Making a loss: how losses work for Capital Gains Tax

Losses are set against gains in the same year first, then carried forward. They can't be carried back, except in the year of death.

If you sell something for less than it cost, after allowable costs, you have an allowable loss.

The order

1. Losses in the same year come off that year's gains.
2. Then unused losses from earlier years.
3. Then the €1,270 annual exemption.

You can't keep losses aside to make better use of the exemption. Where gains are taxed at different rates in the same year, losses go against the highest-rate gains first.

Carrying forward

Unused losses carry forward to later years without a time limit. Keep the schedule showing how each loss arose; it is your evidence when you use it.

Couples

If married couples and civil partners are taxed jointly, losses are set against each other's gains automatically. To keep your own losses, one of you must apply by 1 April of the next year.

Work it out

• Capital Gains Tax on property →

Sources

• Revenue: How to calculate CGT (checked 25/10/2026)
• Irish Statute Book: Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, s.546(6): losses set against the highest-rate gains first (checked 20/10/2026)

General information, not tax advice. HeyPenny is not a tax agent.