No, I'm right on this one. Let us say I have 2 sets of shares I sell this year , 1 lot I have held for less than year, 1lot for 2 years. Both have 5k of capital gains. Now , I have 6k of capital losses left over from previous years. So what do I do with those. I attribute the capital losses , first, against the capital gain from the parcel of shares which I have held for less than a year. The other 1k of losses, reduces the net capital gain of the 2nd parcel to 4k. This attracts a 50% discount, therefore I add 2k to my income. I am perfectly at liberty to select whichever capital gain I use my accumulated capital losses against. That being so, I use them to reduce the capital loss against the capital gain which has the least discount. And no, you most certainly do not have to use capital losses at the first available opportunity, if that is what you are saying. But the scenario I was talking about before doesn't rely on that anyway. I would contend that as an accountant, your economist friend makes a very good economist.
