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Do yours qualify?January 15, 2025•Hayden AdamsSince maximizing your tax deductions has the potential to reduce your tax burden, let's look at some of the most common deductible investment expenses and how they can reduce your taxable income.No more deduction for miscellaneous investment-related expensesFor tax years 2018 to 2025, "miscellaneous itemized deductions" have been eliminated. Prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), taxpayers were allowed to deduct expenses such as fees for investment advice, IRA custodial fees, and accounting costs necessary to produce or collect taxable income. Investment interest expenseIf you itemize, you may be able to deduct the interest paid on money you borrowed to purchase taxable investments—for example, margin loans to buy stock or loans to buy investment property. However, you wouldn't be allowed to deduct the interest on a loan to buy tax-advantaged investments such as municipal bonds.The amount that you can deduct is capped at your net taxable investment income for the year. Any leftover interest expense gets carried forward to the next year and can potentially be used to reduce your taxes in the future. To determine your deductible investment interest expense, you need to know the following:Your net investment income, which normally includes ordinary dividends and interest income. It does not include investment income taxed at the lower, long-term capital gains tax rates or municipal bond interest, which is not taxed at all.Your total investment interest expenses for loans used to purchase taxable investments.Let's look at an example. Here, Mary has $150,000 of total income, $8,000 of net investment income (from ordinary dividends and interest income), $10,500 of investment interest expenses from a margin loan, and $13,000 of other itemized deductions (such as mortgage interest and state taxes)., Because Mary is a tax-savvy investor, she was able to reduce her taxable income from the original $150,000 to $127,000. That $10,000 investment interest expenses deduction resulted in $2,220 of tax savings (assuming an ordinary tax rate of 24% and a long-term capital gains tax rate of 15%)., In general, holding tax-efficient investments in taxable accounts and less tax-efficient investments in tax-advantaged accounts should have potential to add value over time. However, there are other factors to consider, including: - There are tax implications to periodically rebalancing your portfolio to maintain your target asset allocation..