income, your tax bill for the year was
{{taxBill}}.""This puts you in the
{{marginalRate}}tax bracket for ‘ordinary income’ (i.e.{{marginalRateCents}}of every additional dollar goes to the IRS).""Separately, your long-term capital gains rate is
{{ltcgRate}}."
For the example household in "The math" below, this renders as: "As a bit of education, based on your 2024 tax return: Your ‘taxable’ income was $131,024. Of which, $30,000.00 was a strategic ROTH IRA conversion. Based on this income, your tax bill for the year was $19,363. This puts you in the 22% tax bracket for ‘ordinary income’ (i.e. $0.22 of every additional dollar goes to the IRS). Separately, your long-term capital gains rate is 15%."
The indented Roth line is a sub-bullet nested under the first bullet. It only appears when a Roth conversion greater than zero is recorded for that tax year. Otherwise it hides itself.
Conversion options
The accent callout, tinted in your firm's brand color. Defaults:
Lead-in: "IF you are concerned that tax rates will go up in the future and/or you would rather ‘pay the devil you know,’ consider one of the options below:"
Assumption line: "Assuming your {{letterYear}} income is similar to {{taxYear}}:"
"Take
{{bracketHeadroom}}of taxable income without pushing into a new tax bracket.""If you really wanted to get aggressive on tax planning, you could have an additional
{{nextBracketRoom}}of taxable income inside of the{{nextBracketRate}}tax bracket.""ROTH conversion so far in
{{letterYear}}:{{rothConversionLetterYear}}."
For the example household this renders as: "Assuming your 2025 income is similar to 2024: Take $105,676 of taxable income without pushing into a new tax bracket. If you really wanted to get aggressive on tax planning, you could have an additional $187,900 of taxable income inside of the 24% tax bracket. ROTH conversion so far in 2025: $0.00." See "The math" for how those figures are calculated.
The third bullet reads the Roth Conversion Amount from the next year's tax record (the strategy year). When that record does not exist, it prints $0.00.
This entire section has a master on/off switch, Include in letter, in the settings card. Turn it off and the letter becomes a pure tax recap with no conversion suggestions.
Closing and sign-off
Closing paragraph default: "If you have any questions about this estimate or our role as your tax helper, please call or email, otherwise, we look forward to discussing this and other financial strategies during our next meeting together."
Sign-off default: "— Your {{firmName}} Team".
Disclaimer and footer
The last block is the compliance disclaimer and the firm contact line. See "Footer and disclaimer" below.
6. Data points (tokens)
Every text block in the settings card accepts data points written as {{tokenName}}, with two curly braces on each side and no other symbol. Spaces inside the braces are allowed. They resolve per household and per tax year when the letter renders. In the settings card, click any chip in the palette to insert it where you are typing. The palette groups the chips as Household, Tax year, Tax return, Brackets, and Strategy.
Data point | Group | Example | What it is |
| Household | John & Jane Smith | Client first names and last name(s), deceased filtered |
| Household | Example Wealth Advisors | Your firm's display name |
| Household | Jane Doe | Lead advisor(s) on the household |
| Tax year | 2024 | The tax year the letter reviews |
| Tax year | 2025 | The year after the reviewed return (tax year + 1) |
| Tax year | Married Filing Jointly | Filing status recorded for the tax year |
| Tax return | $161,724 | AGI from the tax year record |
| Tax return | $131,024 | Taxable income from the tax year record |
| Tax return | $19,363 | Income tax after credits from the tax year record |
| Tax return | $30,000.00 | Roth conversion recorded for the reviewed year (no value when none) |
| Brackets | 22% | Ordinary-income bracket for the reviewed year |
| Brackets | $0.22 | Marginal rate expressed as cents per additional dollar |
| Brackets | 15% | Long-term capital gains rate for the reviewed year |
| Strategy | $105,676 | Taxable income the client can add next year without changing brackets (backs out the tax-year Roth conversion) |
| Strategy | 24% | The bracket above the projected one (no value in the top bracket) |
| Strategy | $187,900 | Full width of the next bracket up (no value in the 35% and 37% brackets) |
| Strategy | $0.00 | Roth conversion recorded so far for the strategy year ($0.00 when none) |
Formatting is handled for you. Dollar figures render with commas. Whole-dollar data points (AGI, taxable income, tax bill, bracket headroom, next-bracket room) drop the cents. The two conversion data points keep the cents. Every substituted value renders in bold, matching the original mail-merge letter.
The example values above are illustrative. They show the shape of each figure, not any one household.
