31 Dec Review your stock market losses today

Q. I’m trying to minimize my taxes for this year, and I have some investment gains I’d like to take. I have some losses also. Does the new tax plan change how I can offset losses?

— Investor

A. Today is your last day to make moves to impact your tax bill. (Except for funding an IRA, of course. You have until the tax filing deadline for that.)

The new tax plan maintains the status quo for taxes on capital gains and qualified dividends, said Paul Criscione, a certified financial planner with Freedom Capital Management in Colts Neck.

But, he said, some of it is confusing.

“For short term capital losses, you can deduct up to $3,000 to offset ordinary income, but only after you’ve offset all of your other capital gains,” he said. “You can carry forward excess losses into future years.”

If you’re married but file separate returns, each spouse is limited to deducting no more than $1,500 of capital losses against ordinary income, he said.

For long-term capital gains and qualified dividends, tax rates of 1 , 15 and 20 percent are unchanged, he said, but these rates have their own brackets and are no longer tied to ordinary income brackets.

After 2018, these brackets will be indexed for inflation, he said

You can see the tax brackets here on the IRS website.

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