Shares from accumulation of sharesave schemes

oh_know

Hi
I am fortunate enough to have racked up close to £60k's worth of shares that i would like to start turning into cash.
I am very unclear of the tax side of this though so am keen to try and get a bit more info. i will trawl the net but chose here as my first port of call!

the shares have accumulated over probably about 8 years from a shar save, which runs every 3 years and which i contribute the max into.

I am going to try and spread the sale over tax years as best i can but how do i calculate the earnings ? is it based on the buy at the end of the 3 years of each scheme vs. their "now" value - when i sell?

Can i transfer any to my wife to cut down on tax? if so does anyone know how? (they are american shares but that shouldnt matter i guess)

I am higher rate Tax payer the wife is lower

Many thanks folks/gurus

madgagoo

oh_know wrote: »

Hi
I am fortunate enough to have racked up close to £60k's worth of shares that i would like to start turning into cash.
I am very unclear of the tax side of this though so am keen to try and get a bit more info. i will trawl the net but chose here as my first port of call!

the shares have accumulated over probably about 8 years from a shar save, which runs every 3 years and which i contribute the max into.

I am going to try and spread the sale over tax years as best i can but how do i calculate the earnings ? is it based on the buy at the end of the 3 years of each scheme vs. their "now" value - when i sell?

Can i transfer any to my wife to cut down on tax? if so does anyone know how? (they are american shares but that shouldnt matter i guess)

I am higher rate Tax payer the wife is lower

Many thanks folks/gurus

You are looking at capital gains tax (CGT), rather than income.

You will pay CGT on the difference between the base cost of the shares and the sales price.

The base cost is the price you paid for the shares, i.e. the grant price of the share save scheme. You need to add together the total paid for all the shares you have and then divide this by the total number of shares. This gives you the base cost per share.

If you were to transfer any shares to your wife, then she would take them on at the same base cost. There is no charge for you if they are transferred to your wife.

You can each make a capital gain of up to £11,100 each tax year (this will go up slightly after 6 April 2016).

If you split the sales between you and across 2015/16 and 2016/17, I wouldn't be surprised if you can avoid paying any CGT, assuming you have no other capital gains in the year.

(n.b. I'd need to double check the rules but I can't see the fact they are American shares having any effect)