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Tax-loss harvesting
Tax-loss harvesting means selling an investment that is below what you paid, so the loss can offset gains on your tax return, and buying a similar one so you stay invested. Volaren finds those losses across every account you connect and checks the wash-sale rule across all of them, not one broker at a time.
Start freeLosses found across every account
Volaren reads the tax lots in each account you connect: how many shares, what you paid and when. For every position below cost in a taxable account it shows the loss in dollars and percent, whether it is short-term or long-term, the tax it could save and a suggested replacement.
By default a position counts as worth harvesting when its loss is at least $500 and at least 5%. Say your own floor (“losses over $1,000”, “only if it saves me $200”) and Volaren uses it.
Volaren asks once for your filing status and tax rates, and for each account’s type (taxable, IRA, Roth, 401(k) or HSA), so every estimate is worked out on your numbers. When a broker gives only an average cost, Volaren says so and shows the estimate.
Wash sales checked across every account
The wash-sale rule disallows a loss when you buy the same or a substantially identical security within 30 days before or after the sale, in any of your accounts. A broker can only check its own. Volaren checks them together:
- buys in every connected account, IRAs and 401(k)s included;
- accounts you mark as your spouse’s;
- dividends that reinvest automatically;
- buys an AI agent has planned but not placed yet.
A buy in the 30 days before the sale counts even if you have sold it since. When the matching buy is in an IRA, Roth, 401(k) or HSA, Volaren says plainly that the loss would be lost for good.
The tax-loss harvesting AI agent
Ask Copilot to “harvest my losses”, or press Harvest these automatically in the Tax view, and it drafts a tax-loss harvesting AI agent. Every market day it checks your taxable accounts for losses worth taking. It sells the loss lots highest cost first, buys a replacement fund in the same category that is not substantially identical, and never buys the sold security back in any of your accounts inside the wash-sale window.
It asks you before each harvest, or trades automatically inside your limits if you choose. At Webull, Public, E*TRADE, tastytrade and moomoo it places the sale and the replacement. At Robinhood, Fidelity, Schwab and your other accounts it tells you the exact sale to make there, and those accounts’ buys still count in every wash-sale check.
The Tax view in Portfolio
Open Portfolio and choose Tax to see, for the account you pick:
- Losses you can harvest, each with its loss, percent, term, any wash-sale date and the suggested replacement;
- Realised this year, short-term and long-term;
- Estimated tax on what you have realised;
- Wash-sale windows open across all your accounts.
The same view is on Volaren in your phone’s browser.
Tax impact on the order ticket
When you sell from a real account, the ticket shows the tax before you confirm: the gain or loss of each lot sold, the totals by term, “about $X tax”, and one plain line if the sale would trigger a wash sale. Lots are sold highest cost first unless you change it with one tap. When your broker picks the lots itself, the ticket shows the estimate on your broker’s own method. Nothing is placed until you confirm.
A worked example
Hypothetical numbers, for illustration only.
Five months ago you bought 100 shares of Fund A at $60 in a taxable account, $6,000 in all. Fund A is now $52, so the position is worth $5,200: an $800 short-term loss, 13%. That passes both floors, so it shows under Losses you can harvest.
Case 1: a buy in your IRA. Your IRA bought Fund A 12 days ago. Volaren sees it, and the Tax view and the ticket both warn that selling now would be a wash sale and, because the buy is in an IRA, the loss would be lost for good. The AI agent waits.
Case 2: no matching buy. The agent sells the 100 shares and buys $5,200 of Fund B, a fund in the same category that follows a different index, so you stay invested. If you have $800 of short-term gains this year taxed at 24%, you’d owe about $192 less. Fund A is not bought back in any of your accounts for 30 days.
How it works
- Connect your brokerage accounts and tell Volaren each one’s type.
- Answer two quick questions: your filing status and your tax rates.
- Open Portfolio, then Tax, to see your harvestable losses, realised gains, estimated tax and open wash-sale windows.
- Press Harvest these automatically, or ask Copilot, to start the tax-loss harvesting AI agent.
- Approve each harvest, or let it harvest inside your limits.
- Every sale on the ticket shows its tax impact before you confirm.
Questions
Does it work with my Robinhood account?
Yes. Connect Robinhood and Volaren finds losses worth harvesting there, tells you the exact sale to make, and counts its buys in the wash-sale check across every other account you connect.
What is a wash sale?
Selling at a loss and buying the same or a substantially identical security within 30 days before or after. The loss is then not allowed for that sale, and in a taxable account it is added to the cost of the new shares instead.
How much of a loss can I use in a year?
Losses first offset gains. Past that, up to $3,000 a year can offset ordinary income ($1,500 if married filing separately), and the rest carries forward. Volaren counts carryforwards from earlier years when you enter them.
Will I be out of the market after a harvest?
No. The AI agent buys a replacement in the same category straight after the sale, one that is not substantially identical, so the loss counts and you stay invested.
Does Volaren help at year end?
Yes. Ask Copilot for a year-end plan: losses to harvest before December 31, gains you could take at the 0% long-term rate based on the income you tell it, and appreciated shares to give instead of cash.
Not tax advice. Talk to a tax professional about your own situation.