Why a bullet disappeared
This is by design, and it is the single most common question about this letter.
A bullet whose data points cannot all be resolved for that household is hidden, not printed with blanks. The letter is client-facing, so an empty figure is worse than a missing line.
Common cases:
What is missing | What hides |
No Roth conversion above $0 recorded for the tax year | The nested Roth sub-bullet |
The projected baseline lands in the 35% or the 37% bracket | The "get aggressive" bullet. In the 35% bracket the next bracket (37%) has no upper limit, so there is no width to state. In the 37% bracket there is no next bracket at all. |
The projected baseline lands in the 37% bracket | The "Take {{bracketHeadroom}}" bullet as well. The top bracket has no ceiling. |
No bracket table for the filed year | Recap bullets 3 and 4 (marginal rate and long-term capital gains rate) |
No bracket table for the strategy year (tax year + 1) | Callout bullets 1 and 2 (bracket headroom and next-bracket room), and the Taxes tab outlook block |
No filing status or no taxable income recorded | Every bracket-derived bullet, and the Taxes tab outlook block |
No client records on the household | The salutation |
The "ROTH conversion so far in {{letterYear}}" bullet does not hide for a missing next-year record. It prints $0.00 instead.
Paragraphs behave differently from bullets. An unresolvable data point inside a paragraph renders as a dash rather than hiding the paragraph. In practice this almost never happens, because a household with no tax data gets the "Tax data needed" state before any paragraph renders.
7. The math
Everything derived is computed from three stored fields: tax year, filing status, and taxable income. If any of those three is missing, no bracket figures are produced.
Filed-year figures
For the tax year on the record, the system looks up the full taxable income against that year's federal bracket tables for that filing status and returns:
Marginal rate: the ordinary-income bracket containing the client's taxable income.
Long-term capital gains rate: the LTCG bracket containing the same taxable income.
Qualifying Surviving Spouse uses the Married Filing Jointly schedule, per IRS rules.
Next-year projection
The projection is what powers the "Conversion options" bullets and the Taxes tab outlook. For reviewed tax year Y with taxable income T and Roth conversion R:
Strategy year = Y + 1
Baseline = T minus R, floored at zero
Room in current bracket = the top of the bracket containing the baseline in the Y + 1 tables, minus the baseline
Room in next bracket = the full width of the bracket above that one
Why the conversion is backed out. A Roth conversion is a one-off. Leaving it in the baseline would treat it as recurring income and understate next year's room by exactly the amount converted. Backing it out answers the question the letter is actually asking: "if next year looks like a normal year, how much room do I have?"
Two sets of rates. The letter's recap bullets use the filed year's tables on the full taxable income. The Taxes tab outlook shows the strategy year's rates on the reduced baseline. When the conversion moves the baseline into a lower bracket, the two brackets differ. Both are correct for what they describe.
Worked example
2024 return, Married Filing Jointly
Taxable income: $131,024
Roth conversion recognized in 2024: $30,000
Baseline: $131,024 minus $30,000 = $101,024
$101,024 falls in the 2025 MFJ 22% bracket, which tops out at $206,700
Room in current bracket = $206,700 minus $101,024 = $105,676
The next bracket up is 24%, running from $206,700 to $394,600
Room in next bracket = $394,600 minus $206,700 = $187,900
The filed-year figures for the same household are the 22% ordinary bracket and the 15% long-term capital gains rate for $131,024 of 2024 MFJ taxable income. Note that the projection measures against next year's brackets, not the filed year's. That is the correct comparison for a client deciding what to do in the strategy year.
Where the bracket tables come from
Federal ordinary-income and long-term capital gains tables live in SurgeTK's central store. SurgeTK updates them when new IRS figures are published, with no software release required. Built-in fallback tables cover 2023 through 2026, so those years always work even if the central store is unreachable.
Each year carries a verified flag. If a year's figures have not yet been checked against the published IRS revenue procedure, the Taxes tab shows the note "{Year} bracket figures are not yet verified against the published IRS revenue procedure." under the outlook block, and the letter's Tax Data info card adds "Bracket table for this year is not yet verified". The printed letter never shows this note. If you see it on the Taxes tab, check the figures before you send the letter.
If no bracket table exists for a projection year at all, no bracket figures are produced and the bracket-derived bullets hide themselves.
The Effective Rate on the Taxes tab
The Taxes tab also shows an effective rate, which is not used in the letter. It is calculated as:
Income Tax After Credits ÷ Adjusted Gross Income, rounded to one decimal.
When AGI is blank, zero, or negative, there is no effective rate and the cell shows a dash.
