Tax-Advantaged

The term “tax-advantaged” refers to any type of investment, account, or plan that is either exempt from taxation, tax-deferred, or offers other types of tax benefits. Examples of tax-advantaged investments are municipal bonds, partnerships, UITs and annuities. Tax-advantaged plans include IRAs and qualified plans.

Tax-advantaged investments and accounts are used by a wide variety of investors and employees in various financial situations. High-income taxpayers seek tax-free municipal bond income, while employees save for retirement with IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Tax-advantaged investments shelter some or all of an investor’s income from taxation, allowing him or her to minimize his or her tax burden. Municipal bond investors, for example, receive interest on their bonds for the duration of the bond’s life. The proceeds from issuing these bonds to investors is used by municipal authorities to fund capital projects in the community. To incentivize more investors to purchase these bonds, the interest income received by investors is not taxed at the federal level. In many cases, if the bondholder resides in the same state where the bonds was issued, his or her interest income will also be exempt from state and local taxes.

Depreciation also yields tax advantages for individuals and businesses that invest in real estate. Depreciation is an income tax deduction that allows a taxpayer to recover the cost basis of certain property. In the U.S, the cost of acquiring a land or building is capitalized over a specified number of useful years by annual depreciation deductions. For example, assume an investor purchases a property for $5 million (the cost basis). After five years, he has depreciation deductions of $500,000 and his new cost basis is $4.5 million. If he sells the property for $5.75 million, his realized gain will be $5.75 million - $4.5 million = $1.25 million. The $500,000 deduction will be taxed at the depreciation recapture rate and the remaining $750,000 will be taxed as a capital gain. Without the tax advantage of the depreciation allowance, the entire gain realized from the sale of the property will be taxed as a capital gain.

With regular brokerage accounts, the IRS taxes investors on any capital gains realized from selling profitable investments. However, tax-advantaged accounts allow an individual’s investing activities to be tax-deferred and, in some cases, tax-free. Traditional Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) and 401(k) plans are examples of tax-deferred accounts in which earnings on investments are not taxed every year. Instead, tax is deferred until the individual retires, at which point s/he can start making withdrawals from the account. Withdrawing from these accounts without penalty is allowed once the accountholder turns 59½ years old. Once s/he reaches 70½ years, s/he is required to start taking minimum withdrawals from the account.

Roth IRAs and Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) offer even more tax savings for investors than tax-deferred accounts, as activities in these accounts are exempt from tax. Withdrawals and earnings in these accounts are tax-free, providing a perfect example of a tax advantage.

Governments establish the tax advantages to encourage private individuals to contribute money when it is considered to be in the public interest. Selecting the proper type of tax-advantaged accounts or investments depends on an investor's financial situation.