CGT on bond

hi, I am new to this forum and hope someone can enlighten me.  my husband and myself have been taxed on our pensions jointly for the last couple of years without problem but this year we declared a credit of almost 24 thousand pound to our uk bank acount which was the poceeds of a10 year Phoenix Life bond which matured in 2010.   in the uk in year 2000 we invested 20, 000 pound in this and when we cashed it in we had made 2,711GBP profit over a 10 year period.  which works out at 271 pound per year, less than we would have received in a deposit account.

we have just received figures of tax to be paid from our accountant and this is vastly different from the previous 2 years.  we only have our uk state pensions plus around 5,000 from a private pension/annuity.  he says the increase is due to the payment of 23,000 but is there not an allowance made for the 10 years over which the profit has been made?

also, we sold an apartment in 2009 and deeclared a very large loss and when we presented this years figures our accountant told us that the gain on the bond could be set against this loss as there is a 15 year window in which this loss could be set against any future gains.  does anyone know if this is so?

sorry, very complicated for my first post but I am extremely worried.  many thanks in advance for any help.

many thanks

Shelya

Not totally sure but something does not sound quite right here.

It might be you are being taxed on receiving a one off temporary annuity?

Also as regards capital losses I thought they could only be carried forward for 4 only years?

Sometimes investment products in one jurisdiction are treated very differently in another.

If you say where you are based someone could probably recommend an accountant familiar with UK investment products and how there are treated/taxed in Spain.

hi Faro

thanks for coming back to me so quickly.  as you say, maybe he is treating it as an annuity payment but it definitley was just a rarther poorly prefoming  investment bond. 

I agree that 4 years does sound more feasible than 15 for carrying forward a capital loss, but this would still fit within that timescale if applicable.  I had searched and searched the internet but could not find anything regarding CGT except on property. I should really look on spanish sites but probably won't find much info there.  the worry is that if our accountant has the 15 years incorrect, what else could be wrong.  I can see he might not understand a uk product but the CGT timescale would be a spanish ruling.

we actually  live in malaga province and are resident here.

many thanks once again.