Review Portfolio for Losses: If you have an overall loss, the loss that can be used to offset income other than capital gains is limited to $3,000 ($1,500 for married taxpayers filing separately), and any excess loss carries over to the next year. Keep in mind that losses from the sale of business assets are generally separately allowed in full in the year of sale and are not mixed with the losses from the sale of capital assets.
Assets that are sold and not held long-term, referred to as short-term capital gains, do not receive the benefit of the special rates afforded to long-term capital gains. Taxpayers achieve a better overall tax benefit if they can arrange their transactions to offset short-term capital gains with long-term capital losses.