What Tax Advisers Say the Midterm Elections Mean for Your Financial Plans

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : For example, Mr. Keebler said, a married couple in the 24% tax bracket who typically give $15,000 annually to charity would save $3,384 in taxes by lumping together their 2022 and 2023 gifts this year and itemizing, and then taking the standard deduction in 2023.
51% : A divided Congress might take up bipartisan retirement legislation this year, and one provision in play is to raise the dollar amount older workers can contribute in catch-up contributions, and require them to be made with after-tax dollars.
50% : He recommends putting some money in pretax savings such as a traditional 401(k) or individual retirement account, some in after-tax Roth accounts, and some in a taxable brokerage account.
48% : For example, one new client, a retiree, had taken large medical-expense deductions and paid $0 in federal income tax for 2020, missing opportunities for greater tax savings.
46% : When one of them dies, the surviving spouse will have to take out money as a single taxpayer, which means more money will be taxed at higher rates compared with when they filed taxes jointly as a couple.
45% : Had the client considered a longer planning horizon, Mr. Wyman said, the retiree could have moved money from his individual retirement account into a Roth account, paying taxes upfront in the low 10% and 12% marginal tax brackets, compared with paying at a higher rate later.
43% : Taxpayers can sell investments in their brokerage accounts that have gone up in value and pay taxes at the current historically low capital-gains rates, Mr. Wyman said.
42% : For taxpayers with a lot of gains, they will need to spread out those gains over several years to keep taxes down, he said.

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