capital gains on shares

motorway_2

Hi, :)Can you please advise me about capital gains tax as i have no idea how it works.I am going to sell some shares which will amount to 50k or more. they are all in my name,which was probably a mistake.I dont currently work(accident at work) unfortunately, and no wages now.So I will have no earnings this year,my husband gets 15k from a private pension and earns approx15-18k from his job.His total income annually being 33k.what would be the best way to sell these shares to pay the least amount of capital gains tax ???would it make a difference to sell half before april 05 and the other half after april 05 as we can wait to do that.Any advice would be really appreciated off you guys as I am a novice woman :-/

mutley74

each person has a CGT allowance of £7,800 (check in case it has been updated see IT website). You could transfer these shares to a joint account thus you could sell the shares and utilise a joint CGT allowance to give over £15,000 before you have to pay CGT tax. depends that you have not used your CGT elsewhere on any other major investments e.g. sale of rental property.

I am not a tax expert, but just what my father does to sell his large holding of shares.

MJSW

It's not clear from the original post, but I get the impression that £50k is the total proceeds. If so, don't forget that CGT is payable only on the profit, not the proceeds. So if you paid say £30,000 then the gain is only £20,000. As chipz has said, you get an annual exemption each (it is currently £8,200). If you split the shares 50/50 with your husband, and also sell half each this tax year and next, that gives you gains of up to £32,800 tax free.

You may be entitled to various other reliefs, such as indexation allowance, taper relief etc, which would reduce the gain. How long have you owned the shares? Are they quoted or unquoted? Have you previously worked for the company you own the shares in? These could all have an effect on the rate of taper relief you get.

mutley74

(it is currently £8,200).

did not realise myself that it had gone up to that value. At last the crooked goverment are at least helped those who want to make some gains on investments, outside other tax free wrappers.