Sell now or sell later?

You need to sell some stock to live on. Selling more than that is a timing choice — do it in a year you're working, or wait for one you're not. This prices that choice. A no-wage year isn't an empty one: interest keeps arriving either way, so it stacks under your gains in both columns. Income tax and FICA on the wages are deliberately excluded; this is only what happens to your capital gains.

$0W-2 wages

$0interest — in every year

$300,000gains sold to live on

$0extra gains sold on top

The shape of it

The swept numbers

The first chart as a table — nine evenly spaced realizations.

Realized	No-wage year	Working year	Wages cost

What the wages cost your gains

Extra capital-gains tax caused by working

Move the wages slider.

Summary

Which taxes move

Capital-gains tax	With work	Without work	Change

Washington's capital-gains tax keys off the realized gain alone, so neither wages nor interest ever move it; all of the damage is federal.

Where the gains sit

0% federal 15% 20%

Washington's 2026 exemption isn't published yet. DOR indexes it each October under RCW 82.87.150, but has only posted 2024 ($270,000) and 2025 ($278,000). This tool uses the 2025 figure with 2026 federal numbers, so the WA side is likely a few thousand dollars conservative until DOR publishes.

Assumptions & sources

Filing status drives the deduction and the federal thresholds. Every figure below links to the authority that states it.

Married filing jointly Single

Switching reloads all federal presets, overwriting edits.

Standard deduction

Fed 0% LTCG ceiling (taxable)

Fed 15%→20% boundary (taxable)

NIIT threshold (MAGI)

NIIT rate %

WA standard deduction 2025

WA's 9.9% surcharge starts $1,000,000 above the deduction — that $1M is fixed in statute and not indexed, so it's derived here rather than entered ().

Sources

Figure	Value	Authority	Year
Standard deduction MFJ	$32,200	Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §4.14	2026
Standard deduction Single	$16,100	Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §4.14	2026
Fed 0% LTCG ceiling MFJ	$98,900	Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §4.03	2026
Fed 15%→20% MFJ	$613,700	Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §4.03	2026
Fed 0% LTCG ceiling Single	$49,450	Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §4.03	2026
Fed 15%→20% Single	$545,500	Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §4.03	2026
NIIT 3.8%, $250K MFJ / $200K Single	unindexed	IRS — NIIT	all
WA standard deduction	$278,000	WA DOR	2025
WA deduction is per individual, not doubled for MFJ	$250K base	RCW 82.87.060	all
WA 7% + 2.9% surcharge over $1M	not indexed	RCW 82.87.040	2025→
WA indexing mechanism	Oct CPI	RCW 82.87.150	all
LTCG stacks above ordinary income	—	IRC §1(h)(1)	all
Interest is ordinary income, so it stacks under gains exactly as wages do	—	IRC §61(a)(4)	all
Interest is itself net investment income	3.8%, excluded here	IRC §1411(c)(1)(A)(i)	all

Deliberately excluded

Income tax and FICA on the wages — this models the gains only.
Income tax on the interest, and the 3.8% NIIT the interest owes on its own account under §1411(c)(1)(A)(i). Like the wages, the interest is priced here only for what it does to your gains: it lifts NIIT MAGI, eats the standard deduction, and pushes gains out of the 0% bracket.
Whether WA capital-gains tax reduces the federal amount realized under §164(a). The position is unsettled and circular; excluding it makes this model slightly conservative (~$290 at a $300K draw).
Itemizing instead of the standard deduction, 401(k)/HSA deferrals, AMT, ACA subsidies, IRMAA, state income tax (none in WA until the 2028 millionaires' tax at $1M).
Market risk of holding, which is the actual reason not to defer a sale forever.