Would You Trade More Frequently If There Were No Capital Gains Taxes?

[randomep]

 

 

Eric,

 

As often with financial laws, there will be unintended consequences. So you are saying if a person rolls their money over to another investment within a certain time period it would not incur any tax. But investors could easily game this .... they would just put the money in an ultra ultra short bond as a proxy for cash. Or would you say that buying a bond fund doesn't quality as a rollover investment?  Or is it just short term bond funds that don't qualify as investments.

 

 

[Jurgis]

Like Palantir's, most of my portfolio is in tax advantaged accounts.

 

I trade more there than in taxable account but partly because I don't buy anything that is short term in taxable accounts.

 

If I had to have all my money in taxable accounts, I'd probably buy hold-forever positions pretty much. It's very hard to outperform if you lose 25%+ of a gain during the sale.

 

Also I donate some appreciated taxable shares to charities avoiding taxation if I plan to sell them anyway.

[wachtwoord]

Don't tax wealth, don't tax income, but tax spending.

[ScottHall]

Like Palantir's, most of my portfolio is in tax advantaged accounts.

 

I trade more there than in taxable account but partly because I don't buy anything that is short term in taxable accounts.

 

If I had to have all my money in taxable accounts, I'd probably buy hold-forever positions pretty much. It's very hard to outperform if you lose 25%+ of a gain during the sale.

 

Also I donate some appreciated taxable shares to charities avoiding taxation if I plan to sell them anyway.

 

I'm in roughly this sort of situation. For various reasons the % of my assets in tax-advantaged accounts is, and will probably always be, significantly smaller than my taxable accounts. That means I buy-and-hold quality businesses with good management teams. Not that I mind much; makes my life a hell of a lot easier.

[merkhet]

I probably wouldn't do anything differently -- it might help make my decisions easier if something hits full value a week before it turns into a long-term capital gain, but that's really just on the margin.