There are restrictions placed upon companies about how they use their losses. Firstly, there are offset restrictions. Usually you can't offset losses off one business against those of another. So for instance, we would usually say that if you are loss making business you can't buy a profitable business and then offset the losses and profits. However, in certain jurisdictions, you can create groups of companies where you can do this but get expert advice for this. Secondly, there are movement restrictions. You usually can't move losses to other countries. One country's tax authorities are unlikely to want to subsidize the tax authorities of another country. Thirdly, rules the question, are losses actually losses? Not all losses lead to a tax credit. For instance, an impairment in particular a goodwill impairment is usually gonna be excluded by the tax authorities.

And lastly, there are time restrictions. Most jurisdictions restrict how far back and forward losses can be carried. For instance, in the UK, at the time of recording you could go back 12 months and you could carry forward indefinitely. In the US you could go back two years and you could go forward 20 years. But these do change. Do look into your particular jurisdiction for specific advice.