Scan for tax-loss-harvest candidates

When a position has fallen below what you paid for it, the loss is a usable asset: realized, it can offset gains and a limited amount of ordinary income. Ironlake's Loss Harvesting Scanner finds the lots showing a loss, shows you the tax benefit and the wash-sale risk, and lets you pair each one with a replacement from a library you control. It shows the math; you make every decision.

Before you start

The scanner works at the lot level - each purchase's date and cost basis - so it needs lot-level detail imported. For Schwab, you upload Schwab Lot Details CSVs from the holdings grid; positions from other brokerages come in through the generic CSV importer's tax-lots mapping. With positions but no lots, the scanner has nothing to scan and says so. It also only looks at taxable accounts: tax-advantaged accounts (IRAs, Roth, HSA, 401k) and any account you have flagged non-taxable are set aside, since harvesting a loss there produces no current-year benefit.

Step 1 - Open the scanner

Go to Tax and open the Loss Harvesting Scanner.

Step 2 - Review the candidate lots

The scanner lists every lot whose current value is below its cost basis, one row per lot. For each it shows the loss, whether it is long-term or short-term, and the estimated tax benefit - the loss times the rate that applies. That rate is your federal rate for the holding period (the preferential rate for long-term lots, your ordinary rate for short-term), plus your state rate and the net investment income tax where your income triggers it, for both periods. Short-term losses, which offset higher-taxed gains, are the more valuable ones.

Step 3 - Check wash-sale risk

The wash-sale rule disallows a loss if you buy a substantially identical security within 30 days before or after the sale - a 61-day window centered on it. The scanner checks the 30 days before the sale, across all your accounts and entities, and flags any candidate with a same-ticker purchase in that window; the check spans your accounts so a buy elsewhere does not silently void the harvest. It cannot see the forward 30 days, since a purchase you have not made yet is not in your data - so a clear result here is not a guarantee that a replacement you buy after the harvest is safe. Watching the forward window is on you.

Step 4 - Build your replacement library

To hold your market exposure through the wash-sale window, investors commonly swap into a similar-but-not-identical fund. Ironlake never picks that security for you. Instead, your Replacement Security Library comes pre-seeded with a set of commonly-cited pairs (different fund family, similar exposure - the kind documented in the Bogleheads literature) that you review and adopt one at a time, and you can add your own pairs too. The scanner only surfaces replacements from the library you have built, and the "substantially identical" judgment stays yours.

Step 5 - Decide, and log it

You choose which lots to harvest and which replacement fits your situation. Ironlake shows the math and the wash-sale check; it does not advise you to harvest any specific lot, and it places no trades - it is read-only with respect to your brokerage. Record the decision and your reasoning in the Decision Journal so the rationale is preserved.

What you have now

A clear, lot-level view of your harvestable losses with the tax benefit and wash-sale risk attached, and a replacement library you curated - everything you need to make the call, with the call left to you.

Scan your positions