topic california capital loss carry forward question not answered and why doesn't Turbo tax do the transferring automatically in State tax filing

california capital loss carry forward question not answered and why doesn't Turbo tax do the transferring automatically

oaklander — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 07:00:02 GMT

Hello. I've been looking at the California capital loss carry forward issue and there is one unanswered question: which is why do we need to use a prior year carry forward loss for this year's? And better question, since we have used Turbo tax for many years, why doesn't Turbo tax just port over the data rather than having us find and manually enter it? Sounds like a major bug since Turbo tax ports over lots of other prior year data.

Re: california capital loss carry forward question not answered and why doesn't Turbo tax do the ...

MarilynG1 — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 03:03:44 GMT

Yes, if you have a Capital Loss Carryover from last year, you need to use it every year until it's used up. You can't choose which tax years to apply your carryover to. Carryovers from this year's return must be applied to next year's, etc. However, although you need to report it, if you don't need it this year, the amount will carry over intact to next year.

Some users report that their carryover loss transferred from their Federal to their State return properly, while others needed to enter it in their state interview. The reason for this is not apparent; some suggest it's from not transferring immediately on starting a new return, or skipping around in the return before transferring. Anyway, it's definitely a good idea to keep track of your losses personally.

Here's more discussion on Capital Loss Carryovers and What is a Capital Loss Carryover?

@oaklander

Re: california capital loss carry forward question not answered and why doesn't Turbo tax do the ...

jacguerrant — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:52:32 GMT

Sure seems like Turbo tax would auto fill this. But I found looking at 2023 California Capital Loss Carryover Worksheet it pretty clearly states on line 8 what the carry over is. This is copy pasted from the worksheet:

"8 - Subtract line 7 from line 6. This is your capital loss carryover to 2024"

And this is exactly the correct number that was my federal carry over, so for me there was no difference in the carry over amount. The AMT amount was the same.

Re: california capital loss carry forward question not answered and why doesn't Turbo tax do the ...

rdm2020 — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 21:30:23 GMT

I couldn't agree more. I am stalled by this in my TurboTax Desktop. It's infuriating that Turbo Tax doesn't do the calculation, or at least provide a step-by-step guide.

Re: california capital loss carry forward question not answered and why doesn't Turbo tax do the ...

MarilynG1 — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 22:55:04 GMT

Your California Capital Loss Carryover amount may be the same as your Federal Carryover amount, but if TurboTax did not fill in this amount on your CA return, check your 2024 California Capital Loss Carryover Worksheet to verify.

Here's more info on CA Capital Loss Carryover.

@rdm2020

Re: california capital loss carry forward question not answered and why doesn't Turbo tax do the ...

Beachfan11 — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 18:46:14 GMT

Also, the reference to the California tax instructions given yields "page not found".