3 tax changes you need to take care of before the end of this year

financialpost.com:

Most of us only think about our taxes come tax season, which is typically the two months leading up to the April 30 annual filing deadline, but it’s really the last two months of the calendar year when taxpayers should be paying attention.

After all, there’s little one can do once the year is over to retroactively minimize taxes. Here are a few things you may wish to consider implementing before year-end that are unique to 2023 tax planning.

Now may be the opportune time to trigger some tax losses given that the real estate, communication services and utilities sectors are down between 12 per cent and 15 per cent year to date in 2023.

Tax-loss selling involves selling investments in your non-registered accounts that have accrued losses to offset capital gains realized elsewhere in your portfolio. Any net capital losses that cannot currently be used may either be carried back three years or carried forward indefinitely to offset net capital gains in other years.

In order for your loss to be immediately available for 2023 (or one of the prior three years), the settlement must take place in 2023. The trade date must be no later than Dec. 27 to complete settlement by year-end since Dec. 30 and 31 fall on a weekend in 2023 and there’s a two-day settlement period for stock trades.

If you purchased securities in a foreign currency, such as in U.S. dollars, the gain or loss may be larger or smaller than you anticipated once you take the foreign exchange component into account, especially if you purchased those securities a while ago.

For example, a decade ago, the U.S. dollar was trading for around $1.05, while today it’s hovering around $1.39. A security purchased 10 years ago in U.S. dollars could therefore have a significant