Individuals can, but those are subject to a cap of $3000 against income. I'm no tax expert but I think the point the OP was making is businesses have more opti

Individuals can, but those are subject to a cap of $3000 against income. I'm no tax expert but I think the point the OP was making is businesses have more options for writing off lossess - they can drum up other things to apply a loss towards. Thus, a business can effectively write off more of the loss than an individual can.