Lost 80k in 2024 but made 100k in 2025… can I offset the losses?

I made some bad calls in 2024 and ended up losing 80k in the market. But recently, I made an investment and gained 100k in 2025. Now I’m getting mixed advice on how this works for taxes.

I thought I could carry the 80k loss from 2024 into 2025 to offset the gain and only pay taxes on the 20k difference. Is that correct? Or do I have to pay tax on the full 100k? Any help would be great, thanks!

Looks like you’ll have the 80k loss on your 2024 taxes and the 100k gain on your 2025 taxes.

Losing 80k in 2024 though… yikes!

Vern said:
Looks like you’ll have the 80k loss on your 2024 taxes and the 100k gain on your 2025 taxes.

Losing 80k in 2024 though… yikes!

Better than the reverse situation… imagine 80k gain in 2024 and a 77k loss in 2025!

If your net loss for 2024 is 80k, you can deduct $3,000 against your income for that year and carry the rest to 2025. Any remaining losses will offset gains in 2025.

Yes, assuming both transactions were in taxable accounts. For 2024, you’ll likely have a 77k loss carryover (after deducting 3k against ordinary income), which you can use to offset your 2025 gains.

Here’s the basic idea:

  1. Add up all your long-term gains and losses. That’s your net long-term result.
  2. Add up all your short-term gains and losses. That’s your net short-term result.
  3. If both are gains, you’ll owe tax on the total. Short-term gains are taxed like regular income, but long-term gains usually have a lower rate.
  4. If one is a gain and the other is a loss, you combine them. If the result is a net gain, you pay tax on that amount. If it’s a net loss, you can deduct up to $3,000 against your income and carry the rest to the next year.

Your software will calculate all of this for you.

@Amari
So just to confirm, does this mean my taxable amount on stock gains would only be 23k?

Beck said:
@Amari
So just to confirm, does this mean my taxable amount on stock gains would only be 23k?

Yes, you’d deduct $3,000 on your 2024 return and carry over the remaining 77k to offset most of your 2025 gains.

Sorry to hear about the loss, but congrats on the gain! It happens to a lot of us. Just try to take some lessons from it. I’ve learned the hard way more than once myself.

Your 80k loss will carry forward into 2025 since there are limits on how much you can deduct each year.

Joss said:
Your 80k loss will carry forward into 2025 since there are limits on how much you can deduct each year.

So does that mean I only pay tax on 20k?

Beck said:

Joss said:
Your 80k loss will carry forward into 2025 since there are limits on how much you can deduct each year.

So does that mean I only pay tax on 20k?

It depends. Did you have any gains in 2024? If you only had the 80k loss, you’d deduct $3,000 in 2024 (if single) and carry 77k forward to 2025.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Not exactly, but close. If you had a net 80k loss in 2024, you’d deduct $3,000 against your income that year, leaving a 77k carryover. In 2025, that 77k would offset your 100k gain, so you’d only have to pay tax on 23k. If you don’t use all the loss in 2025, it keeps carrying forward.

If 80k is your total 2024 loss, you can only deduct $3,000 in 2024. The remaining 77k will carry over to 2025. If your 2025 gain is 100k, you’d end up with 23k in taxable income.

Kerry said:
If 80k is your total 2024 loss, you can only deduct $3,000 in 2024. The remaining 77k will carry over to 2025. If your 2025 gain is 100k, you’d end up with 23k in taxable income.

Thanks! Some people told me I could only carry over 3k, which didn’t sound right to me.

@Beck
You can deduct up to $3,000 of losses against ordinary income each year, but there’s no limit on how much you can carry over to offset future gains.

For 2024, you’ll deduct 3k of the loss. In 2025, you’ll have 77k to offset most of the 100k gain, leaving 23k taxable.