You have written that death does not trigger capital gains tax. It passes the liability to the beneficiary who will pay CGT if and when they dispose of the asset. My question is about capital losses. Is it true that they die with death? And what is the position if a self-managed super fund has capital losses and somebody dies?

Capital losses do have a limited “life”. Capital losses may be offset against capital gains in your final personal tax return for the financial year up to the date of death, but they are not available to your estate or beneficiaries to offset against any future capital gains.

In most cases, capital losses do not persist once you pass away.Credit: Simon Letch

As far as self-managed super funds go, superannuation expert Meg Heffron says capital losses are treated in the usual way. They are first offset against capital gains, and if losses exceed gains they are carried forward.

They are only lost if the fund is wound up; otherwise, they remain available to offset gains of other members. This is very different from a public fund, where capital losses are member-specific and effectively lost once the deceased member’s benefit is paid out.

Death benefits are treated like any other benefit for capital gains purposes. If assets have to be sold to pay the death benefit, capital gains or losses are triggered in the normal way and form part of the fund’s overall tax position.

If the fund is paying pensions, some gains may be tax-free or even completely disregarded. She also notes there can be interesting........

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