How to sell shares?

ACT74

I got some company shares years ago (have since left the company) but need to raise some money so want to sell them. 
I've Googled but I can't find a definitive description of HOW to do this.
There are lots of links to Apps and Companies but nothing that tells me what the steps are and if I would even be eligible to follow them without signing up (and possibly paying a fee to find out it's pointless). 
The shares are held by Morgan Stanley and are in US dollars (as it's a US company). Is it possible to "load" shares into a different system? What details do I need? I keep having to pay US duty or whatever on them does this affect anything?
Any help or guidance wild be greatly appreciated as I'm completely stumped... 
Thank you! 

eskbanker

First port of call would be to check with Morgan Stanley what their charges are for selling them and if they support remitting the proceeds to a UK £ bank account - if it's reasonably cost-effective then that'll be the simplest option, rather than identifying and opening an account with a UK broker and transferring them before selling here.

You'll need to establish if you have a UK capital gains tax liability, which will entail working out how much more they're worth than when you acquired them:

https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-shares
https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax

vacheron

Now is possibly quite an unfortunate time to decide to sell shares "you have had for years" because the Capital Gains Tax allowance @eskbanker mentioned above was halved from £6,000 to £3,000 just 4 days ago (it was £12,300 in 2022/23). So if the amount by which your shares have increased since you aquired them is more than  £3,000 you will have to pay extra tax on the gains than you would have done had you sold them last week. 

ACT74

Thanks for the responses.
I've tried to call Morgan Stanley but have never been able to get through. 
I believe I only have £4kish in total, so I don't think the capital gains tax thing will affect me? I'm sure I paid more than £1k in purchasing them.
Either way I need any cash I can get my hands on due to illness and going into statutory pay soon, which I can't afford. 

eskbanker

ACT74 said:

I've tried to call Morgan Stanley but have never been able to get through. 

The answers may be visible on their website, or there may be other contact methods advertised there (or on your statements, etc)?