Year-End Individual Tax Planning Opportunities
Year-end is rapidly approaching, as are the holidays. So, before you become distracted with the seasonal celebrations, it may be in your best interest to consider year-end tax moves that can benefit you for your 2025 tax filing. Here are last-minute tax issues you might consider:
Not Needing to File a 2025 Return? - If your income and tax situation is such that you do not need to file for 2025, don’t overlook the opportunity to bring in some additional income, to the extent it will be tax-free. For instance, if you have appreciated stock that you can sell without incurring any tax, consider selling it, or perhaps take a tax-free IRA distribution if you are 59½ or older or if younger and qualify for an exception to the “early withdrawal” penalty.
Also, just because you are not required to file a tax return does not mean you shouldn’t. By not filing you may miss out on some substantial refundable tax credits.
Is Your Income Unusually Low This Year? If your income is unusually low this year, you may wish to consider converting some or all your traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. The lower income likely results in a lower tax rate, which provides you an opportunity to convert to a Roth IRA at a lower tax amount. Also, if you have stocks in your retirement account that have had a significant decline in value, it may be a good time to convert to a Roth.
Are Your Children Attending College? If you qualify for either the American Opportunity or Lifetime Learning education credits, check to see how much you will have paid in qualified tuition and related expenses during 2025. If it is not the maximum allowed for computing the credits, you can prepay 2026 tuition if it is for an academic period beginning in the first three months of 2026. That will allow you to increase the credit for 2025. This is especially effective for students just starting college who only have tuition expenses for part of the year.
Did You Sell Your Home This Year? If so, and if you meet the ownership and occupancy tests, the gain from selling your main home will not be taxed, up to $250,000 ($500,000 if you file a joint return with your spouse who also meets the occupancy test). But if you don’t meet the requirements of both owning and using your home for 2 years in the 5 years counting back from the sale date, you may still qualify for a partial home sale gain exclusion. For example, you may qualify for a reduced exclusion if you sold your home to relocate this year because of a change in employment or due to health. We can determine the amounts of excluded income and taxable gain, and project how your taxes will be impacted.
Do You Have an Employer Health Flexible Spending Account? If so, and if you contributed too little to cover expenses this year, you may wish to increase the amount you set aside for next year. The maximum contribution for 2025 is $3,300. The amount you haven’t used in 2025 that may be carried to 2026 is $660 and must be used in the first 2½ months of 2026.
Did You Become Eligible to Make Health Savings Account (HSA) Contributions This Year? If you become eligible to make health savings account (HSA) contributions late this year, you can make a full year’s worth of deductible HSA contributions even if you were not eligible to make HSA contributions for the entire year. This opportunity applies even if you first become eligible in December. In brief, if you qualify for an HSA, contributions to the account are deductible (within IRS-prescribed limits), earnings on the account are tax-deferred, and distributions are tax-free if made for qualifying medical expenses.
Have You Funded Your Retirement Savings? Be sure to maximize your retirement plan contributions before year-end. Once the year is gone, you have forever lost an opportunity to make this year’s annual tax-advantaged addition to your savings for future retirement, which won’t be all that pleasant without a substantial retirement nest egg. If your employer matches some of the amount you contribute to your 401(k) or another eligible retirement plan, be sure to contribute as much as you can to take full advantage of this perk. If the contributions are tax-deductible, such as to a traditional IRA, or made with pre-tax income, maximizing the contributions may also cut your tax bill.
Married and Spouse Does Not Work? If one spouse works and the other does not, tax law allows the non-working spouse to base his or her contribution to an IRA on the working spouse’s income. This tax benefit is frequently overlooked when spouses have been working and basing their individual contributions on their own income for years and then one of the spouses retires. Even if the working spouse has a retirement plan at work and his or her income precludes making an IRA contribution, the non-working retired spouse can still contribute based on the working spouse’s income.
Are You Age 60 to 64 This Year? Starting in 2025, individuals are eligible for increased retirement plan catch-up contribution limits, set at 150% of the standard catch-up limit, which translates to $11,250 for employer plans and $5,250 for SIMPLE plans. These catch-up contributions are designed to boost retirement savings during the final working years and are subject to cost-of-living adjustments to ensure they remain beneficial relative to inflation. This provision specifically targets SIMPLE, 401(k), 403(b), and other qualified employer plans, offering a strategic advantage to older employees seeking to maximize their retirement savings in a relatively short timeframe before retirement. These enhanced amounts do not apply to IRAs.
Are You Expecting a Bonus This Year? If a job-related bonus is expected to be paid around the end of the year, you might be able to defer that income into next year if that is appropriate in your situation, such as when you expect less ‘other’ income next year. See if your employer is willing to put off payment until just after the first of the year.
Do You Need to Take a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)? Once U.S. taxpayers reach the age of 73, they are required to take what is known as a “required minimum distribution” from their qualified retirement plan or traditional IRA every year. If this is the first year that this rule applies to you and you haven’t withdrawn the required amount yet, there’s no need to panic – you don’t have to do so until sometime during the first quarter of next year. Of course, if you wait until 2026 to take your 2025 distribution, you’re going to end up having to take two distributions in one year – one for 2025 and one for 2026.
