So several years ago I wanted to buy 1,000 shares of Royce Global Value Trust (RGT...Closed end fund). I instead put it in for 10,000 share...This was at a price of about 6-7 dollars. I acquired over 3,200 shares before I saw what I had done. Over the years they would pay a 4-6 cent dividend at the end of the year. Nothing to write home about or be concerned at tax time. This last year there has been a proxy fight to try and gain more value from the closed end side of the mutual fund. So their long term capital gains came out last week at $1.19...My wife and I will be getting about $4,300. at the end of the year. BUT, we sold a small farm this year..Huge long term capital gains. I have tried to glean as many loses as I can from our stocks... But the market is hitting all time highs. We also live in California...A very high tax state. The nice things about these funds is they allow for stock reinvestment. I only do those in my ROTH IRAs, with mutual funds. But this year (to save over $1,000.) we will do the stock reinvestment (try and keep track of our basis).
Get a decent CPA. Focus on your trading. "I have tried to glean as many loses as I can from our stocks... But the market is hitting all time highs." That is not a logical conclusion.
The basis for this is the farm closed in mid October. We had to wait till closing to make sure we had the escrow close in 2020 (to take the loses). We could have had a close in 2021 or escrow could have fallen out. Had to wait to glean the loses till after the close. Wanted to close in 2020 in case of a Biden win and the democrats controlling congress (higher tax rates). Also had a ton of covered calls expiring Jan 21. I was going to wait till November/December to close these out and sell the stocks. With the lock down (Covid-19) the options should expire worthless...Wait and buy back for 10-20 cents...Sell stock. I usually buy defensive stocks...Not cruise ships, Las Vegas, Macy. In the last months, what was a $500.-$1000. loss (about 20 different stocks each), has turned into a $200.-$500. gain. The 30/31 day buyback period comes into play with this situation as well. Buying the same stocks back for about a 10% premium!! And yes, I did talk to my CPA extensively. I looked into 1031 exchanges too. But with interest rates so low, the good quality properties have been picked off. I'm 65 and didn't want to go with something out of state. Also didn't want to buy some commercial headache to deal with. One of the reasons banks are down, is they are about to take back rotting commercial loans. Didn't want to go that route. So yeah, thought and planned it out. Just didn't expect a huge rise in the market from mid October to mid December... PS would love a 20% correction in the next week...Come on people, help me out.