Negligible Value Claims and EIS Relief

[tg99]

Hi,

I had a share holding in an unquoted EIS company that was dissolved a few weeks ago. Although I can therefore claim loss relief against income this tax year or the year previous, it would actually be better for me to claim in year 15-16 as for 16-17 (and likely 17-18) I will have no spare income tax to use up against the loss. The only way I could do this is by first making a negligible value claim (NVC) for the shares given you can carry this back so I could make the NVC as at say 5 April 17 (as the shares I believe had become worthless already by then) and then I could thus make my claim for income tax relief in 15-16.

However, my understanding is that since the company has already been dissolved then I can no longer actually make a NVC as the asset is deemed to have been disposed of at the date of dissolution thus being in the 17-18 tax year. Is anyone aware of any way around this, i.e. any way of justifying to HMRC why I wasn't able to make the NVC before the company was dissolved? I've not yet filed my 16-17 tax return but presumably if I claimed it as a NVC in that return the NVC claim date would still be deemed to be the date the tax return was submitted so still after the date of dissolution?

There is also one other company in a similar situation that has been written down to zero but is currently active but with a proposal to be wound down next month. Given it has therefore not yet been dissolved I am presuming I can still make a valid NVC for this one (and thus be able to use against 15-16 income given the company had become worthless towards end of 16-17 tax year so could carry back)?

A couple of other related questions:

- my understanding is that although these two companies have been held for less than 3 years I will not lose EIS tax reliefs as the shares have become worthless. I think this applies whether the company gets dissolved or I make a NVC?

- for the first company above, if I am unable to find a way round the NVC issue then I could use as a loss against capital gains this tax year. However, if all my net gains this year before taking account of this loss fall within the annual CGT allowance, can I instead carry it forward to use in a future year of my choosing rather than waste it for nothing this year? And does the same apply even if my net gains do exceed the allowance, e.g, even if my net gains in 17-18 were say £15k could I still carry it forward to use in a few years time instead (rationale being that I may have a big gain in due course when sell a property thus incurring the 28% top rate)?

Thanks.