urgent tax help please

[rimon874]

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Thank you very much for your attention.

I need some advice regarding my 2015/2016 tax return. I am an individual stock and shares investor, first started with few grand but slowly slowly suck into the trick of brokers. I have share account with Halifax, IG Index and city Index, their so called expert advice put me in massive capital loss well over £250000. Now I am in serious debt of over £90k personally, loan from my partner and sold flat, everything in stock market gone. I am currently writing to FCA against those broker, so that other small investor like me doesn’t get caught and manipulated by these brokers.

Please be informed that, the flat I sold was a rented property (missed out of rent for about 8 months from dodgy tenants). Due to work area and dispute with my brother, I moved into this flat with lender permission on May 2015, eventually changed all my address including banks, electoral register, car insurance, council tax, utilities, etc. Just living after three months I took the big hit from stock market. All my investment was funded from credit card, overdraft, personal loan and loan from partner & friends. Debt burden was so big, I was sick from stress and anxiety, then decided to sell the flat. Flat was sold on October, 2015, then I paid off all loans and rest being too greedy invested again in stock market to recover previous loss. Now I am back to square one again. At the moment I am suffering from high cholesterol due to stress and rapid acidity problem in the stomach. Doctor will prescribe me statin soon if situation doesn’t improve and referred me to one specialist clinic. I admit its my fault being suck into stocks and shares gambling.

Kindly find below my total gain and loss calculation:

Share Capital loss:

£250000 (Aprox) , I have gathered final profit loss statement from those three stock brokers.

Property gain details:

Purchase price: £172000 (May, 2011)
Selling price : £385000 ( October, 2015)

I moved in the flat May, 2015

Allowable expenses: £21280 (buying & selling fees, SDLT, refurbishment, council repair liabilities, etc)


I will be grateful if you could please let me know what are my tax liability on 2015/2016 tax return. I have all the record and willing to provide all calculation to HMRC upon their request.

Kind regards.
M Ghani

[SteLacca]

There's not really sufficient information to be 100%, since whether or not private residence relief will be available is a question of quality of occupation and degree of permanence. On the face of it, you intended to live in the flat permanently when you moved in, and it was simply circumstances that cut that short. I would expect PRR to be available, but a much closer examination of the facts would be required.

On the basis that PRR would be available:

Flat acquisition £385,000
Purchase £172,000
Profit on sale £213,000
PRR 18/53 = £72,339
lettings relief £40,000
Chargeable £100,661
Loss on shares £250,000
Capital loss carried forward £149,339
Capital gains tax £0.00

This is all very ballpark based on the information provided, but there shouldn't be any CGT to pay.

[rimon874]

Many many thanks for your prompt reply.

I mentioned earlier about allowable expenses from flat selling, did you consider that from gross capital gain?

Allowable expenses: £21280 (buying & selling fees, SDLT, refurbishment, council repair liabilities, etc)

Kind regards.