Tax ramifications of establishing your trading as a business We’ve discussed how individual investors can only claim up to $3,000 in capital losses per year and minimal expenses (if any). Trading businesses can usually write off greater losses, claim broader expenses related to the business, and worry less about wash sale rules. Instead, I am used to simply answering its questions and being led to the right answers. Will that happen here? Or do I have to do things manually? Also, as mentioned, I lost about $50,000 last year day trading, and my tax liability from other (non-day-trading) income is far less than $50,000. Or a day trader that makes hundreds of trades per day can choose trader-status with the IRS. Trader-status sets profit at the income tax rate, which does not get the long-term capital-gain rate, but allows any amount of trading loss to be deducted. So the larger loss deduction can flow-through to the overall personal tax liability.