The problem is that IRS won't let you take a tax deduction for the loss unless you wait 31 days or more to repurchase the stock. That means you want to keep very good records to prove you waited the required time before buying the stock again. However, if you want to immediately get back into the industry the stock represents, there's another way to solve the tax problem. For example, the oil and gas stocks have been hit very hard over the last six months. A trade in which you sell one stock and buy another in the same industry is called a swap trade, and the bond market is teeming with them every December.
Many investors wait until year-end to start their tax sales.
If you look at your profits and losses, the realized and unrealized ones, you can see which losses might make the best sense in order to minimize the tax. All this doesn't mean you should sell or buy a stock solely for tax purposes. Company Profiles of Inland Empire employers and schools. The Press-Enterprise Company . Read our Privacy Policy .