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Morningstar's 2018 Year-End Tax Guide

Get moving on these tax matters before the year runs out.

The days are getting shorter, stores are playing seasonal music, and everyone's making their travel plans for the holidays. Before we know it, we'll be toasting the end of one year and the beginning of the next.

Before then, though, there are some money matters to tend to. Retirees who haven't done so already must take their required minimum distributions before year's end. And now is a good time for investors at all life stages to re-evaluate their portfolios and see what moves they can make now to ease their tax burdens.

We've created this guide to help. We'll cover what to expect during capital-gains distribution season and provide guidance about whether tax-gain harvesting or tax-loss selling are smart strategies for you. We'll also share tax-saving ideas for the charitably inclined and tax-smart strategies when taking required minimum distributions.

Stay tuned; we'll be updating this guide with new content during the next several weeks.

What to Know About Year-End Tax Planning Baird's Tim Steffen discusses what's different this year with refunds, property taxes, medical deductions, and more.

7 Smart Tax Maneuvers in a (Still-) Lofty Market Tips for tax-efficient rebalancing, conversions, and charitable giving.

Retirees' Year-End Tax-Planning Guide Our to-do list can help you reduce the tax pain in April.

Tax-Efficient Strategies for Rebalancing Vanguard's Maria Bruno discusses how to approach rebalancing in a way that minimizes tax implications. More Pain for Some Mutual Fund Shareholders in 2018 Ongoing redemptions from active funds and a long-running bull market mean tax pain for many fund investors in taxable accounts.

How Tax Efficient Is This Fund? We walk through how to use Morningstar.com's tax analysis tools to determine if a fund is a good fit for a taxable account.

Tax-Loss Selling: A Silver Lining in Volatile Markets Pruning losers can reduce the tax hit from rebalancing and mutual fund capital gains distributions.

Low Tax Year? Put Tax-Gain Harvesting on Your Radar Pre-emptively selling appreciated winners can reduce future tax bills, help address portfolio problem spots.

A Tax-Efficient Portfolio Makeover May Be Less Painful Than You Think Proper accounting of cost basis is essential to avoid paying more taxes than you need to.

Yes, RMDs Can Improve Your Portfolio The tax bill hurts, but surgical pruning of problem positions can help you raise cash and reduce risk.

How to Make RMDs Work for You Vanguard's Maria Bruno offers some strategies for pre-retirees and retirees on timing of required minimum distributions. Get a Tax-Smart Plan for In-Retirement Withdrawals Consider these strategies to stretch out your tax savings during your retirement years.

Retirees: Make the Most of Your Charitable Giving Retirement expert Ed Slott offers tips for maximizing tax savings using qualified charitable distributions.

A Tax-Smart Way to Give to Charity The new tax law makes qualified charitable contributions from IRAs more appealing for many retirees. Contributor Mark Miller explains why.

Should You Clump Your Charitable Donations? A higher standard deduction means investors should consider clumping several years of charitable donations into a donor advised fund to help reduce tax burden, says Michael Kitces.

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