bank shares & CGT

need advice on selling bank shares, sadly my husband died and I was left with life insurance policy, and foolish bought bank shares, (he would never have approved after eircom) . we were building a smaller house, which never was in his name, as he died very sudden, and now want to sell, as I could not live there now, I will make a large loss on these shares, can I set the CGT
payable on this house, against the loss I am going to suffer on these shares, I dont want to sit tight on these shares, as I feeel I have let my late husband and my children down, and can not bear to listen to the news or tv any more,
I am so depressed, , I was trying to raise money to finish this house, which is now worth much less also.
I know that there are people out there who are much worse off than me.
so please do think I am just moaner.

treena

Yes, you can offset losses on the shares against gains on a property

Thanks JPD, for your reply, do I have to sell shares & property in the same tax year, or can I carry the loss on the shares,on to the following year,
as it may take a while to sell the property. or if I am lucky enough to sell
house first with some profit, and later sell the shares still at a loss, but hold on for a couple of months in the hope of the shares will recover a little.

Thanks again for your time

If you sell one capital asset (property or shares) at a loss then you can carry that loss forward indefinitely and set it against future capital gains. If you sold the property now at a profit which was assessable for CGT and only sell the shares later at a loss then I think that you can only set the loss against the gain if both transactions happen in the same tax year. Otherwise you cannot backdate a loss against a previous gain in another tax year.

Are you sure that the house in question will be assessable for CGT? It sounds like it will but I can't tell for sure given the information posted. You should probably get professional advice on all of your investment and tax issues just in case.

ClubMan said:

If you sell one capital asset (property or shares) at a loss then you can carry that loss forward indefinitely and set it against future capital gains. If you sold the property now at a profit which was assessable for CGT and only sell the shares later at a loss then I think that you can only set the loss against the gain if both transactions happen in the same tax year. Otherwise you cannot backdate a loss against a previous gain in another tax year.

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Correct - you can carry losses forward but not back. If OP sells the house (and if it is liable to CGT) e.g. before Dec 31, 2008, she has to pay CGT before Jan 31st 2009 (and submit a return Oct 09 in respect of that amount). If OP sells both house (at a gain) and shares (at a loss) within same tax year, then they can be offset against each other. Or if OP sells bank shares at a loss now, she can carry that loss forward indefinitely to offset against a future gain.

Sprite