You can only claim a capital gains loss against a capital gains, it does not go against any income what so ever.
Options....Wright it off against a profitable year when you cash out your shares or if you sell a house with profit after the cut off mid 80's then you can use it for that also....
It does last a life time and there is no expiry date, but unless you make capital gains profit you will never be able to use it.....
Hope this helps
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