Capital Loss Harvesting CGT Calculator

Capital loss harvesting is the practice of selling investments that are standing at a loss to realise those losses for tax purposes. The crystallised losses offset your capital gains, reducing or eliminating your CGT bill. This is most valuable when done before 5 April.

You save CGT at your marginal rate (18% basic, 24% higher rate for shares) on every pound of gains that losses offset. For example, £10,000 of losses harvested against £10,000 of gains saves £2,400 at 24%. Gains below the £3,000 annual exemption are already tax-free.

Not immediately — the 30-day bed and breakfast rule means if you sell and buy back the same investment within 30 days, the disposal is matched to the rebuy price (not the original cost). Options include: waiting 31+ days to rebuy, buying a very similar (but not identical) investment immediately, or using a 'bed and ISA' strategy.

Yes. Capital losses that exceed gains in a tax year are automatically carried forward to future years. They must be used against the first available gains (reduced to the annual exempt amount level) in future years. Carry-forward losses do not expire.

Current year losses must be fully used against current year gains first (even if this wastes the annual exempt amount). Only then are brought-forward losses used — and brought-forward losses are only used to reduce gains to the annual exempt amount (£3,000), not below it.

No. Investments within an ISA are outside the CGT regime entirely — neither gains nor losses in an ISA count for CGT purposes. Loss harvesting applies only to investments held outside an ISA (in a general investment account or directly held).

You can harvest losses from any CGT asset: listed shares, funds/ETFs, investment trusts, bonds, property (excluding primary residence), cryptocurrency, and other capital assets. Note that shares and property are taxed at different CGT rates.

Transfers between spouses are on a 'no gain no loss' basis — no CGT is triggered on the gift itself, but the recipient takes over the original cost base. This can be useful for transferring a gain to a lower-rate or exempt spouse, but cannot create a loss for the transferring spouse.