Capital Losses carried forward

Chris_Tibs wrote: »

Good Morning

A few years ago, my husband and I sold shares, owned jointly, to buy a rental property. We made some gains on the sales, and we made some losses.

• The total of the gains for each of us did not exceed the CGT allowance.
• The total losses actually exceeded the total of the gains.

Our question is: As the gains on their own were less than the CGT allowance, can we carried forward to our self assessment for future years the total value of the losses, or only the portion that exceeded the gains??

Many thanks
Chris
.

Only the portion that exceeded the gains.

Losses are set against gains in the same year. If (and only if) after doing that you have an overall net loss, you can carry it forward.

However, once you've got something to carry forward, you can choose how much of it to lose.

Let's say you have a net loss of £5000 this year, then next year your gains are £1000 above the threshold. Then you'd use £1000 of your carried-forward loss to offset gains, and keep the remaining £4000 to use in yet another year.