Using CGT Charge to invest in Shares until December 2025

Hello Folks,

I have sold a property and have a CGT charge of circa 30k. My understanding is that I don't have to make the payment to revenue until the end of the year Dec 2025.

If that is the case why would I not invest the 30k in shares or crypto and say the investment:

a) TANKS and I loose the 30k. That is now a CGT liability and I deduct it from my charge and end up with a charge of Zero.

b) does well and say increases by 15k (50%) I then sell for 45k pay revenue 30k+5k (GCT on shares/crypto) I'm up 10k.

The reality is the loss or gain would be somewhere between the extremes I used in this example. But, the principle still remains the same. If there is a loss Revenue effectively takes the hit on my original CGT charge and if there is a gain I share it with revenue 30,70 to me. I think there must be a flaw in my thinking as this appears to be too easy.

My question is what am i missing here and why would I not do this?

Do the sums properly. It obviously doesn't work out as you paint it.

And it's CGT, not GCT.

Apologies for the Typo. Other than using 30% for the CGT rate as opposed to 33% (for ease of calculation) I don't see where my sums are incorrect. If the principle I've painted is incorrect I'd appreciate help understanding why.

You must have made a gain of circa €90k to have a CGT liability of €30K
If you incur a capital loss of €30k in the same year, your CGT liability doesn't fully disappear, it just reduces in line with your capital gain net of capital losses.

So you'll still owe €20k.

If you have a CGT liability of 30k you obviously made a gain of 90k on the sale of the house.

If you take 30k and put it into a dud investement and lose it all, you now have a loss of 30k.

But you don't deduct that from your CGT bill; you deduct it from your gain of 90k.

So you hve a net gain of (90k - 30k =) 60k. CGT on that is 20k. So you've lost 30k on your dud investment, and your CGT bill has only gone down by 10k.

Your mistake was deducting your loss from your CGT liability. That;s not correct; you deduct it from your gain to arrive at your net gain, and then work out your CGT liablity on that.

Look at it another way.

If you invest €90k in crypto and it tanks to zero before the end of the year, you will save yourself €30k in CGT but it will cost you a net €60k.

And if it tanks after the 31 December instead of before the 31 December, you will not be able to set the loss back against the previous year's gain.

There is an expression in financial management - "Don't let the tax tail wag the dog". This is a good example of it.

Ah yes of course, I see what my obvious mistake was . Thank you for clarifying folks. I knew my logic appeared too good to be true.