Seven decisions to make before December 31

Most planning decisions can wait until next year. A few can’t. These are the ones with a December 31 deadline, plus one that comes due sooner, on December 7. Not all of them will apply to you, but each one is worth a look before the year closes.

1. Take your required minimum distribution

If you’re already taking required minimum distributions from an IRA or retirement plan, this year’s must come out by December 31. The penalty for missing one is steep. If this is your first one, you may be able to wait until April 1 of next year, but then you’d take two distributions in the same tax year, which can push your income higher.

2. Give from your IRA instead of your checkbook

If you’re 70½ or older, a qualified charitable distribution lets you send up to $111,000 in 2026 directly from your IRA to a charity. It counts toward your required distribution, and the amount stays out of your taxable income. The money has to go straight from the IRA to the charity, so allow time for processing before year-end.

3. Rethink charitable giving under this year’s new rules

2026 is the first year of several changes to the charitable deduction:

• If you take the standard deduction, you can now deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts ($2,000 for joint filers) to public charities. Gifts to donor-advised funds don’t qualify.
• If you itemize, only the portion of your charitable gifts above 0.5% of your adjusted gross income is deductible.
• If you’re in the top tax bracket, the tax value of all itemized deductions is capped at 35%.

For some families, that changes whether to give a little every year or group several years of gifts into one, and whether to give cash, appreciated investments, or IRA distributions. Your CPA can run the numbers for your return.

4. Decide on a Roth conversion

A conversion has to be completed by December 31 to count for 2026. The decision shouldn’t rest on a guess about future tax brackets. It turns on whether the tax you pay to convert now is less than the total taxes that money would generate over your lifetime and your heirs’, once growth and required distributions are factored in. That takes modeling, year by year. More in Should I convert my IRA to a Roth before retirement?

5. Use investment losses before they expire for the year

Selling investments that are below what you paid can offset gains you’ve already realized this year. Watch the wash-sale rule: buying the same or a substantially identical investment within 30 days before or after the sale disallows the loss.

6. Finish this year’s retirement plan contributions

Workplace plan contributions generally have to come out of a 2026 paycheck. This year’s limits:

IRA contributions for 2026 can usually be made until the tax filing deadline next April.

7. Make this year’s family gifts

You can give up to $19,000 per person in 2026 without using any of your lifetime gift and estate exemption, which is $15 million per person this year. The annual amount doesn’t carry over, so a gift not made by December 31 is a year’s exclusion gone.

Due sooner: Medicare open enrollment ends December 7

If you’re on Medicare, open enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7. Drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans change their coverage and costs each year, so a plan that fit last year may not fit next year.

These decisions work best together

A Roth conversion, a charitable gift, and a loss harvest all show up on the same tax return, and each one changes the math on the others. That’s why we look at them as one plan, in coordination with your CPA, rather than as a checklist.

Want a second set of eyes before December 31? We’ll walk through which of these apply to you. Schedule a conversation