Can i sell old AIB and BOI shares or are they worthless?

Hi, quick question,
I sold shares in two US companies in 2013 and my accountant tells me i have to pay Capital gains tax on both now.

can i offset these gains against old shares losses i have (or had) in AIB and BOI i bought in 2008/9 ?

I still have the certs for both (1500 shares in BOI and 1300 shares in AIB)

so, my question is, can i sell these shares and officially make the loss on them or are these certs now worthless.

i remember getting a cheque from BOI for the shares in 2010/ 11 i think. i just cant remember what it was about.

any thoughts?

I presume the cheque you received in 2010/2011 came to little more than a couple of euros? This was the saleable value of the rights issues they were doing back then and which you didn't take up (I presume?). Not relevant for you purposes now but it doesn’t change the number of shares you hold.
You very much can sell your AIB/BOI shares now, in fact BOI shares have trebled in value (from a very low base, admittedly) a year ago and are now trading around 30c a share. AIB are trading at roughly half that value per share, which would seem to materially overvalue them so maybe they'd be the ones to sell first, if it's to cover a CGT gain. Hopefully your net receipts from sale will be enough to get you a few Euros back from the stockbroker that sells your shares!

I think the cheque was more more than a few euros , i think is was around 400 euro, but ill have to check.

thanks for the advice, yes giving a stockbroker a few hundred euros to sell two lots of shares worth around 600 euro together doesn't sound like a good deal , but considering they costs me over 4000 euro to buy them back in 2008 / 9 , maybe i can offset the gain with this loss

Unfortunately you cannot set a loss against a gain from a prior year.

Mrs Vimes is correct. If you had incurred your CGT loss in the same year as the gain, or indeed if you had incurred a CGT loss years before the gain, then you would be able to offset the loss against the gain.

However as you realised a gain in 2013 and you have not sold your shares yet you have not loss during or prior to 2013 to offset the gain. You seem to be unclear whether the cheque you received was for the shares or for something else. I.E. you don't know if you are still a shareholder? This is something you need to clarify, but I am working on the assumption that you did not sell the shares

You may want to review if you have had any capital-type losses in previous years that would cushion the blow.

Also the first 1270 of gains are exempt from CGT - this may or may not be material in your case depending on the size of your gain

Mrs Vimes said:

Unfortunately you cannot set a loss against a gain from a prior year.

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if its the reverse, i mean can a person set a gain against a loss in a previous year, or has it to be the same year too?
what i am asking is can you carry a loss forward in shares or property?

postman pat said:

if its the reverse, i mean can a person set a gain against a loss in a previous year, or has it to be the same year too?
what i am asking is can you carry a loss forward in shares or property?

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Yes you can (set a gain against a loss from a previous year). The loss must be utilised against the gain before the annual CGT allowance is claimed.

Thanks Rob for clearing that up.

With regards to the bank of ireland rights issue back in 2011, you really should have taken that up, you would probably now have taken a big chunk out of the losses on those shares. It is easy to be wise after the event and at that time the negativity on bank of ireland was at its height. Yes you are putting more money into the share but you are getting more equity in the bank to compensate. I got caught with RSA insurance when the share price dropped 25% over its irish shenanigans but the rights issue which I availed of actually brought me almost back to even stevens,

When we got the stock market crash I was left holding pretty worthless shares in BOI, AIB and IL&P. I can realise the loss in the BOI and AIB shares by selling them but how do I realise the loss in the IL&P shares as these are no longer listed ?