Wall Street Secrets for Tax-Efficient Investing

Sage advice on taxes and investing from a Wall Street pro! An investor looks at a monthly brokerage statement. The eye goes straight to the figure on the bottom—the account value. That number is the total portfolio return, right? Wrong! All too often, investors assume that what they see is what they get. But the minute they sell an asset or trade a security, they're socked with the tax bill, and the portfolio's true value begins to erode. For example, more than three-quarters of the value of an inherited IRA account can be consumed by estate and income taxes. This doesn't have to happen. Brokerage firms know how to handle risk for their own accounts—tax risk, as well as investment risk. Savvy individual investors can use the same techniques to protect themselves. Bob Gordon, a Wall Street veteran, shares the strategies of an insider to demonstrate how you can take advantage of tax law—instead of letting taxes take advantage of you. In plain English, this book explains federal and state tax considerations that investors need to factor in when they're ready to cash in their portfolios. Whether they are investing pros or neophytes, investors will learn how to harvest capital losses without selling and without risk, and how to capture interest as a long-term gain. They'll also learn tax-wise moves with options and the best end-of-year planning techniques. By the time they finish reading this book, their "tax bite" will be more like a "nibble."Indispensable Advice for Investors:
* Discover the nooks and crannies in the tax code that investors can take advantage of
* How to factor tax consequences into investment choices
* Concrete exit strategies and tax-wise ways to cash in stock options
* The perfect investment for college savings
* How to get money out of a stock without paying tax
* Avoiding the double-taxation trap of personal holding companies
* The pros and cons of tax-managed mutual funds

Author Biography: Robert N. Gordon is the president and owner of the Twenty-First Securities Corporation. He was formerly a partner at Oppenheimer & Company and chairman of the Securities Industry Association Tax Policy Committee. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University's Business School. Jan M. Rosen is a long-time editor in the financial news department of The New York Times and is responsible for that newspaper's annual tax section.