Thanks Gordon & Joe. That's rather harsh really as they are genuine losses and the income tax originally refunded was an incentive to invest.....so essentially the loss generating shares have yielded zero over all so why invest.....?
I invest €100k in a non-BES/EIIS investment and it goes belly-up. I have a tax asset worth €33k (i.e. the loss) so my net cost could be €67k.
You invest €100k in a BES/EIIS investment and it goes belly-up. It ends up costing you €60k because of the income tax relief. Allowing the loss for CGT purposes really would be gilding the lily.
The conditions of the investment are made clear upfront. Losses on the investment can't be used to offset other losses. You can't call it harsh when you are told beforehand...