Deducting Losses: Casualty and Theft, Disaster, NOLs for Individuals, Investment Loss

This practice note discusses the principles and variables governing the ability of individual taxpayers to deduct certain types of losses. It is important for taxpayers to be able to deduct losses as they reduce taxable income and the ultimate tax liability. While it is important to be able to deduct losses, the Internal Revenue Code imposes a variety of limitations and obstacles to the ability to utilize losses. The types of losses discussed in this practice note are casualty and theft losses, net operating losses (NOL), and investment losses.