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Author: Gordon Keeter Nichols CPAs

Turning Stock Downturns Into Tax Advantages

Have you ever invested in a company only to see its stock value plummet? (This may become relevant in light of recent market volatility.) While such an investment might be something you’d rather forget, there’s a silver lining: you can claim a capital loss deduction on your tax return. Here are the rules when a stock you own is sold at a loss or is entirely worthless. How Capital Losses Work As capital assets, stocks produce capital gains or losses when they’re sold. Your capital gains and losses for the year must be netted against one another in a specific order based on whether they’re short-term...

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Can I Itemize Deductions on My Tax Return?

You may wonder if you can claim itemized deductions on your tax return. Perhaps you made charitable contributions and were told in the past they couldn’t be claimed because you didn’t have enough deductions to itemize. How much do you need? You can itemize deductions if the total of your allowable itemized write-offs for the year exceeds your standard deduction allowance for the year. Otherwise, you must claim the standard deduction. Here’s how we’ll determine if you can itemize or not for 2024 when we prepare your return. Standard Deduction Amounts The basic standard deduction allowances for...

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