Tool · Tax-placement
Tax-placement optimizer
Same target allocation, three accounts, very different after-tax outcomes depending on which fund lives where. Pick a lazy portfolio and enter your balances; the optimizer fills tax-deferred with the highest-shelter-priority holdings, Roth with the highest-growth slices, and lets the tax-efficient remainder spill to taxable.
Optimized drag
$300
Estimated annual tax
Naive split
$571
Same allocation in every account
Annual savings
$271(47.5%)
~$18,001 over 30y @ 5% real
| Holding | Weight | Target | Taxable | Tax-deferred | Roth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VTIVanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares | 48.0% | $115,200 | $104,000 | — | $11,200 |
| VXUSVanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF Shares | 12.0% | $28,800 | — | — | $28,800 |
| BNDVanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund | 40.0% | $96,000 | $16,000 | $80,000 | — |
| Account total | $240,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 | $40,000 |
Why these placements
VTI
Roth + Taxable
us total market · 1.01% yield
shelter priority 0.05 · growth priority 60
- Qualified-dividend treatment + low turnover make this tax-efficient enough for taxable.
VXUS
Roth
international total · 2.66% yield
shelter priority 0.50 · growth priority 65
- Placed by fill order after higher-priority slices were satisfied.
BND
Tax-deferred + Taxable
us aggregate bond · 3.94% yield
shelter priority 3.94 · growth priority 20
- Distributions taxed as ordinary income — shelter in tax-deferred avoids the annual drag.
How to read this
Asset location (also called tax placement) is the practice of putting each holding in the account type where its tax treatment hurts you least. The same target allocation can produce very different after-tax results depending on which account holds which fund.
Shelter priority drives the tax-deferred (Traditional IRA / 401k) fill — bonds, REITs, and high-yield funds belong here because their ordinary-income distributions create the most annual drag when held in taxable. Yield × non-qualified share, plus a category-specific bump for assets like TIPS where the rate alone understates the drag.
Growth priority drives the Roth fill — Roth's tax-free compounding is most valuable on the highest-expected-return holdings (small caps, emerging markets, growth tilts). Ranking is heuristic from category, not a return forecast.
Munis are pinned to taxable. Municipal-bond interest is federally tax-exempt; placing it in a tax-advantaged account wastes the exemption and replaces it with ordinary-income treatment on the eventual withdrawal.
Foreign equity slightly prefers taxable. The foreign-tax credit on dividend withholding is only claimable when the fund is held in a taxable account; in a shelter the credit is forfeited.
Drag estimate is yield × applicable rate × dollar amount, summed across taxable holdings. Shelters contribute zero (no current-year tax). Naive split is what you'd pay holding the same mix in every account, for comparison. Long-term-cap-gains rate derives from your marginal bracket. State tax is not modeled.
This is a data tool, not personalized tax advice. The qualified-dividend percentages and category rankings are documented on the methodology page. Confirm any meaningful placement decision with your own CPA or tax preparer — especially around Roth conversions, RMDs, and state-tax interactions the model doesn't capture.
Estimated annual tax drag is an informational figure derived from TTM yield, your marginal bracket, and the qualified-dividend approximations documented on the methodology page. State tax, AMT, Roth-conversion math, RMDs, and individual fund capital-gains distributions are not modeled.
PlainIndex publishes data and editorial commentary — nothing here is personalized investment or tax advice. The methodology page documents every formula and category assumption so the result is reproducible from your own brokerage statements.