Capital gains losses from previous years

[cementhead]

Hi, I own some crypto currency. I bought some in 2017 and tried day trading hoping to get a pot of gold. Reality set in first half of 2018 and I realized better off sitting and waiting.
I did not file any gains or losses in 2017,2018. In 2019 I claimed 1800.00 in gains. I went back and used a program for the crypto and it showed $720 in losses in 2017 and 17,000.00 loss in 2018.
anyone on here an accountant?
do I need to amend 2018 to write the future gains off? I know only 3k a year in losses is allowed for write offs. I’m wondering if next year I would just attach my loss sheet to my return or if I have to amend 2018 even though it wouldn’t change my tax in any way for that year.

thanks

[Sue Pendleton]

Find a decent CPA to fix this for you. I assume by "using a program" you mean something like TurboTax? Way back I had to change the way amorization on a rental was figured using TurboTax as the tax code changed and I am not an IT genius. It took a few days but I fixed it. Crypto is a whole nother story. Hence the suggestion of a CPA who can also help with tax planning this year. I would think you now need to amend 2017, 2018 and 2019 to both have a solid base to work from and to take any rightful losses. Who told you that there is a $3,000 limit on capitol losses? That is wrong. And you should discuss crypto going forward as Congress is beginning to believe it should be treated like Monopoly money and you may lose both your losses and your actual assets. A decent CPA can guide you through this and you can revert to Turbo or whatever next year but you will have a person to go to, at a cost, for tax planning in the future. Out here in farm land country Baker Tilly is fairly reasonable and if they give tax advice they will be in court with you. BTW, day trading also leads to all kinds of 1099-Gs and short term capital gains which are both killers of any profits. I have several accounting courses from way back and did our rather complicated taxes until 10 years ago when due to family stuff we had to file in 3 states also. That is when I went to a CPA. That huge loss may just pay for your taxes but not the advice. Yes, you can ask costs up front.