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Somewhat disappointed that the defense of Trump using carry-forward losses seems to be based on a “well it’s legal” meme. There’s a good reason why carry-forward losses are legal ... because it’s also MORAL! After all, if an entrepreneur who puts his own money at risk will have to pay heavy taxes if that gamble pays off, then of course any loss of capital in a bad year should be allowed to offset any increase in capital in future years, so that over the long term the only money that is taxed is the net increase in capital, since otherwise the effect of the tax law would be to confiscate the money you have rather than to tax net income.

That’s a fairly simple concept to explain and to understand, and this would be a good opportunity for the Trump campaign to use to explain this to those who do not, to defend the MORALITY of using carry-forward losses, rather than making sound like he is excusing an unfair loophole based on mere legality.

Also, aside from morality it’s also a sound pro-growth strategy, given that nearly half of all new businesses will fail - and the rest almost always lose money for a year or more before becoming profitable. So if those carry-forward loss provisions were taken away, you’d see a sharp decline in the number of entrepreneurs willing to put a significant portion of their accumulated wealth at risk in order to start a new business, since any losses from failures or even initial-year losses could not be recouped by offsetting those against future profits.