This is one more reason to enter line 24 rather than line 22. Line 24 gives the client's true all-in federal effective rate.
8. Year selection and the year switcher
By default the letter reviews the household's most recent stored tax year. That is the same anchor the Taxes tab uses.
The letter page has a tax year dropdown. It lists every stored year plus the four most recent filing years. The most recent stored year is marked "(latest)". A year with no record is marked "(no data)". Selecting a different year:
Re-renders the letter for that year immediately.
Shows a notice reading "You’re viewing the {year} tax year — this household’s most recent tax data is {latest year}. Downloads from this page follow the year selected here, but Surge packets always use {latest year}." If the selected year has no record, it adds "No {year} tax data has been recorded — add it on the Taxes tab."
Applies to Download from that page.
Surge packets and snapshots always use the household's most recent year, regardless of what you have selected on screen. Preview renders are never saved, so a preview year cannot leak into a packet. Save captures the latest year even while you are previewing another year.
Picking a year with no record renders the in-letter "Tax data needed" notice for that year: "No {year} tax data has been recorded for this household. Add it on the household’s Taxes tab, or switch to a year with data."
The year dropdown is disabled while you view a saved snapshot, and for an archived household.
9. Account data is not used
Worth stating plainly, because it is the opposite of every other Value Add:
Account values, balances, and allocations play no part in this letter.
Bucket allocations, guardrail rates, and portfolio totals are irrelevant here.
Excluded and included account types do not matter.
A household with zero accounts still produces a complete letter, as long as its Taxes tab is filled in.
The only exception is the "Reported as of" date in the header, described in section 3.
10. Firm-level configuration
Every setting is firm-level. All households in your firm share the same letter copy, and per-household overrides are not supported. The data is per household; the wording is per firm. Only an Admin can change these settings.
Everything below lives under Settings › Value Adds › Roth Conversion Letter › Show Settings. The fields are grouped to mirror the letter from top to bottom.
Group | Setting | Default |
Opening | Title |
|
Opening | Salutation ("Leave blank to omit the greeting.") |
|
Opening | Intro paragraph | The "tax helper" paragraph quoted in section 5 |
Tax year recap | Lead-in | "As a bit of education, based on your {{taxYear}} tax return:" |
Tax year recap | Bullets (one per line) | The four bullets quoted in section 5 |
Tax year recap | Roth conversion sub-bullet | "Of which, {{rothConversionTaxYear}} was a strategic ROTH IRA conversion." |
Conversion options | Include in letter (checkbox) | On |
Conversion options | Lead-in | "IF you are concerned that tax rates will go up in the future and/or you would rather ‘pay the devil you know,’ consider one of the options below:" |
Conversion options | Assumption line | "Assuming your {{letterYear}} income is similar to {{taxYear}}:" |
Conversion options | Bullets (one per line) | The three bullets quoted in section 5 |
Closing | Closing paragraph | The closing paragraph quoted in section 5 |
Closing | Sign-off | "— Your {{firmName}} Team" |
Closing | Disclaimer | "THIS ROTH CONVERSION LETTER IS NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT ALL THE ACCOMPANYING DISCLAIMERS!..." |
Bullets are edited as one bullet per line. Blank lines are dropped. Anything you type is treated as plain text. You cannot add formatting or links, and data points are the only dynamic element. Line breaks inside a paragraph are kept.
Blank fields behave differently from one another:
A cleared Title reverts to the default title.
A cleared Salutation stays off, and the letter prints no greeting.
A cleared bullet list hides that section on the letter. But the settings page shows the default bullets again the next time it loads, and the next save stores those defaults. To keep the section off permanently, use Include in letter for the conversion options.
Firms whose settings were created before this Value Add existed may see slightly different punctuation in the settings fields, for example a missing final period on two bullets and a sign-off that starts with a hyphen. The letter prints whatever the fields contain.
Editing from the letter itself
You can also edit the copy from the rendered letter. Small info markers sit next to each section. Hover over a marker to preview its card. Click the marker to pin the card. The Annotations button shows or hides the markers; they are on by default and never print.
Letter salutation, Letter intro, and Closing paragraph edit the firm-wide copy. Only an Admin sees the edit form. The card warns, for example: "Saving changes the salutation on ALL Roth Conversion Letters, firm-wide."
The Tax Data card on the recap section opens the household's Tax Year modal through Edit tax year or Add tax year, so you can correct a figure without leaving the letter. You need permission to edit households.
The Strategy Options card on the conversion options section is information only.
The title, logo, household name, and disclaimer also have cards.
