Year-End Tax Maneuvers for Bitcoin Holders
How to pay 0% tax on your bitcoin gains by 12/31
Ric Edelman: It's Tuesday, December 12th. We're getting really close to the end of the year. That means time is running out to engage in strategies that can lower your taxes. Normally, we talk about the opportunities to lower your taxes involving stocks and bonds, mutual funds and ETFs.
But today I want to talk to you about taxes affecting your crypto investments. Yeah, crypto taxation is often different from what you're used to. Some of the rules are the same as stocks, but some of them aren't. And now that bitcoin has gone up about 150% this year, if you own Bitcoin you've probably got gains.
But check this out. If you've held your bitcoin as an investment for more than a year, you might be able to sell it and pay no taxes on a portion of the profit. If you're single and you're 2023, taxable income is under about $45,000. Or if you're married and your income is under about $89,000, then your tax rate for long tum capital gains is zero. You could sell your bitcoin and immediately rebuy it.
Well okay. Not immediately. You should give yourself a day or so, but you'll be giving yourself a new cost basis. You wipe out your old cost basis so all your gains are now tax free forever. It won't even matter if Congress later changes the law unless they make their changes retroactive. Nobody right now is thinking that they're going to do that now. This works not only if you own Bitcoin directly, it also works if you own a bitcoin fund or a crypto ETF. All that matters is that you've owned your investment for more than a year, and that your taxable income is under 45 grand if you're single, or 89 grand if you're married.
So check with your financial advisor or your tax preparer. See if you're in the 0% capital gains bracket. Your capital gains tax bracket is different from your ordinary income tax bracket. And one other detail -don't focus too heavily on those two numbers. I gave you 45 grand for singles, 89 grand for marrieds.
First of all, the actual number is $44,625 for singles, $89,250 for married filing jointly. But the real issue here is that these numbers refer to your taxable income. That might be a lot less than your real income.
Let me give you an example. Say you're single and your salary is $60,000. You put five grand into your retirement plan at work. Now your taxable income is only $55,000. And then on your tax return you get to take the standard deduction. That's $13,850 for single filers. The result even though your gross income is 60 grand, your taxable income is only about $41,000, well below the threshold where the 0% capital gains tax phases out.
One more thing, certain NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are treated as collectibles. They're subject to a slightly different capital gains tax set of rules. More on all that tomorrow. So don't try to do these calculations yourself. Ask your tax preparer and hurry. If you're going to take advantage of this opportunity, you got to do the sales before the end of the year, and that's only about two weeks away. Ho ho ho!
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