Loss this year- Tax back from prev. years

Builderfromhell

It seems I will make a considerable loss this year and will be filing a loss with my tax return.
Someone told me I could then claim income tax back from previous years where I made a modest profit.
This is news to me. I always understood that if you made a loss you could off set that against tax liability for profits in future years.

Anyone know about this?

dbran

yes it can be set back against losses of previous year of the same trade.

misspiggy40

I don't agree with you there dbran. AFAIK ,if we are talking about a self employed person this years loss can go against any other income this year, including a spouses, (s381) or against future profit from the same trade (s382).

Legend100

i think dbran is thinking of a company where the losses could be carried back to the accounting period immediately preceding.

For self employed, as miss piggy said, this relief is not available

Builderfromhell

I, maybe, should have mentioned that I operate as a sole trader and am not registered as a Limited company for tax purposes.

deebee08

Losses can only be carried forward to go against future gains, they cannot be used retrospectively.