Introduction

Loss harvesting is simply the timely selling of securities at a loss in order to offset taxable capital gains and potentially offset up to $3,000 of income. When you lock in losses, you can actually use it to offset income either this year or later this year or even future years. If you don't have any gains to take in the current year on your current tax return, you can take up to $1,000 off of ordinary income for a lot of people.