Tax Loss Carryforward & Carryback Optimizer

A loss year isn't just a bad year, it's a refund waiting to be claimed against the three years before it, plus up to twenty years of shelter still ahead.

Reading This Tool

How To Use This Calculator

Enter this year's non-capital loss and the taxable income reported in each of the prior three years.

A non-capital loss can be carried back up to three years to generate an immediate refund of tax already paid, applied against the most recent year first. Anything left over carries forward up to twenty years against future income.

Your Inputs

This Year's Non-Capital Loss $400,000

Taxable Income, One Year Back $150,000

Taxable Income, Two Years Back $100,000

Taxable Income, Three Years Back $80,000

Corporate Tax Rate Applied In Those Years 27.0%

Applies the loss against the most recent prior year first, then works backward, which is the order that typically makes sense when tax rates were similar across those years. Form T2A is used to carry a loss back.

Refund vs. Carryforward

Immediate Refund From Carryback

Loss Applied Against Prior Years

Remaining Loss Carried Forward

Loss Applied Against Each Prior Year

Non-capital losses can be carried forward up to twenty years and back three years. This models a simple three-year carryback only; the actual optimal choice sometimes favours carrying forward instead, particularly if future tax rates or income are expected to be meaningfully higher.

Coming off a loss year?

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