Posts Tagged ‘taxes’
Many successful individuals, often those who’ve risen from humble beginnings, find themselves in a high tax bracket while their parents remain in lower income brackets. They feel a strong desire to provide financial assistance to their parents. This article outlines a strategic approach to help family members financially while simultaneously optimizing tax outcomes.
Understanding the Tax Advantage
For high-income earners, long-term capital gains are typically taxed at 20%, with an additional 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT) on those gains. However, a significant tax advantage exists for individuals with lower taxable incomes. If your parents’ taxable income is below $98,000 annually (in 2025), their long-term capital gains tax rate is 0%. Furthermore, if their Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) is less than $250,000—a threshold easily met if they qualify for the 0% capital gains rate—they are also exempt from the net investment income tax.
The Strategy: Gifting Appreciated Stocks
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Two weeks ago I wrote about the tax strategy to use during a sabbatical, career transitions, and early retirement. This week’s article is a continuation of that theme, focusing on tax gain harvesting.
This discussion stems from the fact that investment gains are taxed differently than our ordinary income. In fact, they have their own tax brackets. See below:
Let’s take Joe Doe for example. He is a lawyer and his usual taxable income is $600k. That puts him squarely in the 20% capital gains tax bracket. On top of that, based on his income, he must also pay the Obamacare surtax of 3.8%. That makes the tax rate on his investment gains (and qualified dividends) 23.8%.
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Year End Moves for Tax Savings
Posted on: December 4, 2014
As 2014 draws to a close, my wife and I have sprung into action to save on our 2014 taxes. Here are a few things we do. We are no CPAs, so what we do is pretty easy to mimic.
Donate all the garbage. I couldn’t believe how many items in my household we literally didn’t touch, not even once, in the whole of 2014. Things like that are immediate candidates for donation. Things that fall into this category could be electronics, furniture, books, clothes, kitchenware, bedroom sets, used toothbrushes, etc. Ok, maybe not used toothbrushes, but just about anything you don’t use, you can find a better home for, and get a tax deduction for doing so. In some years, we’ve gotten $10,000 worth of deductions. Read the rest of this entry »
The Investment Scientist 