Capital Loss Calculator

Capital Loss Calculator

Capital losses can offset gains dollar-for-dollar, plus up to $3,000 of ordinary income annually.

How It Works

1. Enter your income or relevant financial details 2. Select your filing status and applicable deductions 3. Review your estimated tax liability 4. Plan your finances accordingly

Important Notes

• Tax laws change frequently; verify rates for the current year
• This provides estimates; consult a tax professional for complex situations
• State and local taxes vary and may require separate calculations
• Consider tax-advantaged strategies to minimize your liability

Common Deductions and Credits

Many taxpayers can reduce taxes through:

• Standard deduction or itemized deductions
• Retirement account contributions
• Education credits
• Child tax credit
• Mortgage interest deduction

How Capital Losses Work

Losses offset gains first, like against like, and only then reach ordinary income.

1. Short-term losses offset short-term gains; long-term against long-term. 2. Any remaining net loss offsets the other category. 3. Up to $3,000 of what is left offsets ordinary income each year ($1,500 if married filing separately). 4. Everything beyond that carries forward indefinitely.

A $50,000 net loss with no gains takes 17 years to deduct at $3,000 a year.

Tax-loss harvesting realises losses deliberately to offset gains, then reinvests. The constraint is the wash sale rule: buying the same or a "substantially identical" security within 30 days before or after the sale disallows the loss. Buying a different fund tracking a different index is the standard way around it — buying the same S&P 500 fund from another provider is not.

A Note on These Figures

Brackets, thresholds and the standard deduction shown here are for tax year 2024, filed in 2025, and they are indexed to inflation every year. State tax is not included and ranges from nothing at all (Florida, Texas, Washington and six others) to 13.3% in California.

This is an estimate, not tax advice. Anything involving equity compensation, multiple states, self-employment or a life change is worth an hour of a professional's time.

Worked Through the Brackets

On $90,000 of gross income, filing single, taking the $14,600 standard deduction — so $75,400 of taxable income:

Bracket	Range	Income taxed here	Tax
10%	$0 – $11,600	$11,600	$1,160
12%	$11,600 – $47,150	$35,550	$4,266
22%	$47,150 – $100,525	$28,250	$6,215
Total			$11,641

That is a 12.9% effective rate against a 22% marginal rate. The two answer different questions: the marginal rate is what the next dollar costs, and it is the one that decides whether a 401(k) contribution or an extra shift is worth it. The effective rate is what you actually paid, and it is the one to budget against.

The Same Income, Different Sources

Source	Federal tax on it
Wages (above)	$11,641
Self-employment profit	$11,641 income tax plus $12,717 SE tax
Long-term capital gain of $10,000	$1,500 at 15%

Where income comes from changes the bill more than how much of it there is. A self-employed filer at this level pays roughly $12,717 that an employee never sees, because there is no employer paying the other half of FICA.