| Author | Source |
|---|---|
| u/Broviet |
Seen a lot of great DD on here thus far, guys. Loving the sub. A lot of wrinkly apes have already gone over the biggest things to remember as far as tax implications, maintaining privacy and security, and a lot of great reinvestment ideas. I just wanted to offer up a few tidbits that I feel are important to remember as well, along with a tax-deferring investment idea I feel many of you may enjoy.
This one’s pretty straightforward. You’ve seen a lot of the information going around about how potentially calamitous this could be to the financial ecosystem, at least in the short term. So a couple tricks to make sure you walk away with as many tendies as possible, even in the event that the worst happens.
As you well know, the FDIC will insure each account of a different type at the same bank up to 250k. While it does truly become a pain in the ass to manage it all, consider opening accounts at multiple banking institutions to spread the tendies around even more. Given that certain banks may be far more exposed to risk during this scenario (cough BofA cough), you’d do well not to rely too heavily on any one institution. Furthermore, depending on what brokerage you use, you should also look into changing your Core Position to FDIC-Insured Deposit Sweep Program (details on Fidelity’s can be found here: https://accountopening.fidelity.com/ftgw/aong/aongapp/fdicBankList?type=ira) or an equivalent, if that is something that your broker offers. For Fidelity, they’ll distribute your cash among a number of different banks, allowing you to be insured for well over another 1 million dollars. I don’t really care how safe money markets like SPAXX traditionally are, if the picture /u/atobitt has been painting turns out to be spot-on, you’re gonna want all the insurance you can get.
Yes, know what you owe. Work with an accountant, get all your affairs in order right after the squeeze, and sear that capital gains tax number into your brain. That said, you don’t have to set that money aside and let it sit idly until tax season. Remember, any short term capital loss will be used to offset your short term capital gains, and in turn reduce your tax exposure. Don’t go throwing it all into inverse volatility indexes like a madman or anything, but if you see a nice, safe, short-term play after everything shakes out, don’t be afraid to jump on it. And speaking of reinvestment opportunities, this is the meaty part of today’s post, and I’ve got a feeling it might tickle a few apes’ fancy, especially the ones pulling down big tendies from all this.
This one’s more for the American apes, but I’d still advise all you international apes to give it a read and see if maybe your country has a similar program. If you’ve got most of your GME held in a retirement account where you receive no tax penalty for selling and reinvesting, or if you’re not expecting that great of a payout, this may be of less interest to you, because it usually requires a six-figure investment and would be considered riskier than traditional conservative investments. However, depending on whether you trust the government to be wise with your tax tendies, it may be a tremendous option for those looking to make a tangible difference in the lives of the less fortunate while also deferring and reducing a significant portion of your short-term capital gains from GME.
A Qualified Opportunity Zone is a Federal and State agreed-upon upon area of economic distress where they would like to incentivize investment into small businesses and real estate development. As a result, specific tax benefits have been offered to investors in funds that target these areas for investment. There are tons of them nation-wide, and information is readily available about where they are, and how you can go about investing in them, and with who.
The tax benefits are threefold. I’ll include links below so you can read more in-depth, but I’ll give a brief synopsis here.
First, any pre-tax capital gains that you receive from the sale of an asset can be reinvested into one of these QOZ funds within 180 days, with the result being a reduction of your current-year capital gains by the entire amount of your investment, and deferred to any year pre-2026 that would be best for you. If you make 2 million on GME, and reinvest 1 million into a QOZ fund, your short-term capital gains tax when the IRS comes calling will be calculated on 1 million in gains instead of 2 million. The current QOZ runs until the end of 2026, and you pay no taxes on any money invested there until withdrawn or the program runs its course.
If you hold longer than 5 years, you will only pay taxes on 90% of the amount you hold in the fund. If you hold for 10 years, any gains made within that fund are completely tax-free.
I’m sure there will be plenty of accountants in the comments that will extoll the virtue of being able to defer part of a massive STCG tax bill until later years, but personally, I’m even more bullish on what these kinds of investments could represent. We’ve all seen the posts talking about going out and helping our fellow man with our tendies. Honestly, I can think of no better way. When this all shakes out, we’ll see thousands of average Americans starting businesses they never imagined they’d be able to afford to, or investing in real estate in areas they can afford, or love, or are from. A lot of these areas are targeted specifically for investment by these QOZ funds. You’d be helping your fellow man, your fellow ape, our communities that have it the toughest, and even yourself at the same time. Now, these are by no means simple investments, so you’ll need to do a lot of legwork with your advisor, but it’s worth looking into, especially for you apes that will be pulling down the really big numbers and have the cash to throw around.
Here are a couple links:
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/opportunity-zones-frequently-asked-questions
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-are-opportunity-zones-and-how-do-they-work
https://www.kiplinger.com/article/investing/t041-c000-s002-opportunity-zone-investing-is-it-for-you.html
TLDR: Risk bad, insurance good, help less fortunate ape good, make banana work for you! 🙌💎🚀❤