Is it in a tax sheltered account like a Roth IRA? If not, you can only lessen your tax percentage by making sure the profit qualifies as capital gains as far as I know. To qualify for capital gains, the stock you sell needs to have been bought 366 days before. Otherwise, it'll be counted as ordinary income and be taxed as such which could put you into the next tax bracket.

I'm not sure what will happen if this is inside a 401k. Please make sure you don't put yourself into a position where you get penalized for selling stock. I believe the 401k only faces penalties if you take any money put in out ie not profit but the original purchase/contribution. However, what qualifies as taking money out? I don't know. It might be something dumb like when you roll over a 401k from one employer to the next it's imperative the money never be sent to you even if you turn right around and send it to the next employer's 401k.

You can sell stock within an IRA and 401k without paying tax.

Don

Adding some info
 

These would be outside a 401k and I think I can select the ‘lots’ I can sell from and be over any cap gains

Here is an example I purchasec Facebook at the IPO

How can I take some of that money off the table without it being income tax?

Losses on your investments are first used to offset capital gains of the same type. So short-term losses are first deducted against short-term gains, and long-term losses are deducted against long-term gains. Net losses of either type can then be deducted against the other kind of gain.

SO —- in other words —- if you have some losses you plan to take anyway — see that they’re long term or short term losses — harvest those - calc your loss and take a matching gain.... bingo — zero tax

Ahh ha Eureka! I recently sold DBD at a loss which I held for years.. I can take the los amount and take that dollar amount in gains fro FB provided they are both have been own for more than 1 year Sound right ?

Sounds correct... And sound advice Greg.

For those following along... "Tax loss harvesting" is the term to search for to get more info.... here is a link with some good info

https://www.investopedia.com/article...harvesting.asp

Things have been dropping for a while.. anyone putting more cash to work, or waiting it out a bit longer?

I did. I was getting some good deals. Could have waited til today and gotten better deals but that's ok. It'll rebound. I'm getting slaughtered though that's for sure. I am glad this isn't my income or job.

Well...... you girls lived thru some of the worst stock market action in a decade.... and I’ll bet ya all did just fine.