Penalty for late CGT return on a loss

kursk

Hi,

The "Revenue" states there is a surcharge for late submission of CGT returns,

The surcharge is calculated as a percentage of the tax due. If a taxpayer is not a chargeable person for income tax purposes and is not required to file a Form 11, but is a chargeable person for capital gains tax purposes, s/he is required to file a Form CG1. If the CG1 form is filed late, a surcharge will apply, at the same rates as for income tax and corporation tax (see below).

Then it explains how the surcharge is calculated.

5% of the tax liability for the year of assessment to which the tax return relates, subject to a maximum of €12,695, where the tax return is delivered within two months of the filing date; 10% of the tax liability for the year of assessment to which the tax return relates, subject to a maximum of €63,485, where the tax return is not delivered within two months of the filing date.

It is not immediately clear to me, what is the penalty for failing to file a return that contains a loss?

To provide context, I do have a small capital gain loss (25EUR) for 2022, I am not fully familiar with tax mechanics in Ireland so I hired an accountant for activities on 2023, filing a return for 2022 would be charged extra and the idea of paying several hundreds of euros to carry forward 25EUR in losses does not feel very appealing.

Hence I wonder what would "happen" if I just don't do it... Of course I am also considering to just do it myself.

Thanks in advance.

Geuze

I have had loads of capital losses over the years.

I never declared them in the year of the loss.

I carried them forward.

I declared them in the year when I had a capital gain to put them against.

kursk

Hi Geuze,

Thanks for your reply, Are you saying that you never declared in the CGT return (The following year of the loss) yet you were able to use them to offset gains on subsequent years, plus you never got a penalty of any kind?

Cheers.

Geuze

No, hold on a minute, I may have mis-led you, sorry.

I lost on Anglo Irish Bank, as the firm no longer existed.

I did not declare that loss in that year.

However, I knew that the Revenue accepted Anglo as a total loss.

I also had large paper losses on AIB and PTSB, but they were not realised.

Years passed.

In the year that I sold some shares with a gain, I then also sold one of the bank shares, with a capital loss.

So I made sure to crystallise an actual capital loss in the same year as a capital gain.

kursk

Aha, we were talking about different things... thanks for your clarification!