Tax Planning

Saving more in taxes requires tax planning during the year.

Most individual provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) were scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2025, but subsequent legislation from OBBBA preserved or made permanent several key elements. OBBBA made the lower TCJA individual income tax rates permanent beginning with 2026, made permanent the larger standard deductions amounts introduced by TCJA, made permanent the restriction on miscellaneous itemized deductions, increased the state and local tax (SALT) cap above TCJA amounts (previously $10,000 with TCJA but $40,000 for 2025 with OBBBA), made permanent the 20% qualified business income (QBI) deduction, made permanent the EBL limitation, and didn’t make any changes to TCJA’s permanent reduction of the corporate tax rate to 21%.

TCJA, OBBBA, and other recent tax acts do not change trader tax status (TTS), Section 475 MTM accounting, wash-sale losses on securities, or the tax treatment of financial products, including futures (Section 1256 contracts) and cryptocurrencies (intangible property).

It’s helpful to consider IRS inflation adjustments in income and capital gains tax brackets, various income thresholds and caps, retirement plan contribution limits, standard deductions, and more.

See the article IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for tax year 2026 on the www.irs.gov website. The IRS inflation increase for 2026 is about 3%.

For 2025 year-end tax planning, see 
2025 Year-End Tax Planning for Traders and Investors Under the OBBBA

For 2026 year-end tax planning for traders, see our 2026 guide, Chapter 9.

For more information, see Green’s Trader Tax Guide, Chapter 9, Tax Planning.