A tax loss carryforward is a special tax rule that allows capital losses to be carried over from one year to another. In other words, an investor can take capital losses realized in the current tax year to offset gains or profits in a future tax year.
Investors can use a capital loss carryforward to minimize their tax liability when reporting capital gains from investments. Business owners can also take advantage of loss carryforward rules when deducting losses each year. Knowing how this tax provision works and when it can be applied is important from an investment tax savings perspective.
Key Points
• Tax loss carryforward allows investors to offset capital losses against future gains, reducing tax liability.
• Investors can take advantage of tax loss carryforward by deducting capital losses from taxable income, reducing their overall tax liability.
• Capital loss carryforward rules prohibit violating the wash-sale rule and have limitations on deductions.
• Net operating loss carryforward is similar to capital loss carryforward for businesses operating at a loss.
• Losses can be carried forward indefinitely at the federal level, but capital losses must be used to offset capital gains in the same year.
What Is Tax Loss Carryforward?
Tax loss carryforward, sometimes called capital loss carryover, is the process of carrying forward capital losses into future tax years. A capital loss occurs when you sell an asset for less than your adjusted basis. Capital losses are the opposite of capital gains, which are realized when you sell an asset for more than your adjusted basis.
Adjusted basis means the cost of an asset, adjusted for various events (i.e., increases or decreases in value) through the course of ownership.
Whether a capital gain or loss is short-term or long-term depends on how long you owned it before selling. Short-term capital losses and gains apply when an asset is held for one year or less, while long-term capital gains and losses are associated with assets held for longer than one year.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows certain capital losses, including losses associated with personal or business investments, to be deducted from taxable income.
There are limits on the amount that can be deducted each year, however, depending on the type of losses being reported. For example, the IRS allows investors to deduct up to $3,000 from their taxable income if the capital loss is from the sales of assets like stocks, bonds, or real estate. If capital losses exceed $3,000, the IRS allows investors to carry capital losses forward into future years and use them to reduce potential taxable income.
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How Tax Loss Carryforwards Work
A tax loss carryforward generally allows you to report losses realized on assets in one tax year on a future year’s tax return. Realized losses differ from unrealized losses or gains, which are the change in an investment’s value compared to its purchase price before an investor sells it.
IRS loss carryforward rules apply to both personal and business assets. The main types of capital loss carryovers allowed by the Internal Revenue Code are capital loss carryforwards and net operating loss carryforwards.
Capital Loss Carryforward
IRS rules allow investors to “harvest” tax losses, meaning they use capital losses to offset capital gains. An investor could sell an investment at a capital loss, then deduct that loss against capital gains from other investments to reduce taxable income, assuming they don’t violate the wash-sale rule.
The wash-sale rule prohibits investors from buying substantially identical investments within the 30 days before or 30 days after the sale of a security for the purpose of tax-loss harvesting.
If capital losses are equal to capital gains, they will offset one another on your tax return, so there’d be nothing to carry over. For example, a $5,000 capital gain would cancel out a $5,000 capital loss and vice versa.
However, if capital losses exceed capital gains, investors can deduct a portion of the losses from their ordinary income to reduce tax liability. Investors can deduct the lesser of $3,000 ($1,500 if married filing separately) or the total net loss shown on line 21 of Schedule D (Form 1040). But any capital losses over $3,000 can be carried forward to future tax years, where investors can use capital losses to reduce future capital gains.
To figure out how to record a tax loss carryforward, you can use the Capital Loss Carryover Worksheet found on the IRS’ Instructions for Schedule D (Form 1040) .
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Net Operating Loss Carryforward
A net operating loss (NOL) occurs when a business has more deductions than income. Rather than posting a profit for the year, the company operates at a loss. Business owners may be able to claim a NOL deduction on their personal income taxes. Net operating loss carryforward rules work similarly to capital loss carryforward rules in that businesses can carry forward losses from one year to the next.
According to the IRS, for losses arising in tax years after December 31, 2020, the NOL deduction is limited to 80% of the excess of the business’s taxable income. To calculate net operating loss deductions for your business, you first have to omit items that could limit your loss, including:
• Capital losses that exceed capital gains
• Nonbusiness deductions that exceed nonbusiness income
• Qualified business income deductions
• The net operating loss deduction itself
These losses can be carried forward indefinitely at the federal level.
Note, however, that the rules for NOL carryforwards at the state level vary widely. Some states follow federal regulations, but others do not.
How Long Can Losses Be Carried Forward?
According to IRS tax loss carryforward rules, capital and net operating losses can be carried forward indefinitely. Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, business owners were limited to a 20-year window when carrying forward net operating losses.
It’s important to remember that capital loss carryforward rules don’t allow you to roll over losses. IRS rules state that you must use capital losses to offset capital gains in the year they occur. You can only carry capital losses forward if they exceed your capital gains for the year. The IRS also requires you to use an apples-to-apples approach when applying capital losses against capital gains.
For example, you’d need to use short-term capital losses to offset short-term capital gains. You couldn’t use a short-term capital loss to balance out a long-term capital gain or a long-term capital loss to offset a short-term capital gain. This rule applies because short- and long-term capital gains are subject to different tax rates.
Example of Tax Loss Carryforward
Assume that you purchase 100 shares of XYZ stock at $50 each for a total of $5,000. Thirteen months after buying the shares, their value has doubled to $100 each, so you decide to sell, collecting a capital gain of $5,000.
Suppose you also hold 100 shares of ABC stock, which have decreased in value from $70 per share to $10 per share over that same period. If you decide to sell ABC stock, your capital losses will total $6,000 – the difference between the $7,000 you paid for the shares and the $1,000 you sold them for.
You could use $5,000 of the loss of ABC stock to offset the $5,000 gain associated with selling your shares in XYZ to reduce your capital gains tax. Per IRS rules, you could also apply the additional $1,000 loss to reduce your ordinary income for the year.
Now, say you also have another stock you sold for a $6,000 loss. Because you already have a $1,000 loss and there is a $3,000 limit on deductions, you could apply up to $2,000 to offset ordinary income in the current tax year, then carry the remaining $4,000 loss forward to a future tax year, per IRS rules. This is an example of tax loss carryforward. All of this assumes that you don’t violate the wash-sale rule when timing the sale of losing stocks.
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The Takeaway
If you’re investing in a taxable brokerage account, you must include tax planning as part of your strategy. Selling stocks to realize capital gains could result in a larger tax bill if you’re not deducting capital losses at the same time. With tax-loss harvesting, assuming you don’t violate the wash sale rule, it’s possible to carry forward investment losses to help reduce the tax impact of gains over time. This applies to personal as well as business gains and losses. Thus, understanding the tax loss carryforward provision may help reduce your personal and investment taxes.
If you’re interested in building a portfolio with financial guidance, it may help to open an online brokerage account with SoFi Invest®. With SoFi, you can trade stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and fractional shares with no commissions. Even better, as a SoFi Member, you have access to financial professionals who can offer complimentary guidance and answer your most pressing investing questions.
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