Tax advantages of small business stock

Description

Abstract: A taxpayer who realizes large capital losses — but no capital gains — on sales of corporate stock owned personally will find that the tax benefit from the capital losses may have to be spread over many years in the future. However, Section 1244 is a tax provision that allows one to treat losses incurred from the sale of qualified corporate stock as an ordinary (rather than capital) loss. That’s beneficial because an ordinary loss offsets ordinary income. This article explains Section 1244 stock and what a stock must do to qualify.