Tax Guru-Ker$tetter Letter
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Last Day to Sell - This is a good explanation of the often confusing issue of the effective dates of stock transactions for tax purposes. This is also a good time to remind everyone that a stock has to be actually sold by December 31 in order to claim a loss on your 2003 tax return. Just because it has dropped in value from your original purchase price does not entitle you to claim it as a capital loss. This is completely consistent with the way you handle stocks that have gone up in value. Those gains aren't taxable until you actually sell the stocks.