11. Footer and disclaimer
Footer. Firm address, phone number, and website, pulled from Settings › Firm Info and separated by dots.
Disclaimer. Built dynamically, in capital letters, as "GENERATED FOR THE CLIENTS OF {lead advisor names}. {your custom disclaimer text} VALUE ADD COPYRIGHT SURGETK, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED." The custom middle part is the Disclaimer field in the settings card. If no lead advisor is assigned to the household, the disclaimer states "NO ADVISORS ASSIGNED" in red with a warning sign. That is a prompt to assign an advisor before sending, not a rendering bug.
12. Availability and the letter page
Every firm has access to the Roth Conversion Letter. It is not limited to the Pro plan, and you do not need to ask SurgeTK to grant access. It is off until your firm turns it on.
Go to Settings › Value Adds. Only an Admin can change Value Add settings.
Find the Roth Conversion Letter card.
Turn on the toggle.
Once it is on, the household page shows a Roth Conversion tile, and the letter is included in Surge packets like any other Value Add.
The letter page has these controls: the tax year dropdown, the Live dropdown (the current letter plus saved snapshots), Refresh, Save (saves a snapshot; you see "Snapshot saved!"), Print, Download (PDF), Annotations, and a note box ("Add notes…"). There is no Email button on this page.
13. Troubleshooting
"Tax data needed" instead of a letter
No tax year record exists for this household, or none for the year you selected. Add one on the household's Taxes tab, or import in bulk.
The bracket bullets are missing
Bracket figures need all three of: tax year, filing status, and taxable income. Open the tax year record and check that filing status and taxable income are both filled in. If they are, check that SurgeTK has bracket tables for the filed year (recap bullets) and for the strategy year (conversion options).
The Roth conversion line is not showing
That sub-bullet only appears when a Roth conversion greater than zero is recorded for the reviewed tax year. A blank or $0 conversion hides it.
The "get aggressive" bullet is missing
The household's projected baseline lands in the 35% or the 37% bracket. There is no bounded bracket above it, so there is no figure to state and the bullet hides.
The tax bill on the letter does not match what the client paid
Check which 1040 line was entered. Line 22 excludes self-employment tax and other taxes; line 24 is the total. See section 1.
The effective rate looks too low, or shows a dash
Too low: line 22 was entered for a self-employed client. Re-enter line 24. A dash: AGI is blank, zero, or negative, so no rate can be calculated.
A money field shows $0 after I typed "N/A"
The Tax Year modal keeps only the digits you type, so "N/A" becomes $0. Open the year, clear the field, and save. A blank field means "not available".
My Taxes tab correction was overwritten
Your firm syncs Zoho, and the Zoho Taxes record still holds the old value. Every sync writes Zoho's non-blank values over the SurgeTK figures. Correct the value in Zoho, or leave the Zoho field blank.
The Taxes tab bracket differs from the letter's bracket
The Taxes tab outlook uses next year's rates on the reduced baseline (taxable income minus the Roth conversion). The letter's recap uses the filed year's rates on the full taxable income. Both are correct for what they describe.
The letter shows an older year than I expected
The letter defaults to the household's most recent stored year, not the most recent calendar year. If the 2025 return is filed but not entered, the letter still reviews 2024. Add the newer year on the Taxes tab.
I changed a tax figure and the letter looks the same
Editing tax data marks the household's Value Adds stale, and they refresh on the next view. Reload the letter page or click Refresh. Already-generated Surge packets and saved snapshots are frozen renders. They keep the figures they were built with. Regenerate them to pick up corrections.
A number is off by a dollar
Bracket room figures are computed as ceiling minus floor. If you are reconciling against a legacy spreadsheet that computed ceiling minus (floor + 1), SurgeTK's figure reads one dollar higher. Both describe the same bracket.
In summary
The Tax Strategy Review is:
Tax-return-driven: built from figures you record on the household's Taxes tab, not from account data.
Three fields deep: tax year, filing status, and taxable income produce every derived figure in the letter.
Self-hiding: any bullet whose figures do not exist for a household removes itself, so the letter is always client-ready.
Firm-customizable: every sentence is editable, and data points written as
{{tokenName}}can be dropped anywhere in the wording.Anchored to the latest year: Surge packets and snapshots always use the household's most recent stored return.
Available to every firm: an Admin turns it on under Settings › Value Adds › Roth Conversion Letter.
The single most important entry is Income Tax After Credits. Use line 24, "Total tax", from the 1040. Line 22 only matches when the client has nothing on line 23, and withholding is never the right number.