I am fairly green when it comes to an understanding of taxes with stock ownership and I am wondering if someone here can answer these simple questions for me.
If I own a stock and it doubles in value by the end of the tax year but I don't sell the stock, do I still have to pay taxes on the value gained on the stock that very year or do I only have to pay taxes on it the year that I actually sell the stock if I make a profit off the sell?
If I have a dividend reinvestment plan setup with my brokerage firm do I need to pay taxes on those dividend disbursements at the end of that year or only after I sell the stocks? At some other point?
Thanks for your help!