Answer

I've got quite a lot of my retirement money tied up in tech stocks. I would like to reduce my losses and get rid of some of them. I'm afraid of the tax consequences which I don't know anything about. If I sell some of these do I pay taxes on the receipts even though I sell for less than I paid for them?

You need to calculate your tax basis in your tech stocks, which is what you paid for the shares originally, plus any subsequent share purchases or dividend distributions, if any. The difference between your tax basis and the selling price is your capital gain or loss. You only pay taxes on capital gains. You can use capital losses on your tech stocks to offset other investment gains.