Selling shares that have been inherited-tax position.

Floozie

I inherited some shares from the will of my mother 3 years ago. If I wanted to sell them do I pay tax, I know the value of them if sold all of them would be approximately £13000. Does something which I think is called capital gains tax when the profit is more than a figure of around £10000 I think.

Vortigern

You need to find out what the shares were worth 3 years ago when you inherited them. You pay CGT on the difference between that value and what they are worth now.

For example, if they were worth £10,000 then and £13,000 now your gain is £3,000. This gain is less than your annual CGT allowance so there would be no tax to pay.

BLB53

Capital gains tax could apply to profits (gains) on the sale of shares but, as you say, there is an allowance every year - £10,600 so if you spread the sale over 2 tax years - some now and some after 6th April there would be no CGT to pay.

Biggles

Vortigern's answer is the correct one, it is the amount of profit that counts, not the proceeds of the sale.

Thus Capital Gains Tax will not apply, except in the unlikely event that they were worth less than approx £3,000 when you inherited them. There therefore would be no need to split the sale between tax years, as the annual exempt amount of £10,600 (estimated to be £11,000 from 6 April) will easily exceed your gains.