Working this through in my head, would appreciate any views.
I currently hold 6 shares in AIB, from before the time of the massive share consolation a few years back. This means each share has an effective historic cost price of (gulp!) €2,016 each. Given AIB shares are trading at around €1, this is a lost investment.
Separately, my online account at Davy Select costs €50 a quarter, but allows transaction fees to be set against this, meaning the first €50 of transaction fees is effectively written off against account maintenance fees.
I was thinking of one or two transactions each quarter for the upcoming quarters, to sell a AIB single share each time, netting a cost of c. €14 per transaction (the minimum transaction fee is €15) and booking a capital loss of €2,000. I don't see any reason to continue to hold these shares.
Is there an advantage to not realising capital losses that are clear and obvious? I am already carrying about €5,000 in losses from previous share sales in previous years. The actual 6 shares are held by me in physical certificate form, but the sales would be of other shares acquired more recently and held via Davy (note: no length of share holding issues to consider).
In reality, I understand this to be a 'paper loss' v 'realised loss' consideration, rather than a 'free transaction'. In that regard, when is one or the other of these losses better to have than the other?
Pros:
-Effectively zero cost.
-There's no reason to hold on to this small number of shares for capital appreciation.
Cons:
-In theory, I won't be able to use the annual €1,270 allowance, even after the current carried forward losses are utilised.
I currently hold 6 shares in AIB, from before the time of the massive share consolation a few years back. This means each share has an effective historic cost price of (gulp!) €2,016 each. Given AIB shares are trading at around €1, this is a lost investment.
Separately, my online account at Davy Select costs €50 a quarter, but allows transaction fees to be set against this, meaning the first €50 of transaction fees is effectively written off against account maintenance fees.
I was thinking of one or two transactions each quarter for the upcoming quarters, to sell a AIB single share each time, netting a cost of c. €14 per transaction (the minimum transaction fee is €15) and booking a capital loss of €2,000. I don't see any reason to continue to hold these shares.
Is there an advantage to not realising capital losses that are clear and obvious? I am already carrying about €5,000 in losses from previous share sales in previous years. The actual 6 shares are held by me in physical certificate form, but the sales would be of other shares acquired more recently and held via Davy (note: no length of share holding issues to consider).
In reality, I understand this to be a 'paper loss' v 'realised loss' consideration, rather than a 'free transaction'. In that regard, when is one or the other of these losses better to have than the other?
Pros:
-Effectively zero cost.
-There's no reason to hold on to this small number of shares for capital appreciation.
Cons:
-In theory, I won't be able to use the annual €1,270 allowance, even after the current carried forward losses are utilised.