Tax losses of earlier income years

Complete this section if you have a tax loss from an earlier income year which you have not claimed as a deduction.

You may have a tax loss at Tax losses of earlier income years this year which you may be able to claim as a deduction. You must complete this section whether or not you are able to claim a deduction for the loss this year.

If you became bankrupt before 1 July 2015, or were released from debts under an arrangement entered into under the bankruptcy laws before 1 July 2015, you generally cannot claim a deduction for tax losses incurred before you became bankrupt or were released from the debts.

If you have tax losses from more than one earlier income year you should generally deduct the earliest losses first.

To complete this section you will need records of your tax losses from earlier income years.

Primary production and non-primary production losses

You need to separate your losses into primary production losses and non-primary production losses. Primary production activities are described in Information for primary producers 2016.

For more information, see Tax losses of earlier income years.

Completing this section

You will need the following amounts that you worked out when completing last year's tax return:

• primary production losses carried forward to 2015–16
• non-primary production losses carried forward to 2015–16.

1. Enter any primary production and non-primary production losses carried forward to 2015–16 into the corresponding fields.
2. Calculate your net exempt income.
   Your net exempt income is the total of your exempt income for 2015–16 less the total expenses (other than capital expenses) incurred in earning your exempt income. If the result is less than zero, your net exempt income is 0.
   To find out what amounts are exempt income, see Amounts that you do not pay tax on.
   
3. Enter your net exempt income into the corresponding fields.
   1. If you have no exempt income or your net exempt income is 0, leave the following fields blank:
      1. Net exempt income you are applying against primary production losses
      2. Net exempt income you are applying against non-primary production losses 
   2. If you only have primary production losses carried forward to 2015–16, enter the net exempt income at Net exempt income you are applying against primary production losses.
   3. If you only have non-primary production losses carried forward to 2015–16, enter the net exempt income at Net exempt income you are applying against non-primary production losses.
   4. If you have both primary and non-primary production losses carried forward to 2015–16, you choose how you apply your net exempt income to reduce your losses.
      1. Enter the amount of net exempt income you wish to apply against primary production losses carried forward to 2015–16 at Net exempt income you are applying against primary production losses. The amount you enter must not be greater than the amount at Primary production losses carried forward from earlier years.
      2. Enter the amount of net exempt income you wish to apply against non-primary production losses carried forward to 2015–16 at Net exempt income you are applying against non-primary production losses. The amount you enter must not be greater than the amount at Non-primary production losses carried forward from earlier years.
4. Select Save.
5. Select Save and continue.

Notes:

• To work out whether you have any losses to carry forward to 2016–17, see Tax losses of earlier income years.
• In myTax, SUBTOTAL is the amount of Taxable Income plus the amount of Tax losses of earlier income years shown on the Prepare return screen.

Instructions on completing your individual tax return using myTax.