Options Tax Spread Gains/Losses Questions
1. Can I close losing half late Dec and winning half Jan 1 (within 30 days of each other)?
Goal = loss-harvest current year and push the gain to the next year.
2. If I bought/sold same strikes in a later month, is that considered "similar" and thus a wash sale? Or are options only considered "similar" and a wash sale if it's the same date AND strike?
Details:
If I have a short put spread and want to loss-harvest, can I close the side with a loss end of December a few days before year-end, and then close the side with a gain on January 1?
Plus, if I then did another short put spread at a later date, would that be considered a wash?
The goal is to maximize losses in current year and push gains to the next year.
Example:
If I have a January 2026 put-credit-spread - sold a $10 put and bought a $9 put... If the short $10 side had a $100 gain, and the long $9 side has a $75 loss, could I close the $75 loss December 27 for a 2025 year loss and then close the winning side Jan 2 to push the gain to 2026?
Then if I did another put-credit-spread a couple days later for March 2026 at $10 and $9 strikes, would that be a wash since it's similar to my original January one?
