tax loss question

[goodrookie]

How does it work (especially for ETF/index)? How long do I have to wait until I can legally buy it back? and why on the earth would I want to do this (as opposed to sitting tight until the breakeven price)?

[stuckinmn]

Have to wait 31 days to buy it back.  You would do this to harvest losses so you could reduce your ordinary income up to 3000 or offset other gains.  Just sell it, take the loss and immediately buy something similar.  Sell s&p 500 at a loss, buy total market index.

[goodrookie]

any limitation on how many times you can do this with a particular stock?

[johnny847]

I have a blog post about it: https://fiby40.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/capital-gains-taxes-part-2/