A Silver lining for Investment Clouds

Remember the heady days of the dotcom era, when too many invested far too much in the latest madcap technology company? Letters from the liquidators announced that the company was bust and the shares were worthless. For capital gains tax purposes, there were losses all round. The problem was magnified if there were no capital gains to offset the loss against.

Fortunately this particular cloud may have a silver lining. In some cases you can offset your capital loss against current and previous year income. So if you invested £50,000 in a company that’s gone into liquidation, you may be able to reclaim £20,000 of income tax. Unfortunately the relief only applies where you subscribed for new shares in unquoted trading companies. There are various other restrictions but if you think you might qualify, and you rather like the idea of a 40% tax rebate on a bad investment, please contact:

Andrew Goldstone
Tel +44 (0)20 7440 7205
andrew.goldstone@mishcon.co.uk