If you are about to sell a capital asset at a loss – stock in your company, for example – consider putting the property in joint tenancy with your spouse before the sale.
The reason: If you can’t deduct the full amount of the loss, you can carry it forward. But if anything happens to you, your spouse won’t be able to claim the carryover loss on his or her individual return. This is the case even if you have been filing joint returns for years. If the property is held in only one spouse’s name, the tax attributes connected with the property terminate with the person’s death.