Do you get taxed on selling shares given to you by your employer?

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in Cutting tax
Hey all,
The company I used to work for would award me shares every year. I'm in the process of selling my flat and the money from these shares would really help towards buying the next property.
I no longer work for the company and being based in the UK the shares are actually handled by a US stock firm. So just wondering if I decide to sell the shares, is there a certain amount I can have tax free for each tax year? I fill out a self assessment for my freelance work (aside my fulltime job) so would the shares need to be declared via that?
I've not had any experience with selling shares and dealing with the tax side of things, so any help and advice on this would be appreciated.
The company I used to work for would award me shares every year. I'm in the process of selling my flat and the money from these shares would really help towards buying the next property.
I no longer work for the company and being based in the UK the shares are actually handled by a US stock firm. So just wondering if I decide to sell the shares, is there a certain amount I can have tax free for each tax year? I fill out a self assessment for my freelance work (aside my fulltime job) so would the shares need to be declared via that?
I've not had any experience with selling shares and dealing with the tax side of things, so any help and advice on this would be appreciated.
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often the whole amount is shielded from tax in that case.
then you can make a tax free gain of £12300 (in a tax year)
You will need to look up the value of the shares at time of award vs sale & adjust for currency changes to work out what your gain is (or loss…)
Restricted Stock Units Explained! - Websters
Thanks Ed, I will examine the link
It would be worth checking that they are RSU’s and not stock options. I was given non-qualifying stock options as well and at exercise they were treated as income, subject to income tax and NI.
You compute your GBP cost of USD shares by converting the cost in USD to GBP using the forex rate at date of purchase (or grant vesting, or whatever; that is, when you gained possession of them). Then, on sale, compute the GBP proceeds by converting the USD sale amount to GBP using the forex rate at date of sale. Subtract your GBP cost from your GBP proceeds to find your capital gain for UK tax purposes.
In practice, this means you can potentially even have a USD loss in these shares that miraculously nevertheless becomes a GBP taxable gain thanks purely to GBP weakness relative to the USD. (Or vice-versa.)