Cap Gain Harvest - Where do you Stand?

[rob]

So tip toeing along the line trying not to step in the politics mess on the side of the track...

Ignoring the tax gain harvesting to use up the zero cap gain tax rate, which is an obvious option for some...

Lets ASS-u-me tax laws go nowhere and the cap gains/dividend treatment rates increase for most of us..... Where do you stand of forcing cap gains this year (2012) so you go into higher rates with a higher basis or better tax position (tax managed or dividend moved to ira e.t.c.)?

I know what I'm planning but just for fun thought it might be interesting to see where people landed.

[STC]

There were a couple straggler ETFs (DVY, VYM) from before writing my IPS that I had gains in. So it was a good opportunity to make a move that I wanted to make anyway to get to my target AA. No other moves though.

[Sidney]

have so many TLH losses banked, no way to harvest gains.

[livesoft]

have so many TLH losses banked, no way to harvest gains.

Yep. The carryover losses also kinda make the portfolio impervious to future cap gains tax rates, too.

[Sidney]

have so many TLH losses banked, no way to harvest gains.

Yep. The carryover losses also kinda make the portfolio impervious to future cap gains tax rates, too.

also made one feel "productive" in 2008/09.

[Peter Foley]

I knew I would be making a withdrawal from taxable next year so I sold enough of a position to fund that withdrawal. I used up the last of my capital losses from the great recession last year.

[DesertOasis]

I forced gains up to 15% bracket yesterday and today. I did the same thing last year, only I had to force additional gains to offset my carry over losses from 2008. My spending is very low as I am full time unpaid caregiver for an elderly parent. I still have to pay the Mass state tax (6.25%) but I still consider this is a great opportunity. An additional benefit is the opportunity to cut back on the number for funds I have. I've sold out of the 500 and Small Cap indexes and in to the more efficient Total Market index.

I have been in this situation since 2008 and I was aware of tax gain harvesting. I held off because I thought the capital gains rate would go back to the original rate when the Bush tax rates were first scheduled to expire. When it looked like they were going to be made permanent, I decided that holding on to my 2008 losses was not the best strategy . I reasoned that it would be worth more to me to cap gain harvest every year rather than have $3000 applied against dividends for some twenty plus years. What also entered in to my thinking was that my income will be probably be low for several years to come.

[grabiner]

Cap gain harvesting won't do me any good; I have thousands of dollars of loss carryovers from 2008-2009 that have not yet been used, and I'd rather use them to offset ordinary income at 28% and offset any future gains that are created by rebalancing or fund distributions.

I'm also too young for it to make sense; I would rather pay $200 on a $1000 gain when I sell my taxable stocks in retirement than $150 for selling them on Monday.

[zaboomafoozarg]

I had a few straggler individual stocks that I'd been meaning to get rid of for the last couple years, so I finally sold it and reinvested it all in some VSS.

Couldn't sell one of the stocks (went bankrupt, lost 99% of its value, Schwab won't let me sell it) - so I will figure out how to deal with that one next year and use the capital loss then.

[umfundi]

Poll options do not apply to me: I realized all my possible capital gains over the past two years.

Politics and tax rates had nothing to do with it. I greatly simplified my portfolio and moved it to much lower cost investments.

Keith

[Sammy_M]

Cap gain harvesting won't do me any good; I have thousands of dollars of loss carryovers from 2008-2009 that have not yet been used, and I'd rather use them to offset ordinary income at 28% and offset any future gains that are created by rebalancing or fund distributions.

I'm also too young for it to make sense; I would rather pay $200 on a $1000 gain when I sell my taxable stocks in retirement than $150 for selling them on Monday.

Same here