Among investment tax strategies, clients who invest in mutual funds should be looking for the funds’ expected capital gain distributions for the end of the year, which could impact the amount to realize gains and losses ahead of the distributions, Ross said.
“Now is the time to harvest tax losses by selling stocks with capital losses. If you want to continue to invest in these stocks going forward, you can wait 30 days to buy them back or buy back a similar stock or fund to avoid wash-sale rules,” added Brian Stoner, a CPA in Burbank, Calif.
“Taxpayers with a capital gain triggered by in an installment sale in 2020 might want to consider electing out of installment sale treatment and recognize the entire gain in 2020 at possibly lower tax rates,” said Jim Brandenburg, CPA and partner in the Milwaukee office of Sikich.
Planning taxes this year might well mean being able to pivot on strategies and use tools in different ways. If Biden wins, for instance, clients who are selling assets and who realize more than $1 million in gains might want to sell the asset in an installment agreement to stay under Biden’s proposed new income threshold on higher long-term capital gains, Ross said.
Above all, this is a moment to engage with clients, advisors said.
“Will there be changes? Of course. Just ask the client what they think and what they’re worried about,” said Jamie Hopkins, managing director at Carson Coaching and director of retirement research at Carson Group in Philadelphia. “It also gets away from focusing on [just] short-term tax implications.”