Cashing In Shares

jen06

My mum had a large amount of Unilever shares which were left to her by my dad 10 years ago. She is 75 now and would like to cash them in but we have no idea really on how to do this. I have set up an online account with computershare to manage the shares etc and I believe that you can set up this site to do the trading of the shares with them taking a percentage. Is this the best way to do it or is there a better option.I have googled a bit but am still unsure how to proceed. Also, as these shares have made a lot of money over the years, my mum will have to pay capital gains tax if she sells the shares. How would she go about this, is is up to us to inform the inland revenue, or is it done automatically. As far as I know, she has never filed a tax return as she was a stay at home mum so never had cause to do so. Would really appreciate any help and advice!

eskbanker

Computershare may not necessarily be the cheapest place to hold or transact shares but if that's where they are at the moment then you'd need to weigh up the cost/benefit of transferring them elsewhere first.

https://www.computershare.trade/costs.html has the cost profile, including the charge for transferring a holding if that's the route you go down, such as to the likes of X-O or Freetrade.

https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax has a good overview of CGT, including how to calculate it and how to pay it....

Reaper

Yes you need a broker to sell the shares. Are they in paper form? I am guessing so.

I think Computershare charge 1% to sell certificates ([STRIKE]plus of course 0.5% stamp duty which can't be avoided[/STRIKE] No, not on sales, me being dumb). Just possibly it might be worth changing them into electronic form before selling as that can be cheaper. From a quick check it looks like Computershare charge a flat £12.50 to sell along with a £1.80pm account fee, but it sounds like your plan is just to sell up then close the account.

As far as tax goes there will probably be capital gains tax to pay. You are allowed to make £12,000 profit on the sale per tax year. So one option is to sell some each tax year rather than all in one go to avoid paying tax. To work out her gain she needs to know how much they were worth at the point she inherited them. Or if you prefer just assume £0 and sell £12000 worth to avoid the problem.

xylophone

Also, as these shares have made a lot of money over the years, my mum will have to pay capital gains tax if she sells the shares.

Do you mean that there has been an increase in the value of the shares between the date she inherited them and now?

See https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-shares


You know the value of the shares at the date they were inherited?

https://www.unilever.com/investor-relations/unilever-shares/historic-share-prices/

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/u/unilever-plc-ordinary-3.11p

Does your mother hold paper share certificates?

There may be cheaper options for selling the shares.

LobsterMemory

Reaper wrote: »

(plus of course 0.5% stamp duty which can't be avoided).

No Stamp duty on sales :beer:

jen06

Many thanks for all your advice, yes they are paper shares and they have made approx £70,000 profit so there would be a lot of capital gains tax if we sold them all in one go. Thank you for all your links etc. I will have a proper read tonight and try to digest all the info. Many thanks again!

Apodemus

Your father was clearly a wise man, I hope you will raise a glass to his memory when you sell the shares.

Tom99

jen06 wrote: »

Many thanks for all your advice, yes they are paper shares and they have made approx £70,000 profit so there would be a lot of capital gains tax if we sold them all in one go. Thank you for all your links etc. I will have a proper read tonight and try to digest all the info. Many thanks again!

Can you spread the sale over two tax years? That will give you another £12,000 allowance and ,if your mother is a basic rate taxpayer, mean more can be taxed at 10% rather than the higher rate of 20%.

Reaper

LobsterMemory wrote: »

No Stamp duty on sales :beer:

Thanks. Of course you are right.

jen06

Thanks again, I think we are finally getting things clearer in our head. Thank you Apodemus, what a lovely thing to say. Yes he was a very wise man, we just wish he was still around to reap the benefits :-( . We want to make sure we get it right and are trying to think what he would have done in the circumstances, we will definitely be raising a glass for him! :-)