The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 gave most Americans a break on their upcoming taxes – but you don’t need legislation to cut your taxes even further with sound investment strategies that focus on tax optimization.
Here are a few ways to help yourself at Uncle Sam’s expense.
1. Shift Toward Capital
Investment Taxes
Big Gains, Big Tax Headaches Were you tempted in 2017 by cryptocurrencies promising huge financial gains? If you did make a Bitcoin purchase, you may have done very well. The value of Bitcoin gained more than 1,200% over the year.
Your gains pose a vexing question. How are you supposed to pay taxes on your
The recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) gave most Americans a break on their upcoming taxes – but you don’t need legislation to cut your taxes even further with sound investment strategies that focus on tax optimization.
Here are a few ways to help yourself at Uncle Sam’s expense.
1. Shift Toward Capital
It is rumored that some of the wealthiest Americans manage to pay less in taxes than some of their employees. They achieve this by one of two methods: doing their own financial and tax planning or paying someone to do it for them. Simple, isn’t it?
The point is that the rich are able to
One of the biggest mistakes many investors make is not considering the effects of taxes on their returns. Local, state and federal taxes can take a big bite out of your investment earnings.
This makes it critical to formulate strategies for minimizing the impact of taxes on your investments. Here are six strategies that can
You probably know about potential IRA tax traps related to withdrawals, rollovers, and estate planning that can saddle you with penalties and surprise tax bills. Did you know that the type of investments you hold could also hand you a surprise tax bill and potentially ruin your IRA status?
The most common of the traps
For many people, tax refund day is like Christmas in the spring. As they prepare their tax returns over the next few weeks, millions of Americans will hold their breath in anticipation of how much their tax refund is going to be — and then run to the mailbox every day hoping to receive their
As much fun as it is to hold your tax refund check in your hands and rub them together with glee, direct deposit is a simpler and faster method of receiving your refund. It may be safer as well. Not only will you be spared the possibility of someone stealing your check out of the
The plunging price of oil has been one of the biggest economic stories of the past eight months or so. Falling oil prices impact many sectors of the economy, but oil production (not surprisingly) is the sector that is most directly affected.
Investors who own shares of major oil production companies like Exxon-Mobil, British Petroleum
Tax-loss harvesting is a strategy of strategically selling certain assets at a loss to neutralize capital gains and limit your tax liability. Investors often evaluate their portfolios toward the end of the year to look for opportunities to apply this strategy.
How it Works If you have more in losses than you do in capital
It sounds like a great idea – purchase a vacation home in your favorite destination and recoup some of your costs by renting the home out when you are not using it. This can be an excellent choice, but investigate the tax issues that are associated with vacation/rental homes before you purchase.
The tax concerns
In March of 2014, the IRS made an important decision regarding Bitcoins (including all virtual currencies) and taxes. IRS Notice 2014-21 declared that Bitcoins do not have legal tender status and therefore should be treated as property instead of currency.
For those trading in Bitcoins only as investments, this ruling has fairly straightforward effects. Bitcoin
An investment is considered “triple-tax-free” if it is exempt from taxes at all three levels of government – federal, state and municipal. What kind of investment gives you that sort of a sweet deal? The answer is municipal bonds.
Generally, a state or a municipality offers the bonds with tax-free interest payments to promote investments
Tax-loss selling is a means of lowering your tax burden by selling off underperforming stocks or securities at a loss. The resulting loss may be used to offset capital gains (if you’ve held the stock for more than a year) or ordinary income (if you’ve held it for less than a year). In either case,