Tax planning this year and next, high spend rate-Tuition

[BTDretire]

Need some big help planning my income for two years focusing on staying in the 12% bracket and IF possible doing some Roth Conversions.

MFJ 64 and 60yrs old, no SS, no Pension.
 I'm planning to get income this year and next year to cover all my expenses needed for
2020. 2019 is covered.
 I will need to get a total of $140k from our nestegg, from this year and before Dec 2020, to
 cover 2020 expenses. (Living and Tuition with two in college).
  2019 income so far is $16k, I want to max my income from LTCGs, IRA, Roth IRA and up to $10k HSA (4yrs of Medical receipts), while staying in the 12% bracket.
 I could also take about $12k in LTCG losses and would not mind.

 As an example;
If I need $140k, and If the max I can get out in the 12% bracket is $78,950 then I subtract my income so far of 16k and get $62,950 of additional income this year.
So, I withdraw this from X, Y, Z accounts and hold this $62,960 to add to next years withdrawals to get my $140k In 2020 I would need about $140k - $62,950k or $77K.


 Now, that all seems to work out with enough to cover everything, but, I still want to do Roth Conversions. So I need more money,  Can I get more money out of my accounts
without gong into a higher bracket?
Right away, I think I missed the $24k standard deduction each year. So that's a start.

  Please give my some ideas of where to get my income to keep within the 12% bracket.

                          Thanks

[ontheway2]

Would you be willing to have your kids get whatever federal student loans they can that you repay over a couple years to help spread out some costs?

[BTDretire]

Would you be willing to have your kids get whatever federal student loans they can that you repay over a couple years to help spread out some costs?

That's an interesting idea!
As good as it is, I don't have any interest in having either of them get loans.
 

[seattlecyclone]

This might be a good time to dip pretty heavily into your Roth accounts. You're old enough that you can withdraw everything in there tax-free. Since your spending is higher than you expect it to be going forward, might as well withdraw from Roth to pay all your bills once you hit your income target.

[BTDretire]

A good idea, I'll max out what I can and then dip into my Roth's as needed.

[BTDretire]

I had someone suggested I can gift  stocks to my daughter. The stock goes to her at todays value. And I don't pay any tax. I have some VTSAX,  56% of the value is gains. Say I gifted her $10,000 of VTSAX, my cost is $4,400.
How long does she need to hold before selling it?
Is it correct that I have zero taxes do on the stock gift?
Is a mutual fund included as a stock?
It seems like I have found a way to generate her tuition where I don't need to generate any tax liability to get her tuition paid.
 What am I missing?

On a side note, is there a loophole here, Is there holding time involved.
Say I gift her $10k, and then next year she gifts me $10k back. I avoided taxes on the original $10k gift,
and she owes no taxes receiving it.
 What's wrong with this idea?

[seattlecyclone]

No tax to you on the gift, but cost basis generally doesn't reset on gifts. If she sold that stock she'd have the same $5,600 gain that you would.

[BTDretire]

No tax to you on the gift, but cost basis generally doesn't reset on gifts. If she sold that stock she'd have the same $5,600 gain that you would.

 Oh, I got incorrect info, I was told the gift was received at today's value rather than cost basis.