{"id":3270,"date":"2022-03-24T11:43:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T11:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/?p=3270"},"modified":"2022-03-25T14:36:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T14:36:07","slug":"tax-loss-harvesting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/tax-loss-harvesting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax loss harvesting: What is it and how does it work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">No investor or trader would want to pay more taxes than required on their investments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">There are a few ways to minimize the tax outgo on gains made in the stock market. One such tool is tax loss harvesting, which can help reduce the tax liability on short-term capital gains (STCG) and\u00a0 long-term capital gains (LTCG).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Tax loss harvesting is usually done towards the end of the financial year, but can of course be done throughout the year to lower the capital gains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><b>What is tax loss harvesting?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">The idea is simpler than it sounds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Tax loss harvesting is the concept of selling securities or fund units at a loss to lower the tax liability on capital gains. This means that losses from sale of one stock can offset the taxes on profit from another stock, by lowering the total capital gains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">So if an investor has made losses from a stock, this is one strategy to take advantage of the situation by reducing the overall capital gains, and consequently reduce the tax to be paid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">The current tax rate on STCG in a fiscal year is 15%. Since April 1 2018, the tax rate on LTCG of over Rs 1 lakh is 10%. Profit on securities held for over a year is considered as LTCG.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Tax loss harvesting is usually done to lower STCG, since the tax rate is higher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Do note that long-term capital losses can be offset against only long-term capital gains. However, short-term capital losses can be set-off against either STCG or LTCG.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">After shares sold are moved out of the demat account, the investor has the option of repurchasing them the next day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">To make use of tax loss harvesting before the current financial year ends, you have the option of selling your loss-making holdings till March 31, 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Losses booked on shares sold after March 31, 2022 will not be considered. The same applies for the end of each financial year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">How to download P&amp;L Statements on Paytm Money:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to : <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/stocks\/profile\/statements\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/stocks\/profile\/statements<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &gt; P&amp;L<\/span><\/span><\/span>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the Mobile App, Go to Stocks Dashboard &gt; Account Section &gt; Statements &gt; P&amp;L<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><b>FIFO\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">We have already understood that stocks have to be sold in a loss to save on taxes by offsetting against the profits we have made.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">To book on loss making trades, you also have to keep in mind the underlying FIFO principles i.e. when selling a stock, whether or not the transaction will make a loss depends solely on which shares will be sold and the buy price of those shares.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Let\u2019s take a look at a few scenarios.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><b>Example 1<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Let\u2019s say your portfolio has generated STCG of Rs 70,000 and LTCG of Rs 1.1 lakh, but you have an unrealised short-term capital loss of Rs 30,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Tax liability (without harvesting)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">On STCG: 15% * 70,000 = Rs 10,500<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">On LTCG: 10% * (Rs 1,10,000 &#8211; Rs 1,00,000) = Rs 1,000<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Total tax due = Rs 11,500<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Tax liability (with harvesting)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">On STCG: 15% of Rs 40,000 (Rs 70,000 &#8211; Rs 30,000) = Rs 6,000<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">On LTCG: Rs 1,000 (as shown above)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Total tax due = Rs 7,000<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">This means that the tax liability is reduced by Rs 4,500.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><b>Example 2\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Let\u2019s take a look at a hypothetical portfolio and see how this would work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3273\" src=\"https:\/\/paytmmoney.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-blog-updated.png\" alt=\"Tax loss harvesting blog updated\" width=\"2266\" height=\"670\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-blog-updated.png 2266w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-blog-updated-300x89.png 300w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-blog-updated-1024x303.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-blog-updated-768x227.png 768w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-blog-updated-1536x454.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-blog-updated-2048x606.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2266px) 100vw, 2266px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">The investor has made STCG of Rs 1,18,151.1 by selling stock in Infosys &amp; State Bank of India, which they held for less than a year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Without harvesting, the tax liability is 15% of Rs 1,18,151.1 = Rs 17,722.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3274\" src=\"https:\/\/paytmmoney.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting.png\" alt=\"Tax loss harvesting\" width=\"2218\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting.png 2218w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-300x37.png 300w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-1024x126.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-768x95.png 768w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-1536x190.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tax-loss-harvesting-2048x253.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2218px) 100vw, 2218px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">However, if the investor chooses to sell the shares that are making losses, then the STCL is Rs 51,593 So the STCG is now Rs 118151.1 &#8211; Rs 51,593 &#8211; Rs 66,558.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">With harvesting, the tax will 15% of Rs 66,558 = Rs 9,983<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">So the tax saved is Rs 7,779!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Lato;\">Tax loss harvesting will not eliminate your tax liability, but will help minimise it. An investor\/trader can use the proceeds to invest in another stock or mutual fund, in order to maintain the optimum asset allocation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lato;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disclaimer: This content is purely for educational, information and investor awareness purposes based on publicly available data and in no way to be considered as advice or recommendation. The securities quoted are exemplary and are not recommendatory. Representations made about the performance are not indicative of future results. Please refer www.paytmmoney.com for further information.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No investor or trader would want to pay more taxes than required on their investments. There are a few ways to minimize the tax outgo on gains made in the stock market. One such tool is tax loss harvesting, which can help reduce the tax liability on short-term capital gains (STCG) and\u00a0 long-term capital gains<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/tax-loss-harvesting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Tax loss harvesting: What is it and how does it work?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":3271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-classic-ns.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paytmmoney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}