TAX TIP OF THE WEEK - Selling an asset liable for capital gains?

Are you are selling an asset which is going to give rise to a sizeable capital gain. You remember making a loss on an investment gone wrong in the past, but that was decades ago. Could you still offset this?

Generally speaking, when you make a loss on an asset or investment you can carry that loss forward indefinitely, ie it is never lost. ⚠️

However, whilst the losses are never lost you have to register them with HMRC within four years of the end of the tax year in which the loss arose. 📝

You may think this has scuppered your chances of setting off that old loss, however, there is a concession to this rule when the loss was incurred prior to 1996/1997 tax year (the start of self-assessment) 👌

So if your loss was from decades ago there was no need to register it and you can still use it to offset any future capital gains. 🚀

I hope this was helpful, for lots more tax tips and strategies get a copy of our 71 ways to save tax checklist.