With the uncertainty in the marketplace, now is a good time to review the rules surrounding investment losses. This knowledge can really help minimize your tax obligation next year. This is because investment gains and income can be subject to a variety of federal tax rates as high as 37%. This, plus the 3.8% net investment income tax, makes planning around when to take investment losses an important tax subject this year.

Know the meaningful rules

What makes investment losses such an important tax planning subject? Here are the relevant tax ramifications surrounding investment losses.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) passed in late 2017 made big tax changes, including to individual tax rates. If you are self-employed or retired and pay your taxes on a quarterly basis, calculating your new tax obligation is going to be a little more complicated than usual.

You can be audited the later date of either three years after the filing deadline of your tax return or when you actually filed your tax return. However, there are two main exceptions to this rule that can extend the risk of being audited;

Every year the IRS publishes their examination statistics. Provided here are three years of published information to help you identify trends: