Capital losses and non UK domiciliaries

Under the pre 2008 rules non UK domiciliaries were prevented from obtaining capital gains tax relief on any capital losses as they were subject to the remittance basis. The 2008 Finance Bill removed that restriction and therefore they will now obtain relief for capital losses just as for UK domiciliaries providing the remittance basis is never claimed. Therefore the losses of the overseas assets can be offset against other capital gains of UK assets. If the remittance basis is claimed at any point, then there are special provisions that apply. These apply so that:

on the first occasion when a non-UK domiciled individual claims the remittance basis for a tax year, they can make an election in relation to their foreign losses;

if the individual does not make an election, foreign losses of that tax year and all future tax years will not be allowable losses

if the individual makes an election, then the losses can be offset subject to some special rules. These rules allow overseas capital losses to be offset against other gains but it's important that the election is made.