it doesn't seem like my capital loss carryover is being used towards my capital gains years later.

[chanpion13]

in 2011 i had a 40K capital loss. i have been carrying over i guess using 3K per year to offset ordinary income.

what is interesting is last year i had $12K in capital gain... and $14K in capital loss carryover. it did NOT offset this.

is there a line number in a tax form that would show this?

i have been using turbotax for 8 years.

also is it 100% true that capital loss 3K max carryover only means ORDINARY INCOME, but there is no limit with capital gain?

[fanfare]

Always print a copy of your completed tax return for your records, and review it carefully before e-Filing.
You will need it if you are audited by the IRS, or to amend if a TurboTax update changes your return or for any other reason,
SUCH AS, confirming your carryover losses were applied.
AND, to find your AGI next year.

Check Schedule D Line 6 and line 14.

If you did not get a a carryover to offset your 2021 gain, you'll have to amend.

Note: you may have already used up that loss in the prior ten years.

@chanpion13 

[Mike9241]

we can't see your schedule D. but evidently, you had net capital gains or losses in the intervening years

for 2021 schedule d look at lines 6 and 14. that's where the prior year's CLCO's show up

first capital loss c/o's offset capital gains. if there's still an excess of capital losses up to $3k may offset ordinary income.  

[VolvoGirl · Accepted solution]

Sounds like you might have used up more of it than you thought.   You get to first offset the loss against any gains you have each year so that can use more of it up. Then after applying the loss to the current gains you can take a max loss of 3,000 per 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.

If you used the desktop version or have the complete pdf of your last year's return you might have the Capital Loss CO (carryover) worksheet that will tell you the amount.

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 worksheet. There might be 2. There is a Capital Loss 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.

[chanpion13]

@VolvoGirl @fanfare @Mike9241 

Hello and thank you tremendously. i think i'm getting closer to understanding. i took what you all said and found out each line for each year. does this look about right? note my original big loss many years ago was short term, not long term. 

based on the below: in 2019 i had a carryover of 11K, but nothing to offset it so only 3k was used against ordinary income. in 2020, i had 8K left, then again had a small mount to offset. In 2021, LINE 16 means i had a gain of 12.3K right? and then line 21 shows that i exhausted the 5K i had left (line 6).

am i getting it right?

2019:

Line 6: (11,381)

Line 14: 0

Line 16: -11,381

Line 21: 3000

2020:

Line 6: (8,381)

Line 14: 0

Line 16: -8472

Line 21: 3000

2021:

Line 6: (5472)

Line 14: 0

Line 16: 12327

Line 21: 0

[dmertz]

Right.  These numbers indicate that you had $91 of new capital losses in 2020 adding to your capital loss carrying over from 2019.  In 2021 you had $17,799 in capital gains to which all of your capital loss carried over from 2020 was applied, resulting in $12,327 of taxable capital gains and no more capital loss to apply against ordinary income or to carry over to future years.