Cautions & Greetings

Article Excerpt

This past year brought richly rewarding takeovers of several of our long-time favourites including Falconbridge, Inco, Fairmont and Sleeman. As a result, you may face a substantial capital-gains tax bill. Before yielding to the year-end tax-loss selling urge, keep in mind that it’s always a mistake to sell good stocks at this time of year. Tax-loss selling sometimes drives share prices down way too far. Prices of good stocks often snap back in January. Note that if you sell next year, you can carry your loss back to offset capital-gains taxes you’ve paid since 2003, or carry it forward indefinitely. If you need to sell in 2006 (possibly to offset capital-gains taxes you paid in 2002), December 22 is this year’s tax-loss selling deadline for Canadian investments. The deadline for selling U.S. securities is December 26. More tax cautions Stay out of tax shelters that seem to promise you a profit on charitable donations. One recent ad suggests you can make money by making…