Tax Tips For Investing

Tax consequences can affect your investments if you aren’t careful, so here are some investing tips that can help you protect your investments, regardless of your tax situation or any tax penalties that you may incur. As always, consult a tax attorney if you need tax help or back tax help, since no investment is 100% safe.

• The federal government doesn’t assess long term capital gains tax if your income is less than $72,500 in 2013 and your filing status is Married. Keep in mind that this tax break applies to long-term capital gains, and not short-term capital gains, and the threshold is based on your tax bracket and taxable income, not your adjusted gross income.
• It is almost impossible to have an investment portfolio where all of your holdings go up in any given period, but you can usually convert some of your losses into successes by selling your investment and recognizing that loss for tax purposes. Don’t wait until the end of the year, and make sure to consult your tax attorney to double check that you can report your loss and turn it into a profit.
• If you have a fund that is shortly going to pay a dividend, you may want to avoid it. Avoiding it can increase your net profit, if the cost of selling the fund has a greater potential gain with the tax cost of recognizing the dividend.

In generating an investment portfolio, you want to focus on diversity. Don’t invest solely in one area, or you will lose all of your investments should that market plummet.