Can I re-establish taking a capital loss carryover after not having done it for a few years?

[ThomasM125 · Accepted solution]

If you have unused capital loss carryovers, you need to go back through the years you didn't take them and reduce the carryover amount by the amount allowed in the those years. In other words, you have to take them each year as allowed, you can't just skip a few years and then use the available loss from the last year you used them as the balance allowable in the current year. 

[dankokomo]

How do I go back for past years?  Do I have to submit amended returns?  How do I handle the current year's return?  Why can't I just declare for the current year the remaining loss where I left off the last time I used the carryover amount?  Thanks for your on-point reply.

[ColeenD3]

Please see this thorough discussion of the topic from HalAl.

Capital Loss Carryover

[fanfare]

since capital loss carryforwards are valuable,

it is a mistake to let your Schedule D history of losses go stale.