Although I usually pay the highest tax bracket, I took a hiatus from employment this year and have no income other than $87,000 in short-term stock investment gains.
I have carried over short-term losses from prior years totaling around $70,000.
Instead of paying taxes on my $87,000 in short-term gains this year, I would like to carry forward my $70,000 in short-term losses until a later year when I will again be in a higher tax band.
It’s utilise it or lose it. It would help if you used the maximum allowable each year. Regretfully, that occasionally leads to the losses being ineffective.
Why? If not, you’re advocating that people should be free to arbitrarily move income or expenses from year to year, regardless of the specific facts and circumstances surrounding the recognition date of the income or deduction.
The next time, try being proactive with your tax strategy rather than reactive. The most important thing we advise our clients to do is see us before acting. not to ask us to try to make changes after they’ve already taken action.