Bogus investment and CGT responsibility

A

argentina

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My Brother invested a sizeable sum of money in what appears to be a bogus Company called CD Equities (I know, I know...). In 2009 he believed that these 'Investors' had purchaded shares in a US mining Company on his behalf. So either the shares were never purchased or the proceeds have been taken by this crowd. It appears that this Company were saying that they had FSA approval. Hs anybody heard of them?
It appears that he has lost his money, the second part of my question relates to his CGT responsibility. He had a large Investment gain from other investments in 2010 and made a sizable CGT return. Is it posible to offset a loss against a gain retrospectivly. I know it is possible to offset a gain against a loss which occured in the previous 5 years but is the opposite true?
Any CONSTRUCTIVE advice appreciated - no lectures please;
thanks
 
You can carry CGT losses forward indefinitely and use them to offset future profits, but there is no way to reclaim CGT already paid that I know of.

(An accountant told me recently that he felt revenue rules on this will likely change soon because so many people are nursing losses from property and bank share investments that they may never have to pay CGT again)
 
Hi Argentina

Your question is very interesting and is very technical. How much did your brother invest? Is it worth paying for tax advice?

In 2009 he made an investment. In reality, it was lost immediately, so he should argue that he made a CGT loss in 2009.

In 2010 he made a Capital Gain for tax purposes.

If he had recognized the loss in 2009, he should have been able to bring the loss forward against his gains in 2010.

There were/are some very specific rules about claiming for losses where an investment value has been written off completely. I think that he must notify the Revenue of his intention to claim the loss in the year that he is making the claim. In other words, if he wanted to claim the loss in 2009 he would have had to notify the Revenue in that year.

It's a very interesting problem which I have not come across before and there may well be Revenue guidance on it.

Brendan
 
Out of curioristy, would he even have a capital loss to use if he was swindled out of the money and it was never invested even if he thought it was.
 
Thanks for the replies. He invested circa 13,000 euro. He did seek some advice last week and the accountant thinks that he has no recourse as she reckons no shares were ever purchased therefore he cannot claim a capital loss for CGT purposes.
Again thanks
 
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