Investment performance confusion, any clients like this?

[AZ-Tax]

I had at least 4 new clients telling me their investment performance is doing great when in turn I am reporting a loss on their Sch D. When I ask them about their loss most usually reply, "my investment guy told me its deductible so I am getting ALL my investment loss back in the form of tax savings".

[MilTaxEA]

Small Business

I have a similar problem with small business owners. "I don't mind losing money in my business because it's all deductible so I get my money back in the end." It also happens to people who buy a house purely for the tax savings (forgetting the standard deduction wipes out a big chunk of the tax benefit).

Maybe I'm in the wrong business. I need to start offering to pay people $0.25 for every $1 they give me. Apparently that is a really good deal.

[JohnH]

This reminds me of a post I made last year from a note an investment advisor sent one of my clients. He said "remember to use some of the prior years' Long Term Capital Losses we captured for you against income last year.. that should be very helpful."

"CAPTURED LOSSES"?
I never knew losses were running around wild and the client needed a knowledgeable financial advisor skillful enough to capture them.

When translated it means, "We put you in the tank with our bad advice and lost so much money for you that you couldn't deduct it all last year, so you have loss carryforwards. Rather than admit we screwed up, we're going to snow you with fancy language about captured losses and how they're a good thing that will help you."

Talk about putting lipstick on a pig - this guy was an expert.
Don't know when I've laughed so hard.