Even though you don't think you need to file taxes with the IRS because you do not meet the requirement in terms of income, you still need to file in order to maintain your carryover privileges. That means, for example, if you have an income of only $7,000 and you have losses or gains, and your income still remains under the requirement for filing taxes, you still have to file...to report your gains and/or losses. If you skip a year, the IRS, as policy, will not let you carryover losses. You are always required to file taxes if you have any sort of income/gain or loss as long as it is being reported to the IRS by another entity. Entities such as a brokerage firms and money management firms, for example, will report your gains or losses to the IRS. So, the reason for filing taxes is twofold, 1. to maintain your carryover privileges in case you need to use them, and 2. It is required by law. Typically, the IRS may not care much if you only have losses, but they may take notice if you have gains that exceed your filing threshold and you don't report them. Hope this helps.
