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Tax Loss Harvesting Calculator
What harvesting a loss actually saves — offsets, the $3,000 ordinary-income cap, and carryforward.
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Selling a losing investment on purpose isn't giving up — it's 'harvesting' a loss you can use to cancel out gains elsewhere (and up to $3,000/year of ordinary income), lowering this year's tax bill. Any leftover loss carries forward to future years.Tax saved this year
$1,760
$5,000 vs. gains + $3,000 vs. ordinary income
Total eventual savings
$4,400
once the full loss is used, nominal
Years to use the full loss
5
Harvesting this $20,000 loss saves $1,760 this year and the full $4,400 once it's fully used up over 5 years — reinvested at 7%/yr, that grows to $7,346 by year 10.
Cumulative savings (reinvested)Immediate-only savings (reinvested)
View as table
| Year | Cumulative savings | Immediate-only savings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,760 | $1,760 |
| 2 | $2,543 | $1,883 |
| 3 | $3,381 | $2,015 |
| 4 | $4,278 | $2,156 |
| 5 | $5,237 | $2,307 |
| 6 | $5,604 | $2,468 |
| 7 | $5,996 | $2,641 |
| 8 | $6,416 | $2,826 |
| 9 | $6,865 | $3,024 |
| 10 | $7,346 | $3,236 |
Methodology & assumptions
- Uses 2025 federal figures; federal tax only, no state tax.
- The harvested loss offsets capital gains first, then up to $3,000/year of ordinary income, with the remainder carried forward indefinitely at $3,000/year until exhausted — the actual federal rule.
- All savings are valued at your current federal marginal ordinary rate, which likely overstates savings on the portion offsetting gains that would otherwise have been taxed at lower long-term capital gains rates.
- The chart reinvests each year's realized tax savings at the expected return to show a compounding effect — the underlying tax rule itself does not compound.
- Wash-sale rule: you must not buy the same or a substantially identical security within 30 days before or after the sale, or the loss is disallowed for that period.
- No state tax-loss rules, AMT, or net operating loss interactions are modeled.
Educational only
This simulator is for education. It uses simplified assumptions, is not financial, tax, or investment advice, and no result here is a prediction or a recommendation. Talk to a licensed professional before acting.More tax math tools
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