The most valuable tax planning happens before December, not in April. Practical items worth reviewing with your advisors while there is still time to act.
By the time tax returns are prepared, most opportunities have already expired. Thoughtful tax planning is a year-round discipline, but the months before year end are when decisions must actually be made.
Several items deserve attention. Realized gains and losses across taxable accounts should be reviewed together, since a loss harvested with care can offset gains elsewhere without disturbing the long-term shape of the portfolio. Charitable intentions are often better fulfilled with appreciated securities than with cash. Retirement contributions, required distributions and, where appropriate, conversions each carry deadlines that do not move.
For business owners and families with more complex affairs, timing of income, deductions and distributions can meaningfully change the outcome — but only if the conversation happens early enough for your accountant to model the alternatives.
We do not prepare tax returns, and we do not give tax advice in isolation. What we do is make sure the portfolio decisions we oversee are coordinated with the advice of each family's tax professionals, so that no one is surprised in April by something that was decided, or neglected, in November.