Can I apply capital loss carryover from when I was single to my wife's capital gains from RSUs?

You can absolutely use your capital loss carryover against her capital gains when filing jointly! The IRS treats married couples filing jointly as a single taxpayer entity, so once you're married and filing together, your previous losses become "joint" losses. How it works: First, your short-term capital losses will offset short-term capital gains (hers or yours doesn't matter). Then any remaining losses can offset long-term capital gains. If you still have losses left over after offsetting all gains, you can deduct up to $3,000 against other income and carry forward any remaining losses to future years. Be sure to properly document your loss carryover from prior years by having copies of your previous tax returns, especially Schedule D and Form 8949 that show those losses.

I went through something similar last year with my capital losses from before marriage. I spent hours trying to figure it out and kept finding conflicting information online. I eventually found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which analyzed my previous tax returns and confirmed I could use my pre-marriage losses against our joint capital gains. The tool examined all my old Schedule D forms and gave me a complete report showing exactly how to apply the losses correctly. It saved me from potentially making a costly mistake.

I just wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after I questioned it here. I decided to try it with my husband's pre-marriage capital losses and our current gains situation. I was genuinely surprised at how thorough the analysis was! It correctly identified all his carryover losses from the past 3 years and showed us exactly how to apply them to our joint return. The best part was getting confirmation about how the marriage year timing worked with the loss carryover. Definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with capital loss carryovers across a change in filing status.

For anyone trying to reach the IRS to confirm this type of tax situation - good luck! I spent 4 days trying to get someone on the phone last tax season to verify how capital loss carryovers work after marriage. Then I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) and they got me connected to an IRS agent in under 45 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. They basically hold your place in the IRS phone queue and call you when an agent picks up. The agent I spoke with confirmed exactly what others are saying here - your capital losses from before marriage can offset your spouse's gains when filing jointly.

I need to eat my words about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I was desperate enough to try it while dealing with my own capital loss carryover questions. No joke - I got through to the IRS in 37 minutes when I had previously wasted nearly 5 hours over multiple days trying on my own. The agent confirmed that my wife's capital gains could indeed be offset by my pre-marriage losses on our joint return. They even explained how to document it properly on our return. I'm usually the first to call out services that seem too good to be true, but this one actually delivered.

Remember that capital losses offset capital gains dollar for dollar, but if you have excess losses beyond your gains, you can only deduct $3,000 per year against ordinary income. The rest carries forward to future years. So if you have like $20k in losses but only $5k in gains, you'd offset all the gains, deduct $3,000 against other income, and carry forward $12,000 to next year.

I'm in the opposite situation lol. I had capital gains before marriage and my new wife has capital losses. Our accountant said we can combine them too. But u need to make sure ur using the right tax software that handles this correctly. Some of the cheaper ones don't do capital loss carryovers right especially with status changes.

Just wanted to share my experience with this exact situation! I had about $12k in capital loss carryover from some really bad investment decisions when I was single (lesson learned about putting all my eggs in one basket with meme stocks). When I got married, my wife had substantial RSU gains from her tech job. Our tax preparer confirmed that we could absolutely use my pre-marriage losses against her gains on our joint return. The key thing I learned is that you need to have good documentation of your prior year losses - make sure you have copies of your old Schedule D forms that show the loss carryover amounts. One thing to watch out for: if your wife's RSUs have been held for different periods, some will be short-term gains and others long-term. Your short-term losses will first offset short-term gains, then long-term gains. The tax software should handle this automatically, but it's good to understand the order. We ended up saving about $2,800 in taxes by combining our capital gains and losses. Definitely worth filing jointly if you're in this situation!