# Stock sales losses



## dogleg1 (Jul 4, 2016)

I have owned Goldcorp shares for a long time with no stock sales or purchases since April 2013. When Goldcorp was purchased by Newmont last year of course my shares were converted to NGT. CRA calculated this conversion as a loss and sent me a tax refund. Can someone explain in general how these losses are calculated. Many thanks.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Here's a blurb from a G&M article about the merger (article is behind paywall so I can't read it, but this is from the Google summary):
Instead, Newmont's decision to create a _taxable_ transaction will create capital losses – and _Goldcorp_ shareholders will be able to use those losses to save on their _taxes_ if they sell a different, profitable holding. 

Essentially what happened is that the conversion counts like you had actually sold your Goldcorp stocks at the time of the conversion. So let's say you originally bought Goldcorp for $100 and at the time that Newmont took over, it was worth $50. You then had a capital loss of $50. If you had capital gains on some other stocks, you could use your capital loss to subtract from those capital gains, which makes the gains non-taxable (your loss cancels them out). 

I am a bit confused about "CRA calculated this conversion as a loss and sent me a tax refund". Did you not report the loss on your taxes? They just spontaneously sent you a refund after doing some calculation at their end?


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## dogleg1 (Jul 4, 2016)

Spudd: Thank you for the information. Yes, that is what happened, my accountant forgot to include this stock 'sale' and CRA picked it up and did the calculation for me. In looking at my records I notice I had made three stock purchases which I averaged out to find my total cost for the shares held. The Newmont payment for my shares showed a loss which they factored in on my return and sent me the refund. Their calculation and mine were almost identical. Anyway Newmont is showing some major gains! Stay well.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

That's impressive that CRA picked it up and gave you the refund! I would not have expected that.


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