Being charged to exit company share plan

trippy

Hello

My company launched a share incentive plan last year which I joined. The terms were that if I left the company within 3 years of the shares being allocated they would be removed from the plan and I would incur a tax and NI liability based on the value of the shares at the date of leaving the company.

The literature states that my options at that point would be to:

1) sell my shares
2) sell sufficient shares to meet the tax and NI costs and transfer the remaining shares into my name or
3) pay the tax and NI through other means and transfer all the shares into my name.

I have left the company within the 3 years and want to take option 3. However Capita want £30 transfer fee to do this. I have asked where it said this in the documentation as I have read nothing to say that I will incur a charge if I left within 3 years, other than the tax & NI for withdrawing from the SIP.

Capita say that that the company I worked for agreed that Capita would do the sharedealing prior to launch. But nothing that has been provided to us mentions this at all.

I'm not familiar with buying shares at all, these are the only ones I own, but I work in pensions so am used to reading literature and booklets very carefuly. Hence I am 100% sure that this hasn't been mentioned anywhere.

Does anyone have any advice for me please? Thanks.

eskbanker

There's a difference between tax and NI liabilities mandatorily imposed on all such share schemes by HMRC and administrative charges levied by the broker, so I can see why one might be mentioned in literature and the other not, but that doesn't make it right!

It sounds like you won't get anywhere with Capita, who are presumably saying that they're compliant with the contract between them and your ex-employer, so it looks like your only option will be to take the matter up with the company HR department or whoever it was who promoted the scheme internally.