CT600 box 790: losses of a trade carried on wholly outside the UK
Short version. CT600 box 790 reports losses of a trade carried on wholly outside the UK. It cannot reduce other profits or be carried back under section 37. While the trade continues, the loss carries forward against later profits of the same trade. Choose the treatment in Financial Data using your prepared figures.
Go to the steps and entry details
On this page
CT600 box 790One or two returnsWhere you see it: Financial Data › The company's trade was carried on wholly outside the UK
CT600 box 790 reports losses of a trade carried on wholly outside the UK.
- One answer applies to every CT600 in this filing. Each return reports only its own loss arising, not the carried-forward total.
- A UK registered office does not rule this treatment out. The company decides where its trade was carried on. Having overseas customers alone is not enough.
- The choice is shown when a return has a trading loss, or it was already selected. Ticking it removes entered carry-back amounts.
- This route models one trade. It does not calculate foreign tax credit relief or apply a foreign branch exemption election.
Is this the right option for you?
Use it if all of these are true
- The company classifies the trade as carried on wholly outside the UK.
- At least one return has an arising trading loss.
Do not use it if
- The trade is carried on wholly or partly in the UK.Use instead: Trading losses and relief
Common mistake: treating the loss as a UK trading loss
The unticked treatment can use a trading loss against bank interest. For a wholly overseas trade, section 37(5) prevents that claim. The interest remains taxable and the full trading loss stays in the restricted pool.
Overseas answer left unticked
- Taxable profits
- £0
- Loss carried forward
- £5,800
- Corporation Tax
- £0
Overseas trade answer ticked
- Taxable profits
- £200
- Loss carried forward
- £6,000
- Corporation Tax
- £38
Where a trade is carried on depends on its activities and management and control. A director running it from the UK may mean the trade is at least partly in the UK. A registered address alone does not decide this. Read the official explanation below and enter the company's classification.
Worked example
- Company
- Alder Compass Example Ltd
- Accounts period
- 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025
- Trading expenses
- £6,000
- Bank interest
- £200
- Taxable total profits
- £200
The company and all figures on this page are fictional.
Before you start
- Prepared accounts and tax figures
- Enter the accounts figures normally. The tax calculation derives the arising loss.
- Trade location
- The company supplies its classification. No invoices, travel records or location evidence are requested.
The company and all figures on this page are fictional.
Step by step
Find the checkbox under Tax adjustments in Financial Data.
Company Profile & Period
- Accounting period
- 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025
- What are you filing?
- HMRC CT600
- Trading status
- Active
- What the company does
- Trading
Financial Data
- Previous year
- Your previous accounts figures, or 0 where applicable
- Turnover
- 0
- Cost of raw materials and consumables
- 0
- Staff costs
- 0
- Other charges
- 6000
- Interest receivable and similar income
- 200
- The company's trade was carried on wholly outside the UK
- Tick itThe carry-back inputs are removed. Untick to change the answer.
- Balance sheet
- Your balance sheet at the period end
- Average number of employees
- Your average number, or 0
Review & file
Corporation tax due£38 .00On taxable total profits of £200 at 19.0% · small profits
Accounts periods over 12 months
When the accounts period ends more than 12 months after it starts, even by one day, the filing has two CT600s. The answer applies to both. In separate-figures mode, either tab changes the same answer. Check each return's box 790 and its computation. An unused first-return loss travels to the second return and can reduce profits of the same trade in box 160. It cannot reduce bank interest in box 285. Existing customer allocations for donations and capital claims still apply.
If Divide your capital amounts between your two tax returns warns that one return has a loss while the other has taxable profit, check when the assets were bought or sold. Keep each allowance in the correct return. This warning also applies when an overseas trading loss cannot reduce other income.
If the trade ceases, the loss is not carried beyond cessation. The computation shows that closing position. A trade that changes territory between these two returns is outside this filing-wide choice.
Next year, include the unused restricted loss in the total brought-forward pool and its restricted part in Losses from before 1 April 2017, or from a trade carried on wholly outside the UK. Do not enter this year's arising loss there. A fresh profitable-only overseas filing does not offer this checkbox, so it is not fully supported by this route.
Sample outcome
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Official sources
- HMRC: overseas trading losses
- CTA 2010 section 45B
- HMRC CT600 guide
- CTA 2010 explanatory notes on where a trade is carried on
More help:
Whether this route matches your filings is for you to decide, yourself or with your accountant.
Example companies and figures are fictional. Field names match the filing wizard as of 4 November 2026.