Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.

Eircom

I havehad 1,523 Eircom shares, acquired at the time of the original share offer. Assuming the Valentia offer is taken up, I would be obliged if you could inform me as to what capital loss for capital gains purposes I can claim. Also, what is the base cost for my Vodafone shares and from when will the cost be indexed if I was to dispose of them some time in the future?

Mr J.D., Kilkenny

As you will now know, Valentia has succeeded in getting the backing of more than 80 per cent of the shares and so has won control of Eircom. If you did not avail of the offer, your shares will now be acquired compulsorily.

The initial outlay for 1,523 shares was €5,939.70 (£4,678) at €3.90 a share. After the bonus issue of one free share for every 25 held for one year, the original purchase price for each batch of 25 shares retrospectively fell to €3.75 a share.

You don't actually say whether the figure you quote includes the bonus shares or not but, on the basis that you say you have had the 1,523 shares since the flotation, I will assume it does not. Therefore, we are talking about 1,583 shares in total - the 1,523 original shares and the 60 bonus ones to which you would have been entitled. Thus, the true cost per share of your holding would be a fraction over €3.75 - around €3.7522 per share.

My understanding is that the companies have yet to work out what the base cost is, as both Vodafone and what was left of Eircom traded across a range of prices on the day they first traded following the share spilt, which was May 14th last.

The company registrars have been consulting with the Revenue over the base price to be determined for each, on the basis that this decision might fall at the mid-point of the respective trading ranges. That would mean the Vodafone shares you now hold represent 58.18 per cent of the original share, with Eircom accounting for the remaining 41.82.

Turning to the original share price, adjusted for the free shares, that means Vodafone accounts for €2.183 of the €3.7522 price.

Adding this to the €1.365 per share offer from Valentia, the cumulative value of the shares' base values is €3.548, a capital loss of 20.42 cents per share - or €323.2486 on your shareholding.

For a definitive answer, however, we will need to await the Revenue ruling on the base price on May 14th, a ruling that I understand will be published in the media when it is agreed.

Turning to the issue of indexation, your Vodafone shares will be indexed to take account of inflation in line with a multiple laid down by the Revenue once they have been held for 12 months.

Indexation does not apply to ownership periods below that limit.

Rent-a-room

Regarding the rent-a-room scheme, I have a back garden flat attached to the house. It has three beds. Would I be allowed parking in the back garden for this flat? It is possible to drive around the back, but I would like to know whether parking there would be allowed. I already have three to four parking spaces in front on a quarter-acre site.

Mr J.M.O'B, Limerick

The issue of parking is incidental to the rent-a-room scheme in that you will get no allowance for its construction or presence under the plan. The only issue I can see is whether it makes it more likely that you would be able to use your back-garden flat to raise up to £6,000 per annum in rent and other related income (laundry, meals, etc.)

It seems to me that the issue of parking is a planning matter and, quite honestly, I have no idea how your local authority would respond to the idea of this increase in parking spaces.

SSIAs

I have investments maturing in November and wish to invest some of the proceeds in a Special Savings Incentive Account. I thought perhaps my wife would invest £10,000 and I would also invest £10,000. If one or both of us should die before the maturity date in five years' time, will tax at 23 per cent be levied on the full amount withdrawn? I am 70 and my wife is 66.

Also, is it possible for the money to be lodged into a deposit account and a standing order arranged for the monthly payments to our respective SSIAs - or is this against the rules of the scheme?

Mr G.O'R., Wexford

There is nothing to stop you and your wife investing the amount to which you refer in two special saving incentive accounts.

In the normal run of things, people are only allowed to invest their own money but the assumption between spouses is that the money of one is also that of the other.

The amount to which you refer is also within the rules of the scheme, although, obviously, it will have to be lodged to the SSIA on a monthly basis - which works out at roughly £166 (€211) per person per month, well within the £10-£200 limits.

If you should die, the money can be drawn down as though it had reached the five-year maturity date - with only the investment gains/interest being subject to tax at the standard rate plus 3 per cent (currently a total of 23 per cent).

You allude to 23 per cent tax being levied on the full amount.

This is only the case when people close the accounts voluntarily and withdraw the money or when they no longer meet the residency requirements, in which case the account must be closed regardless of their preferences.

There is nothing in the rules of the scheme to prevent you lodging your maturing investment in a deposit account and arranging for monthly payments from this account into an SSIA. The scheme's rules do preclude borrowing to invest in such a scheme but they can hardly dictate how one apportions one's savings, even if the aim of the scheme was to encourage new savings rather than a reallocation of existing savings.