W2

I finally received my W-2 form this past Wednesday so as soon as I can I am going to pay my tax preparer a visit. First thing I did with my W-2, I always do this, was to go to MSN Money and use their Tax Estimator. I was surprised to see how much I will be getting back, I have to wait for my preparer to do his thing to be 100% sure after all the calculator is just that, a calculator. I also was very surprised to see just how little I would get for my stock losses, about $300 dollars more. I then went to bed sad and kicking myself for being such an idiot but then I had an epiphany. Instead of claiming the $2,217.80 I had in losses on this year taxes why don’t I wait for the year when I have actual gains.

Here is an example, lets say that I have $2000 dollars capital gains this year 2009, I then can use $2,000 from my 2008 losses to offset my gains, I am not really sure if I can then carry over the remaining $217.80 into the next year.

The limit you can claim is $3,000 dollars, if you had $4,000 dollars in total losses then you can carry the rest into the next year because you were over the limit but what if you were under the way I am. I am assuming that I won’t be able to carry over the $217.80 from my example because it’s under the limit but that is just an assumption on my part, so then my question becomes, do I have to claim the loss this year because it is under the $3,000 dollar limit?, nothing that I’ve read has answered that question. If there are any tax experts reading this post and I am wrong please feel free to let me and everybody else know. Only one way to really be sure and that is to ask my tax preparer when I go see him. This issue just became a bit more complicated than I thought it would be, stay tuned.