If you have been required to take an RMD before 2025, you only have until December 31st to take the required distribution for 2025 if you want to avoid penalties.
For those who inherited a retirement account and are required to distribute the entire account within 10 years, be aware RMD from those accounts is also required beginning for 2025.
Do You Have Stocks That Have Declined in Value? While most stocks have trended up this year, you should still review your stock portfolio to identify any losers and consider selling those under-water stocks to offset capital gains that would otherwise be subject to the 15% or 20% long-term capital gains tax rate. Capital losses can also offset up to $3,000 ($1,500 in the case of a married taxpayer filing a separate return) of ordinary income if capital losses exceed capital gains by at least that amount. Recognizing capital losses to offset capital gains can also reduce the amount of income subject to the net investment income surtax. Be aware of the wash sale rules that don’t allow you to deduct a loss if you repurchase those loser stocks within 30 days before or after the sale date.
Do You Have Stocks That Have Appreciated in Value and Your Income Is Low This Year? There is a zero long-term capital gains rate for taxpayers whose taxable income is below the 15% capital gains tax threshold. This may allow you to sell some appreciated securities that aren’t in an IRA or retirement account that you have owned for more than a year and pay no or very little tax on the gain. The 2025 15% capital gains tax bracket starts at a taxable income of $96,701 for married joint filers, $64,751 for those filing as head of household, and $48,351 for all other filers.
Have You Considered Prepaying State Income and Property Taxes? The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) increased the deduction limit for state and local taxes (SALT) starting in 2025. If you are not subject to the alternative minimum tax and you itemize your deductions, you are eligible to deduct both your property taxes and state income (or sales) tax up to a maximum of $40,000 for 2025, up from $10,000 in 2024. Did you know that in some cases, and of course if you haven’t exceeded the cap, you can increase the amount that you deduct on your 2025 return by prepaying some of the taxes by December 31, 2025? You can ask your employer to boost the amount of your state withholding by a reasonable amount; or, if you are self-employed, pay your 4th-quarter state estimated tax installment in December (otherwise due in January) and increase your deduction. The same is true for your real estate taxes: if you pay your first 2026 installment in 2025, you can take it as part of your 2025 deduction.
Are You Planning Your Charitable Deductions? Many people who itemize take advantage of the ability to take a deduction for their donations to their favorite charities or house of worship. Did you know that you can choose to pay all or part of your 2026 planned giving in 2025 to increase the amount you deduct in 2025? Though this may not be appealing to those who itemize every year, if you alternate between taking the standard deduction one year and itemizing the next, this can give you a big boost.
If you itemize deductions, there is another reason you might consider increasing your 2025 contributions in lieu of making the donations in 2026. Starting in 2026, there isa 0.5% floor on charitable deductions for individuals who itemize, meaning the amount of charitable contributions for the year is reduced by 0.5% of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income. This is like the way the medical deduction works, where medical expenses are reduced by 7.5% of AGI.
Charitable contributions are deductible in the year in which you make them. If you charge a donation to a credit card before the end of the year, it will count for 2025. This is true even if you don’t pay the credit card bill until 2026. In addition, a check will count for 2025 if you mail it in 2025. For last-minute mailings, it may be appropriate to obtain proof of mailing from the USPS. And don’t forget to get an acknowledgment letter or document from each qualified organization that clearly states the donated amount and whether the charity gave you goods or services (other than certain token items and membership benefits) because of the contribution.
Did You Know You Can Make Charitable Deductions from Your IRA Account? Those who are age 70½ or older are allowed to transfer funds (up to $108,000 for 2025) from their IRA to qualified charities without the transferred funds being taxable, provided the transfer is made directly by the IRA trustee to a qualified charitable organization. If you are required to make an IRA distribution (i.e., you are age 73 or older), you may have the distribution sent directly to a qualified charity, and this amount will count toward your RMD for the year.
Although you won’t get a tax deduction for the transferred amount, this qualified charitable distribution (QCD) will be excluded from your income, with the result that you may get the added benefit of cutting the amount of your Social Security benefits that are taxed. Also, since your adjusted gross income will be lower, tax credits and certain deductions that you claim with phase-outs or limitations based on AGI could also be favorably impacted.
If you plan to make a QCD, be sure to let your IRA trustee or custodian know well in advance of December 31 so that they have time to complete the transfer to the charity. If you have contributed to your traditional IRA since turning 70½, the amount of the QCD that isn’t taxable may be limited, so it is a good idea to check with this office to see how your tax would be impacted. You should be sure to obtain an acknowledgement from the charity as described in the “Are You Planning Your Charitable Deductions?” above.
One cautionary note: if you have made traditional IRA contributions after reaching age 70½, they will reduce this benefit.
