Capital Loss Carryover Worksheet

If you have a net capital loss greater than $3,000 for the year -- that is, if your capital losses exceed your gains by more than $3,000 -- you won't be able to deduct all your losses this year.

However, you will be able to carryover any losses that exceed $3,000 and deduct them in future years. The losses will retain their character as short-term or long-term when you carry them over.

The worksheet provided below is designed to help you compute your carryovers and retain them in your records as short-term or long-term, so that you don't neglect to deduct them later and so that you have proof of their amount in case your tax return is audited.

Do not file this worksheet; just keep it in your tax records for the year.

capital loss carryover worksheet

The file is in Adobe portable document format (PDF), which requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

To get a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader software, go to the Adobe web site.

For more information, see our discussion of netting short-term and long-term gains and losses.