I seem to have lost a capital loss carryover between tax years 2016 and 2017. How can I recover that as a carryover?

[KrisD15]

To clarify, 

did you have a Capital loss carryover that you were not able to use until this year? 

Or did you just "forget about it" and not use it previously, although you could have? 

[mudbug1]

I had another capital loss that I've used since 2020.  Was new to TT in 2016, I must not have done something right to carry the capital loss forward, so I just 'manually' put in the $3000 loss up until 2020.  The 2016 loss was fairly large, I don't want to just let it go.  What is the right way to get it back into my carryover?

[VolvoGirl]

If it didn't carryover an amount you may have used it up.  The 3,000 is just the max loss you can claim each year AFTER offsetting any gains you have.  So you might use more of it up in one year.  

Schedule D doesn't actually show the carryover amount. To find your  Capital Loss Carryover amount  you need to look at your  return schedule D page 2.  Line 16 will be your total loss and line 21 should be a max loss of 3,000.  The difference between line 16 and 21 is the carryover loss for next year.

There is also a Carryover Worksheet showing the carryover from the prior year and the current amounts.  Then there is also the Capital Loss Carry Forward worksheet showing the amount transferring over to next year.

In the Online version you have to save your return with all the worksheet as a pdf file to your computer to see the Capital Loss Carry Over and Carry Forward worksheets.

In the Desktop program you can go to Forms and find it in the list in the left column.

[mudbug1]

It would not have been possible to use it up in one year.  We are talking many years to use it up at $3000 per year.  And any capital gain offsets that I would have wouldn't have done it either.  I think I didn't enter the total amount, so it didn't carryover.  So back to my question:  how can I fix this to get back my carryover?

[Mike9241]

you have to go back to those returns and check because up to $3,000 of capital losses each year can be used to offset other income. to the extent AGI is negative in any year the net capital loss used is $3,000 reduced, but not below zero by the negative AGI. 

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

Q. So back to my question:  how can I fix this to get back my carryover?

A. You manually calculate the remaining carry over to 2022. 

In TurboTax (TT), enter at:
- Federal Taxes tab (Personal in  Home & Business)

 - Wages & Income

Scroll down to:

-Investment Income

   -Capital Loss carryover

What TT calculated will be prepopulated in the carry over box. You are allowed to change it.

Repeating what others have said: It's not just a matter of deducting $3000 each year. You must offset any capital gains in the intervening years (long term and short term) including any capital gains distributions shown in box 2a of your 1099-DIVs