Year-end tax planning can have a meaningful impact on your after-tax investment returns, yet it's often one of the most overlooked parts of portfolio management. The AAII 2025–2026 Tax Guide: Tax-Planning Strategies for Investors walks through practical steps investors can take before the calendar turns-from timing income and deductions to avoiding underpayment penalties and navigating AMT exposure.
This article focuses on the decisions investors can still control late in the year:
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Whether to accelerate or defer income and deductions
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How to manage capital gains and charitable giving more efficiently
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When AMT rules or safe-harbor requirements can override conventional tax advice
It's part of AAII's broader AAII Annual Tax Guide, which we update each year to help investors understand how changing rules, thresholds and planning strategies fit together across income, investing and retirement decisions.
Which year-end tax move has had the biggest impact for you-timing income, accelerating deductions, or managing capital gains and what typically triggers you to start tax planning each year?
If you haven't already, this article, and the full 2025-2026 Tax Guide, are worth reviewing now, while there's still time to act rather than react. Click here to read.
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Jenna Brashear
AAII Community Manager
Chicago, IL
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