Your retire with 100K, that year you lose 20K in the stock market, you pay no taxes. Next year you make 20K in the stock market. Is it fair for that entire 20K to be taxed?
:)
> If your capital losses exceed your capital gains, the amount of the excess loss that you can claim on line 13 of Form 1040 to lower your income is the lesser of $3,000, ($1,500 if you are married filing separately) or your total net loss shown on line 16 of the Form 1040, Schedule D (PDF), Capital Gains and Losses. If your net capital loss is more than this limit, you can carry the loss forward to later years.
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc409.html
The losses that people like Donald Trump can carry forward are not capital losses, which is what we are talking about in this thread, and which apply to the situation pcardh0 described in his comment. The losses Trump took are net operating losses, which he was able to take advantage of because he is in the real estate business.
The 3000 is the deductible limit per year based on a loss, this isn't the limit to carry over.
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p536/ar02.html https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550/ch01.html#en_US_2015_p...