Aire Images | Moment | Getty Images<\/p>\n
As the calendar winds down, there is still time for certain year-end tax moves<\/a> \u2014 but investors need to act quickly, experts say. <\/p>\n With the tax season fast approaching<\/a>, these tactics could boost your refund<\/a> or reduce taxes owed, depending on how much you’ve already paid. <\/p>\n However, most planning moves must be done by Dec. 31 to count for 2025. Some exceptions include pre-tax individual retirement account<\/a> or health savings account<\/a> contributions, which can be made by the tax deadline in 2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Keep in mind, timing could be tricky with a shortened trading day on Christmas Eve, the major exchanges closed on Christmas Day and holiday hours for some financial firms. <\/p>\n More from Fixed Income Strategies:<\/p>\n Stories for investors who are retired or are approaching retirement, and are interested in creating and managing a steady stream of income:<\/p>\n Many taxpayers could see bigger tax refunds in 2026 due to 2025 changes made via President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>‘s “big beautiful bill.”<\/a> The IRS did not update withholding tables<\/a> for employers after the law was enacted, and many workers could see the benefit at tax time, experts say. <\/p>\n With limited time left until Dec. 31, here are a few last-minute tax strategies to consider, according to financial experts. <\/p>\n Tax loss or gain harvesting<\/p>\n One popular year-end move is tax-loss harvesting<\/a>, or selling losing brokerage account assets to offset portfolio gains on your tax return. If investing losses exceed profits, you can use the excess to reduce regular income by up to $3,000 per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, with the S&P 500<\/a> up nearly 17% year-to-date, as of Dec. 22, many investors won’t have 2025 brokerage account losses, experts say.<\/p>\n Instead, investors in lower tax brackets may consider so-called “tax-gain harvesting,”<\/a> which involves strategically selling profitable assets. If your taxable income falls within the\u00a00% capital gains bracket<\/a>, you could diversify your portfolio or take profits without triggering a tax bill.<\/p>\n Either way, depending on your investments, there’s still enough time to harvest losses or gains before year-end.<\/p>\n “New Year’s Eve is a full trading day for a reason,” said certified financial planner Michael DeMassa, founder of Forza Wealth Management in Sarasota, Florida. “It doesn’t matter if it settles, as long as the trade date is [Dec. 31], it’s in the calendar year.”<\/p>\n Year-end Roth conversions\u00a0<\/p>\n Another popular year-end strategy is Roth individual retirement account conversions<\/a>, which transfer pretax or nondeductible IRA<\/a> funds into a Roth IRA<\/a> to begin future tax-free growth.<\/p>\n However, income projections are important because you’ll owe upfront taxes on the converted balance. Many advisors wait until year-end for Roth conversions, when they have more precise estimates for other earnings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Depending on your Roth conversion strategy, the move could be “pretty quick,” according to CFP Judy Brown, who works at C&H Group in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore area.<\/p>\n “We pick the highest appreciated funds in there, and we do an in-kind conversion,” which transfers the assets from one account to the other without selling, she said. “It’s good the next day.”\u00a0<\/p>\n However, the process could take longer if you don’t have an existing Roth IRA set up to receive the funds, said Brown, who is also a certified public accountant: “Getting accounts set up right now is probably the biggest barrier.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aire Images | Moment | Getty Images As the calendar winds down, there is still time for certain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4592,28,122,1072,30200,57556,2398,21218,113,57555,147,2400,732,117,13951,21217,1548],"class_list":{"0":"post-367996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bonds","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-business-news","11":"tag-donald-j-trump","12":"tag-financial-advisors","13":"tag-financial-planners","14":"tag-financial-planning","15":"tag-government-taxation-and-revenue","16":"tag-investment-strategy","17":"tag-national-taxes","18":"tag-personal-finance","19":"tag-personal-saving","20":"tag-retirement-planning","21":"tag-sp-500-index","22":"tag-suppress-zephr","23":"tag-tax-planning","24":"tag-taxes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}