Declaring historical losses on sale of shares to Revenue

Hi all, around the time of COVID I started to dip my toe into buying shares on Revolut and more recently Trade Republic.

At the time I was just trying to relieve boredom and make a few quid when everything was closed down. Naively tax implications were never something I considered at the time and although i was aware off the 1270 CGT exemption on gains, it never crossed my radar with the sums of money I was essentially punting with.

Long story short over the course of those few years I accumulated a few small annual losses, with gains in one year far below the €1270 CGT exemption. None off these were declared to Revenue.

Im now in a position where my recent investments this year have me in a position where I can crystallise a gain of €3000 or so if I sell.

Can I now 'claim' those small losses of Revenue for previous tax years to help offset this new potential CGT liability, or are those losses, negligible as they are, going to cause me hassle for only declaring them now as opposed to within the relevant tax years?

Also the CG1 form appears to be quite technical for other forms of Capital Gains liabilities.

If it is a case where I can claim the losses do I need to go back as far as the earliest relevant year and declare those losses individually.

Then repeat the procedure for the following year carrying forward the previous years losses??
Or is each year a seperate filing and Revenue look after the total value of losses electronically?

I have looked here and on the revenue site but Im still a bit all over the place.

For ease, might it just be as easy to forget the previous years losses and just claim this gain as it is and pay the tiny bit extra in tax without raising eyebrows?

looptheloop30 said:

I accumulated a few small annual losses, with gains in one year

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If you make a gain in the same year or a later year, these accordingly wipe out or reduce the amount of the losses you can carry forward.

There is no "declaration" procedure as such.

I owned all four Irish bank shares.

I declared the losses on Anglo and on the sale of PTSB in 2021 in a CG1 form submitted in 2021.

My understanding is as follows:

If you make a loss, that is fine. You don't need to make a special return or declaration.

However, if your shares fall to zero and become worthless, I think you are supposed to declare that. But I don't think that Revenue enforces it.

Given the amounts you are talking about, Revenue is likely to accept your returns without questioning them.

Thanks all, I just needed a bit of peace of mind that I hadnt done anything inherently wrong or have been shooting myself massively in the foot for not declaring those small losses ahead of a potential gain

You sold shares to Revenue? I didn't know they were allowed to trade.

mathepac said:

You sold shares to Revenue?

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?