Where to hold your index funds and how they’re taxed: IRAs, Roth IRAs, 401(k) plans, taxable brokerage accounts and capital gains distributions.
Your 401(k) menu may hide a few cheap index funds among expensive options. How to get the full match, find your plan’s fee comparison chart, spot index funds and CITs, and build a simple low-cost mix, with the 2026 limits.
Your index fund can hand you a tax bill even if you never sold a share. What capital gains distributions are, why index mutual funds pay more of them than ETFs, how they’re taxed in 2026, and how to limit them.
The same index fund can leave you with very different amounts after tax depending on the account it’s in. How a Roth IRA and a taxable brokerage account compare for index fund investors, with the 2026 IRS limits.
