Do losses actually carry forward in full like you're describing? I was under the impression there was an annual limit in the amount you can deduct. For an individual, that limit is $3k.
No, for individuals the limit on losses that you can deduct is the amount of your gains, plus $3k. If the entirety of your income comes from investments, you could certainly end up paying no tax if your capital losses cancel out your capital gains, regardless of the magnitude of each. The $3k you can deduct past that is a nice bonus.
And even for individuals, losses over that $3k can be carried forward indefinitely to future years.
There are losses that individuals can't take, but can carry forward due to the amount of income they make, notably real estate investments when the individual is not a real estate professional. Think about how messed up that is, DJT and his ilk can deduct and deprecate all the real estate that they own and operate and continually carry forward excesses, but I as an individual have to carry forward the loss until my income drops to some suitable level. I have no problem with carry forwards, but if you are going to limit the individual to the amount they can deduct in a year, that should apply to business as well.
It's also possible to pay no taxes if you derive all of your income from investments every year as long as you don't exceed the allowed limit since we have a marginal capital gains structure that combos with our marginal income tax structure.
