A client just paid $15,000,000 in taxes that were completely avoidable

I spoke with a CPA this week whose client had a $15M tax bill last year.

Why?

They sold $40M+ of NVDA stock while living in California, which gets hit with a tax rate of 37.1%.

That’s $15M out the door in one year.

I sometimes feel like I’m repeating myself talking about concentrated stock over and over again.

Then I hear stories like this and I think:

“If one post had gotten in front of them 12 months earlier, how much of that $15M could they have kept?”

If you’re sitting on a large, single-stock position (NVDA, PLTR, AVGO, TSLA, META, MSFT, etc.) and thinking about diversifying:

You do not have to just sell, write a giant check, and move on.

There are specific tools to diversify and reduce risk without triggering a huge tax bill.

If that’s you, please don’t sell before you know your options.