I'm not so sure the IRS will allow you to go back and recalculate your taxes from almost 10 years ago ? I mean from what I read it said you must claim the maximum allowable amount of 3K (or 1500 if MFS) in the year that the loss was realized in order to correctly carry it over into the following years. Also you said that he doesn't have to amend his 2008-2011 filings and while that may be true he DOES have to recalculate them for the purposes of getting the CORRECT carry over of capital losses !!! In 2008 to 2011 he may not have been eligible to take the 3K loss. With no way to look at it how can we be sure? There in lies the problem. Without an ACCURATE calculation of the carry over loss amount the IRS is not going to allow it. If that were the case I could just make up a loss from 10 to 15 years ago and carry it over each year until I die.
