Dispatches

1. What Changed in July

   Two bodies of law, one signing date, and a great deal of planning built on assumptions that no longer hold.

2. The Year With No W-2

   The year after a business sale has a peculiar tax quality. Ordinary income collapses, brackets that have been theoretical for a decade become accessible, and two adjacent systems — Medicare's income-linked premiums and the ACA subsidy cliff — begin reading MAGI with consequences two calendar pages away.

3. The Step-Up That Isn't Yours Yet

   The cost basis reset happens at the date of death. The operational one takes three to six months — and the gap is where the avoidable mistakes get made.

4. What a Signed LOI Actually Starts

   The useful tax runway for a business sale runs backward from the closing date, not forward from the LOI. A timeline-shaped guide to what each window still permits, and what quietly stops being available.

5. The 22% Problem

   Why the default withholding on restricted stock rarely matches the rate it will be taxed at — and how the gap compounds into a January surprise.

6. When Rebalancing Becomes a Tax Event You Didn't Choose

   The irony of disciplined investing in a taxable account.

7. The Free Lunch Sitting in Your Losers

   Tax-loss harvesting, properly understood, is not about losing. It is about keeping the option.

8. The Quiet Cost of Mutual Fund Turnover

   What the expense ratio doesn't tell you, and why most investors never find out.

9. Two Investors, One Fund, Two Different Tax Bills

   Why where you hold what you own matters as much as what you own.

10. Why Your 1099 Keeps Surprising You

    The tax that runs through your portfolio without ever asking permission.