If you have a capital loss it is carried forward until you make a capital gain. Other losses are treated differently. For example if your business or rental property loss pushes your current year income below zero, you are entitled to carry that loss forward into the next financial year, but first you must reduce it by any exempt income you have received, for example Centrelink family payments. Further, you cannot pick and choose when you offset the loss. It must be used up immediately. This can mean it is wasted. For example if you have a $10,000 carried forward loss but only have $15,000 in taxable income in the following year then the loss from the previous year must be used to reduce your taxable income down to $5,000. The loss is wasted because you would not have had to pay tax on the $15,000 anyway.