Use Capital Losses

You can use your 2009 capital losses to reduce your current year’s income taxes by applying such losses against your 2009 capital gains. You must however be careful of the superficial loss rules preventing you from claiming a capital loss on an identical asset that you reacquired 30 days before or after the sale date.

If capital gains were realized in the years 2006 to 2008 and net capital losses were incurred in 2009 then you can carry these losses back against previous years’ capital gains. You can carry the unused 2009 losses forward to future capital gains.

The last 2009 transaction date effec-tive for publicly traded securities is December 24, 2009.