Do I have to pay tax if I want to transfer half of my shares to my wife?

rrwfotr

Hi got a tax question here goes:

I've been paying into a save as you earn scheme at work for the last five years the shares I was buying were for £2.18 each and I was buying £250 per month for the last five years, as a bonus I was given £1500 free shares once the scheme matured. so basically the amount of shares I now have is approx = 7568. The shares are now worth approx £3.25 each. So in total i have approx £25,000.00. So put in 16500.00 in year 2001 now shares are worth 25,000.00

My question I want to transfer half of my shares into my wife’s name will I have to pay tax?

BTW am a basic rate tax payer.

Thanks

MarkyMarkD

No.

Once you SAYE scheme matures, your shares are yours to do what you like with.

If you were selling them, there would also not be any Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to pay, unless their value had increased over and above the £2.18 value. The interest you receive is tax free, so the cost base is the £16,500 INCLUDING the interest, not the £15,000 you actually put in.

If you sell, you have a capital gain of £10,000 which means paying tax on a small amount (over your CGT exemption). If you transfer half to your wife, you can both sell the whole amount and pay no tax at all as transfers between MARRIED spouses are outside the scope of CGT.