Long-term capital gains tax is a tax on profits from the sale of an asset held for longer than a year. Long-term capital gains tax rates are 0%, 15% or 20% depending on your taxable income and filing status. Long-term capital gains tax rates are usually lower than those on short-term capital gains.

Do you get a tax form when you sell stock?

Minimum Capital Gains To Report Capital investments includes things such as stocks, bonds and other assets like real estate. Your broker will send you a copy of IRS Form 1099-B for each stock sale. The form identifies the stock, the date and cost for the purchase in addition to the date and proceeds from the sale.

What are the taxes on selling a stock?

If you’re in the 15% long-term capital gains tax rate bracket, federal taxes on the stocks you sold will be *$900. (You may have an additional tax liability for state income tax purposes too).

How are stock sales reported to the IRS?

One option allows you to assume that you sold the shares you’ve held on to the longest and use that price information for your cost basis in figuring your gain or loss. This is called first in, first out (FIFO); it is the default assumption when your broker reports your stock sale to the IRS.

When do you report a capital gain on a stock sale?

If you owned the stock for more than one year (generally measured from the day after the trade date of the purchase to the trade date of the sale), you would report that gain as a long-term capital gain. Otherwise, you’d report any gain as a short-term capital gain for the year of the sale.

What makes a stock sale a long term gain?

Long-term capital gains are generally the gains you’ve realized from the sale of capital assets you’ve held for more than one year. So timing your stock sales so that any gains qualify as long-term capital gains might be a simple and important way to lower your tax bill.