Should I hold stocks longer to lower my taxes?

If you own a stock for more than a year and sell it, your profits are taxed as capital gains.

NEW YORK (Money Magazine)

Go ahead and sell.

Yes, you could possibly save on taxes by waiting: If you've owned the shares for a year or less, your profits, treated as ordinary income, would be taxed at 28% -- the bracket you report you're in.

Gains on shares held for over a year, however, would be taxed at 15%, says Stephen Horan, managing director of the CFA Institute.

Related: How to lower your tax bill

Were gains to push your adjusted gross income up a bracket, past $250,000 ($200,000 for singles), you'd be subject to an extra 3.8% tax on some of the profit -- a levy you might avoid by selling the shares over two years.

Delay, though, risks a price drop.

"Trying to save a few dollars in taxes might cost you way more in investment losses," says David Walters, a financial planner with Palisades Hudson in Portland, Ore.

Cash you need so soon should not be in the stock market.

When waiting doesn't boost gains

Delaying a stock sale may lower your tax bite if you invested recently, but falling stock prices could erase those savings. Below, profit on stocks bought for $100,000 in 2013 and up $30,000.