4 Money Deadlines To Take Care of Early in 2026 — Have You Properly Prepared?
Written by
Karen Doyle
Edited by
Zuri Anderson
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There are deadlines that affect your finances early in the year, and you don’t want to miss them. While it can be easy to procrastinate, when it comes to your taxes, it’s not recommended.
Here are four money deadlines to take care of sooner than later in 2026, based on a blog post from Fidelity.
1. Contribute to Tax-Advantaged Accounts
Tax-advantaged accounts like IRAs and HSAs can typically accept 2025 contributions up until the tax deadline, which falls on April 15 in 2026. If you are saving for college in a 529 plan account and your plan offers state tax benefits, check to see if contributions needed to be made by the end of 2025.
2. Donate to Charity To Reduce Your Tax Bill
If you itemize deductions, you can deduct charitable donations made in 2025 from your adjusted gross income. If you’re donating cash to qualified charities, you can generally deduct up to 60% of your AGI. If you’re donating appreciated securities held long term, you can typically deduct up to 30% of your AGI based on the securities’ fair market value (not their original cost).
For example, if your adjusted gross income is $100,000, you could deduct up to $60,000 in cash donations or up to $30,000 in the fair market value of appreciated securities.
3. Take Your Required Minimum Distribution
If you are 73 or older, you generally have to take a required minimum distribution (RMD) from most pre??’tax retirement accounts, such as traditional IRAs and traditional 401(k) plans. Under current law, the penalty for failing to take a required RMD is 25% of the amount not withdrawn, though it can be reduced to 10% if the mistake is corrected promptly.
If you turned 73 in 2025, you have until April 1 to take your first RMD. Keep in mind, however, that delaying your first withdrawal means you’ll also need to take your 2026 RMD by Dec. 31, 2026, which could result in two taxable distributions in the same year.
4. Tax Loss Harvesting
If you have unrealized losses from some of your investments, you can sell them to realize those losses, then use them to offset capital gains from other investments. This can potentially reduce your tax burden.
If you offset all your gains and still have losses left over, you can use up to $3,000 per year to offset ordinary income ($1,500 if married filing separately), with any remaining losses carried forward to future years. To apply losses to your 2025 taxes, the transactions must have been completed by Dec. 31, 2025.
After you’ve taken care of all these to-dos for early 2026, look ahead to the rest of the year. Remember to keep an eye on all these items so you don’t have to rush around at the end of next year.
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