Gap 4: Taxes Taxes are one of the biggest concerns any stock
investor must address. Making profits every month in your
investing
is wonderful. But if you do not have your investments sheltered
in
an IRA or other protected account, you will be charged a
short-term
capital gains tax on all your profitable trades that lasted less
than
one year. In some cases, this can mean a tax hit of more than 30
percent.
Most of you probably have the majority of your investments
in tax-sheltered accounts. However, even tax-sheltered
accounts
have a gap. The drawback to these accounts, of course, is that
you
don't really have access to that money-without
penalties-until
you are 591.2 years old. That's right. If you take your money out
of
a tax-sheltered account before you are 591.2, you will have to pay
an
additional penalty-which currently stands at 10 percent. That
can
make a huge difference in your account balance.
By contrast, short-term Forex profits are taxed at a much
lower
rate. Each time you make a gain in the Forex market, as we
outlined
previously, 60 percent of your profits automatically qualify as
long-
term capital gains, while only 40 percent of your profits are
considered
short-term gains. And for those of you who are wondering,
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