CGT Questions 2024-2025

stu888

Hi

01) Up until the end of Oct I sold shares that made a profit of £3634. I have some other shares that I could now sell at a loss in order to reduce the gain to below £3000 for the year. Can I do this, or are the two halves of the tax year being counted separately? HMRC website says that I should pay CGT at 10% for gains made until the end of October and 18% for gains made after that.  If I cant use the lossmaking shares to offset my liability for this year it strikes me that I would be better paying the CGT on the £634 at 10% and keeping the lossmakers to offset against a future Cap Gain when the tax would be 18%.

02) I recently sold some scrap gold, most of which was gifted to me, or inherited at various times. I cant even remember when I acquired most of the pieces, let alone know the value at that time. How do I calculate the capital gains on these?

Thanks 

TheGreenFrog

Re your gold, have you considered whether the exemption for chattels applies?  And re CGT the year is not split into two.  

stu888

TheGreenFrog said:

Re your gold, have you considered whether the exemption for chattels applies?  And re CGT the year is not split into two.  

RE the gold, you have put me on the right track thanks, not classed as chattels, but it appears that there is a separate allowance for gold jewellery, so I think I can put that one to bed.

TheGreenFrog

I am not aware of a separate allowance for gold jewellery? Gold jewellery will almost certainly be a chattel see https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg76550

DRS1

 If I cant use the lossmaking shares to offset my liability for this year it strikes me that I would be better paying the CGT on the £634 at 10% and keeping the lossmakers to offset against a future Cap Gain when the tax would be 18%.
And even if you can (which you can) you'd still be better off if saving 18% instead of 10%.  But that does assume you will have taxable gains in future years.  And that the lossmaker will still be making a loss.
More to the point do you actually want to sell it now?  Don't let tax wag the investment dog.