Have Outstanding Medical or Dental Bills? Taxpayers who itemize their deductions can deduct qualified medical and dental expenses that exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income. If you have reached that threshold or are close, then it may make sense for you to pay off any of those types of bills that are still outstanding rather than paying them over time. If you are near or above the limit, it may also make sense to look at what your medical and dental expenses will likely be for the next year and move those that you can into 2025 to increase the deduction. These expenses could include dental work or eyeglasses. An additional important issue: if you are thinking of doing this by using a credit card to make the payment, and you’re not going to pay the card balance immediately, make sure that you’re not paying more in interest than you’re saving with the increased tax deduction.
Have You Forgotten the Annual Gift Tax Exclusion? Though gifts to individuals are not tax deductible, each year, you are allowed to make gifts to individuals up to an annual maximum amount without incurring any gift tax or gift tax return filing requirement. For the tax year 2025, you can give $19,000 (up from $18,000 in 2024) each to as many people as you want without having to pay a gift tax. If this is something that you want to do, make sure that you do so by the end of the year, as you are not able to carry the $19,000, or any unused part of it, over into 2026. Such gifts need not be in cash, and the recipient need not be a relative. If you are married, you and your spouse can each give the same person up to $19,000 (for a total of $38,000) and still avoid having to file a gift tax return or pay any gift tax. Speaking of spouses, there’s no limit on the excluded amount a spouse can gift to their wife or husband.
Do You Think You May Have Under-Withheld Taxes This Year? Should your liability be greater than your prepayments by $1,000 or more, you may also be subject to underpayment penalties. This could simply be the result of under-withholding on your wages or underpaying estimated tax if you are self-employed, or of out-of-the-ordinary income, such as stock gains, sale of a business or rental or even winning big from the lottery. There are safe harbor prepayments to avoid a penalty, which require prepaying:
90% of the current year’s tax liability,
100% of the prior year’s tax liability, or
110% of the prior year’s tax liability, if the prior year’s AGI was over $150,000.
If you think there’s a chance that the income taxes you’ve paid to date for 2025 are insufficient, it’s a good idea to increase your withholding in the time that’s left before year-end to make up for it. Underpaying taxes makes you vulnerable to an underpayment penalty that is assessed quarterly. The good news is that even if you have underpaid for any or all the first three quarters of the year and will owe taxes when you file your 2025 return, you can catch up by boosting your year-end withholding, since federal withholding is deemed paid ratably throughout the year. Plus, increased withholding and possible payment of estimated taxes can also reduce the fourth quarter underpayment penalty.
Did You Suffer a Disaster Loss This Year? 2025 has had some significant disasters, including wildfires, severe storms, and flooding throughout the U.S. Any unreimbursed property losses incurred because of a federally declared disaster can be claimed on the current year’s tax return or, at the election of the taxpayer, on the prior year’s return (2024 for 2025 disasters), generally providing quicker access to a tax refund. However, care must be exercised to ensure a disaster loss is claimed on the return of the year that will provide the greater benefit. In addition, after insurance reimbursement is accounted for, the result may not be as expected and should be determined before making the decision of which year to claim a loss.
Did You Get Scammed This Year? Generally, casualty losses are only allowed when related to a declared disaster. However, there is an exception for thefts or scam losses if the loss is related to a transaction entered for profit such as investments and retirement funds.
Divorced or Separated This Year? A divorce or separation can have a significant impact on a couple’s tax filings. Filing joint or separate returns, who claims the children, the tax rules related to whether to take the standard deduction or itemize, how income and tax prepayments are allocated, and more issues need to be considered. Best to figure that all out in advance.
Energy & Environmental Tax Credits? OBBBA terminated the electric vehicle credit for purchases after September 30, 2025. Although the time is short, the credit for energy efficient home modifications and the home solar credit are still available through the end of 2025.
Credit For Energy Efficient Home Modifications – This tax credit for making energy saving improvements to taxpayers’ existing homes has been around in various forms since 2006. The most recent credit rate is 30% with an annual cap of $1,200. That allows individuals to annually make up to $4,000 of creditable home energy improvements and benefit from the credit. There are annual limits for certain types of improvements; for example, there is a $600 annual credit limit for residential energy property expenditures, windows, and skylights, and $250 for exterior doors ($500 total for all exterior doors). In addition to the $1,200 annual cap, up to $150 of the cost for an energy audit performed by a certified home energy auditor on your primary residence is allowed.
This credit is non-refundable (meaning it can only offset the current tax liability) and there is no carryover.
Solar Credit – There is a 30% nonrefundable federal tax credit for installing solar on your first and second homes (need not own the home). Unused credit can be carried forward to the subsequent year. Expenses of battery storage technology with a capacity of not less than 3 kilowatt hours count toward the credit. Battery and systems upgrades will qualify for credit even after the initial installation.
But keep in mind, to qualify for these two credits, the installations must be complete and paid for by December 31, 2025.
Have questions related to any of the above? Give this office a call.
Want our best tax and accounting tips and insights delivered to your inbox?
Sign up for our newsletter.