We cannot express enough how impactful it has been to have recent tax returns for our clients while helping them pursue their financial goals. There have now been countless times that we have pulled up a client’s tax return during a conversation. Doing so allows us to navigate the client’s current potential tax bill, lifetime tax bill, and the impact on their financial goals.

For example, we are all familiar with the fact that we saw downturns in both the stock and bond markets in 2022. While the losses were unpleasant, we did a lot of work to “lock-in” those losses while avoiding wash sale rules. This allowed some of our clients to utilize those losses to offset capital gains now, or in the future, while also writing off some of the losses each year.

We recently had more than one conversation with a client looking to sell real estate properties that would create large capital gains bills. During our conversations, we were able to pull up their 2022 and 2023 tax returns and find the Carryover Capital Loss amounts and help our clients better estimate the tax implications of their sale with the capital loss carryovers accounted for.

In the situation above, it helped our clients see that they would owe over $25,000 LESS in taxes when they sold their properties… POWERFUL! We have also helped clients make changes to which accounts they take withdrawals from (tax buckets) that resulted in lower tax bills. These clients were unintentionally pushing themselves into higher tax brackets AND higher Medicare premiums without realizing it.

We have enjoyed (yes… really.) being able to be “tax helpers” and will continue to do so and evolve with the industry to help our clients as much as possible.

Next up:  “Kiddie Taxes” – is your child (grandchild) the next Warren Buffet?

Disclosures

This information is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax advice. We suggest that you discuss your specific tax issues with a qualified tax advisor.