John very good to see you. Today we are sharing 4 year-end tax tips. The end of the year is always a great time to start thinking about your taxes for the upcoming year. So we are sharing 4 tax savings tips that we can implement now to help us get on track for 2024. First, you say, consider maxing out your Roth IRA or consider a Roth conversion. As the end of the year creeps up, people often call October “Rothtober”.

Right well, now we're in November so I guess now it’s “Rothvember”.

“Rothvember”, I like it.

If you can max out your Roth IRAs, or your 401ks, do it. In terms of conversion, be very careful by maxing out because you can, you can convert an entire account in one year, you don't want to do that. You want this to be as tax-efficient as possible, and that takes income planning and your income for the year into consideration. So why do we do a lot of planning in November? Two reasons. First and foremost, we have a good idea of what your income is going to be. That's crucial in Roth conversion and tax management planning. Number two, if you saw our video a couple of months ago or in September, we talked about the September downturn, September and October are down months. That's a great time to do Roth conversions. So that's the second reason. But, especially Roth conversions, it has to be calculated, it has to be well thought out.

Right, exactly. Second, you say consider offsetting your gains by harvesting losses. This is known as tax loss harvesting. Can you explain how it works?

Yeah, so tax loss harvesting, this was really big last year. This is for non-retirement accounts. So if you had some accounts where you have losses in, you may be able to offset that through some tax loss harvesting or even some capital gains harvesting, in which you are really controlling the cost basis or what's taxable on your non-retirement accounts. So it's always just a way to look at “you lost some money in the market”, how can we make that a little bit of a silver lining? Well, tax loss harvesting is the way to help with the tax liability of those losses. And you can do a carry forward into 2024.

Right. Third, you say to seek tax-efficient investments. What are you talking about?

Yeah, well, while we're on the topic of taxes for non-retirement accounts, are your investments really tax-efficient? Or are you in a lot of mutual funds that are triggering phantom capital gain, like do you get these reports every year that show that you have capital gains and you never took out a distribution? Well, now's a good time to do a little audit, a tax audit, and make those changes for 2024

and beyond.

Fourth, you say you can be much more tax efficient with our charitable giving, explain.

Well, what happens in November? Thanksgiving. And this is really a time of year that the country's generosity, people's generosity, really come out. And I have a lot of clients that do charitable giving. And there's two great ways to do this. Number one, if you are over 70 and a half, the qualified charitable distribution is a powerful way to give to charity because remember, with the 27 tax cuts and Jobs Act, a lot of charitable contributions are no longer deductible. Well, the qualified charitable distribution is like a tax credit. However, here's the problem. We may plan to do some QCDs but in 2024, because if you've taken any money out of your IRA, it's not going to qualify for the qualified charitable distribution anymore. That QCD money has to be the first money out of the account. So this may be better for you to do in 2024. But while we're at it, if you don't qualify for the QCD, you can start to look at your taxes in two-year blocks. And what I mean is tell your charities, tell your church, listen, I'm going to make a big donation here in November and December, it’s going to be my charitable contributions for 23 and 2024. That's going to boost you an itemized deduction, so you will get the deduction for your charitable giving. And then 2024, you just take your standard deduction. That's another way that we take a charitable contribution that would no longer be deductible and now make it deductible.

Right, and the charity is still getting this money. You know, it's such a great win-win. I love the way we think about tax planning John. If somebody has questions about any of these strategies what’s the best way to reach you?

Well, if you want to learn more about tax planning, visit our website www.gosecurus.com. We have tons of videos especially when it comes to Roth IRA convergence, and tons of podcasts. Taxes are a cornerstone of my practice. While you're on the website, if you want to schedule a 15-minute phone call for any questions, or you want a complimentary clarity and vision consultation, you can go over to the Contact Us Tab and you can set that up from there. Or if you like doing things the old-fashioned way, give us a call at the office at 858-935-6210 and ask for Emily and she will get you on my schedule.

John thank you.

Thank you, Erin.