Don't forget that there are instances where you can claim a capital tax loss against your other income. The prime example of this is where you subscribe for shares in a trading company, and you've sold those shares at a loss, or they've become negligible in value. Providing the company's trade is the right sort (basically, the same list of trades that qualify for an enterprise investment scheme; EIS), the loss that you claim can be offset against your income either for this year or last year.

Don't forget also that what you might have thought of as a 'capital' loss, for example a loss in value of a property you own, might really be an 'income' loss when correctly analysed. For example, if you bought a property with the main aim of making a profit on selling it later, but you have been caught up in the property crash, this may well be an income loss because it is in the nature of trading in properties. Income losses, subject to certain criteria and limits in some cases, can be offset against your other income in a number of different ways.

  

 

Don't forget the ability to make a tax-free golden handshake. Up to £30,000 can be paid to an employee as compensation for loss of office, without any tax or National Insurance liability. In what might be called genuine cases, this exemption will also apply to payments made to a substantial shareholder in the company.

Also, what's often overlooked is the fact that a person whose job is ending because of illness (which can be as un-life-threatening as 'stress') can be paid compensation with no upper £30,000 limit, all tax-free.