Tax Loss Harvesting in Alpharetta, GA
Selling a position that is down turns a paper loss into one you can use. We look for those positions through the year, offset your gains with them, and leave your portfolio where you want it to be.
Fee-Only • Fiduciary • Independent RIA • CFP®, ChFC® • 30+ Years Serving North Atlanta
How Tax Loss Harvesting Lowers Your Tax Bill
If you sold an investment at a profit this year, you owe tax on that profit. Harvesting lowers that bill by selling something else in your account that is down, so the loss cancels out part of the gain.
You stay invested the whole time. We replace what we sold with something similar, so your portfolio still does what you meant it to do.
How We Handle Harvesting
We watch taxable accounts through the year rather than looking once in December. The largest opportunities usually appear when a position falls and then recovers before year end.
When we harvest, we sell the specific lots carrying the loss, move into a holding that keeps your exposure, and note the date the wash sale window closes. Dividend reinvestment gets turned off where it would create a problem.
Your allocation the day after a harvest matches your allocation the day before it.We track realized gains and losses across the year and hand the numbers to whoever prepares your return, so nothing has to be reconstructed from statements in April.
The Wash Sale Rule, and Why It Catches People
Sell at a loss, then buy the same investment within 30 days before or after, and the IRS disallows the loss for that year.
The 30 days run in both directions, which is what catches people. An automatic dividend reinvestment or a scheduled purchase in another account can undo a harvest you made three weeks earlier.
That is why harvesting belongs with whoever manages the portfolio. We know what is scheduled to buy and when.
When a Loss Is Worth Harvesting
Three things have to line up.
You have gains to offset. Losses first offset gains of the same type, then the other type, then up to $3,000 of ordinary income a year. Anything left carries forward.
You have a replacement you would hold anyway. Harvesting only works if you can stay invested in the same part of the market while the wash sale window runs. If the replacement is something you would not otherwise own, the tax benefit is not worth the change.
The tax lots support it. Two people can hold the same fund with completely different tax pictures inside it. We look at individual lots, so a fund that is up overall can still contain lots worth harvesting.
How This Works With the Rest of Your Tax Plan
Harvesting is one piece of tax planning. It works alongside which accounts hold which investments, covered on our tax-efficient investing page, and what your filed return shows about the year ahead, covered on our tax return review page.
Harvested losses matter most in years when you are realizing gains on purpose. A Roth conversion, the sale of a concentrated position from executive compensation, or a rebalance can all create a gain that a carried-forward loss helps absorb.
Fee-only. An annual fee based on assets under management, between 0.75% and 1.25%. No commissions, no products, no performance-based fees.
That structure matters here. Harvesting adds work and no revenue. An advisor paid on transactions has no reason to do it.
Why Choose Daner Wealth Management
Two-person firm in Alpharetta, so the person reviewing your tax lots is the person you meet with.
Marc Daner is a CFP® and ChFC® and brings more than 30 years of individual advisory experience. He founded the firm in 2022 after a career at Smith Barney and Wells Fargo.
Independent, SEC-registered, and fiduciary. Client assets are held at Wells Fargo Clearing Services as custodian.
Start With a Conversation
If you hold taxable accounts and nobody is watching them for harvesting opportunities through the year, that is worth a conversation. The first meeting carries no obligation.
Tax Loss Harvesting FAQs
Get your questions answered about tax loss harvesting.
Selling an investment that has declined so the loss can offset gains on your tax return. You stay invested by moving into a similar holding, and the realized loss reduces the gains you owe tax on that year.
It is the most misunderstood part of this. There is no limit on using losses to offset capital gains. The $3,000 cap applies only to net losses left over after gains are offset, which can then be applied against ordinary income each year. Anything beyond that carries forward indefinitely.
It depends on whether you have gains to offset, whether a suitable replacement exists, and how large the losses are relative to trading costs. In an account with meaningful realized gains and available losses, usually yes. In a small account with no gains, often no. Worth knowing: the replacement investment carries a lower cost basis, so part of what you save now is tax you pay later rather than tax removed.
Buy the same security, or a substantially identical one, within 30 days before or after selling at a loss, and the IRS disallows that loss for the year. It gets added to the replacement position's cost basis. The rule applies across your accounts and to purchases by a spouse.
No. Gains and losses inside those accounts are not reported on your return, so there is nothing to harvest. A purchase inside a retirement account can still trigger the wash sale rule against a loss taken in a taxable account.
