<prompt> Human: My wife and I had a financial windfall after selling 152,000 worth of a stock in a public company that we purchased over several years for a total of 25,000. We made approximately 127,000 profit with the sale. About half the shares had been held for 2 years and 11 months, and the other half had been held for 1 year and 11 months. We decided to cash out because we were concerned that our investment portfolio was no longer diversified because of the growth this one company had experienced.This, combined with an 8,000 increase in our wages, doubled our normal annual net income to 280,000 in 2017.I knew we would have a big tax bill coming, so we began making additional income tax payments monthly by adjusting my W-4. I did this to try to avoid paying an under payment penalty.Towards the end of the year, we sold all of our under performing stocks to take the loss in the same year as our gain, but this only amounted to 2,000 in loss.I did a lot of research into sheltering the gains in retirement accounts, but from everything I could tell we didnt qualify for any of the benefits because due to the gains we made too much money. Both of us already had our 401k contribution maxed out.I did open 529 accounts for our kids, but from what I can tell there is no tax benefit for that.I meant to look into making a big donation towards the end of the year but I missed the opportunity because of poor planning on my part.If it matters, we are both in our early 30s. I was expecting a big bill, but this is about 5,000 more than what I thought it would be, especially considering we made additional payments of 1,000 per month for 3 months. I think the larger than expected bill might be because I didnt take into consideration that this would put us in a different tax bracket.Is it too late to do anything? Do I need to see a tax professional? I am currently doing my taxes with TurboTax Deluxe like I always do.We have the money to pay the bill, but I just want to make sure Im not missing something big that is obvious. Thanks for the help, you guys are awesome.Assistant: Long term capital gains which you took falls into the 15 category for you I think. Thats about 19k more than your regular income taxes. Its hard to say what you owe without doing your taxes but if you do the math, does it add up? Human: Thats about what I was expecting to pay for this saleincome. I was thinking we would have a bill of about 17,000 since we paid in additional during the year. Im guessing the 22,000 is about right, but I am wanted to double check with the pros here.Part of me feels like I should be talking to a CPA, but part of me feels like it would be a waste of money because the rules around this income are pretty cut and dry. We made a lot of capital gains, so weve got to pony up to Uncle Sam now.I wish that there was some way to shelter the income, but I think weve either missed the opportunity, because its no longer 2017, or we just dont qualify because we made too much money.  <response>: I wanted to double check with the pros here. We are not pros. Its probably worth checking with a CPA, it shouldnt be too expensive and it could save you from audit or gain you tax savings, in addition to peace of mind. 