Sell Stocks Year-Round to Minimize Tax Losses

Yahoo! Finance

Is it time to harvest some tax losses? Could be, given the volatile stock market. The strategy -- selling losing investments to reduce taxes on winners -- gets lots of attention at the end of the year. But there's no reason not to do it at the start of the year, or in the middle. Remember, Dec. 31 is just a deadline -- it's the last date for a sale that can be claimed in the return due the next April. The math works just as well no matter when you do it. "If loss harvesting is to be an integral part of portfolio strategy, starting earlier tends to be better than later," says Vikas Oswal, president and CEO of Advisor Partners, an asset manager in Walnut Creek, California.