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The 2021 tax deadline is Monday, April 18th, thanks to the Good Friday holiday.  While tax planning is a year-long exercise, many of us fall into the procrastinator camp.  The key is to plan around the things that you can control, think retirement plan contributions, keeping good records, tax-loss harvesting,  and being informed.  It is hard sometimes, but paying a big tax is better than not paying a big tax bill…Now here are our top five favorite tax scofflaws…5) Wesley Snipes, from Blade to the Big House on about $23 million in unpaid taxes. 4) Willie Nelson,  crooned his way to a $16.7 million dollar tax bill.  3) Mike Tyson, $23 million in tax debt after earning over $300 million in his career. 2) Mike Sorrentino, “The Situation” on Jersey Shore got himself into a jam on about $9 million in back taxes.  And 1) Al Capone, the notorious Chicago gangster was finally sent to prison after declaring “they can’t collect legal taxes from illegal money”.  But yes they can.  Honorable mention…Leona Helmsley, Pete Rose, and Heidi Fleiss.

It is time to flip the calendar on another year and also to reflect on what has been a very impressive market in 2021.  Speaking of markets and calendars, the total return on the S&P 500 (the 500 largest US companies) has been quite impressive for the past 95 years, or dating back to 1926.  Think about this, over this period we have seen countless historical events…wars, depressions, recessions, embargos, financial crisis’s, and throw in a pandemic, yet the market has still had a 10.3% average annual return.  Remarkable.  Even more remarkable, over these 95 years we have only seen seven calendar years where the market is down by 14% or more, just seven.  On the flip side we have seen 48 years (more than half) up 14% or more. We cannot predict the future but we can use the odds to our advantage.  Here’s to a healthy and happy 2022!  (research source Ibbotson Associates)

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the value of tax-loss harvesting is quite impressive.  Tax loss harvesting is basically managing long and short term gains to the investors advantage.  Using someone in the 25% income tax bracket, their studies show that in a strong market, managing taxable gains and losses can add 1.1 to 1.42% to annual returns.  Even more impressive, during significant downturns when the S&P is negative, this harvesting can add about 3.21% to yearly performance.  So whether the market has been naughty or nice, tax management can be a gift to returns.

In the words of the Cuomo boys while lifting weights in their basement today, “what happened in 2021”?   Here we are, the first week of December, where did the year go?  Time may be the single most important contributor to investment success and seems to come and go so fast.  The best time to invest was yesterday and the second best is today.  Set it and forget it and see where you are in December of 2022.

Thanks to Kevin Caron at www.washingtoncrossingadvisors.com we get to consider this…Back to the old Buttonwood tree in NYC in 1790, when the value of stocks were first calculated, it took over 200 years  for the US stock market to top $16 trillion in value.  Based on today’s current value, we have risen by $16 trillion in market value since the pandemic BEGAN.  A recession and health crisis that produced a $16 trillion gain in value, go figure.  One, it shows the law of large numbers and too, it may be pointing to some inflation momentum in financial assets.  Speaking of inflation, again this past week, Janet Yellen stuck with her premise that we are in a “transitory” period of higher prices, yet today social security payments were adjusted higher by almost 6%.  Social security payments do not go lower so the only thing transitory is the money leaving your pockets.