rjs
Level 15
Level 15

Get your taxes done using TurboTax

So you're in much better shape than we thought. It looks like, at worst, only your 2019 tax return is wrong. It's not clear what happened. It looks like you did not transfer information from 2018 when you started your 2019 tax return. If you have already filed 2019 you will have to file an amended return to add the carryover. But the earlier years are okay. When you start your 2020 tax return, try to make sure that you transfer information from the amended 2019 return, so the correct carryover amount will transfer to 2020.


There's another possibility, though. Did you have any investment sales or other capital gains in 2019? If you had a large gain (such as if you sold a house), the gain could have used up all of the remaining loss carryover. Then you wouldn't see a loss on Form 1040, just a smaller gain. But the capital loss carryover from 2018 would appear on Schedule D line 6 or line 14. If this is the case, your 2019 tax return is correct, and you do not have to amend it, but you have no remaining loss to carry forward to 2020.


The Capital Loss Carryforward Worksheet calculates the amount of the carryover to the following year. The Federal Carryover Worksheet is the vehicle that actually carries it from one year to the next. Both worksheets should be in the file for every year that you have a capital loss carryover, until the loss is used up. TurboTax did not reorganize the worksheets. The Capital Loss Carryforward Worksheet is missing from your 2019 return for one of two possible reasons. One possibility is that, for some reason that we have not determined, the loss did not carry over from 2018 to 2019. The other possibility is that the remaining loss was used up in 2019. Either way, there was no loss in 2019 to carry forward to 2020.


If the capital loss carryover does not transfer from year to year, for any reason, you can enter it manually. In the Search box type "capital loss carryover" (without the quotes), then click the link that says "Jump to capital loss carryover."