Capital Gains Tax

Hal17

My wife has a strong  emotional attachment to her Marks & Spencer shares which she accumulated over many years working for them. We have split the shares so we have 50% each. We have never sold any over the years.

We are both coming up to our 70th birthday and I am trying to convince her that we should both sell enough shares so we can make use of the £3,000 CGT allowance to increase our tax free income.

She is not convinced and I can see if we just carry on as normal then the shares will just be part of our estate in future years. Any thoughts on our how I can give her a caste iron reason to sell! 

Hoenir

What's to stop you selling part of your holding? 

wmb194

Hal17 said:

My wife has a strong  emotional attachment to her Marks & Spencer shares which she accumulated over many years working for them. We have split the shares so we have 50% each. We have never sold any over the years.

We are both coming up to our 70th birthday and I am trying to convince her that we should both sell enough shares so we can make use of the £3,000 CGT allowance to increase our tax free income.

She is not convinced and I can see if we just carry on as normal then the shares will just be part of our estate in future years. Any thoughts on our how I can give her a caste iron reason to sell! 

You could at least bed and Isa them every year and take advantage of the annual CGT allowance, which could be reduced further…

Hal17

Hoenir said:

What's to stop you selling part of your holding? 

The wife ha ha 

ColdIron

ISA is the obvious route. She could buy them back straight away and maintain her emotional attachment. The dividends would be tax free to boot

lookbook

Try an ISA for tax efficient.

Hal17

Thank you all for the prompt replies. We have both maxed our ISA's for this year. We transferred our S&S ISA's into cash ISA's where we were getting nearly 6%, although a little less at the moment. I am not sure how we would do the bed and ISA that has been suggested?

I guess we would wait until March next year, sell the portion of shares that would give us the £3K CGT allowance each for this tax year. And then in April at the start of the new tax year open two S&S ISA's and purchase M&S shares in that wrapper?

In someways I am hoping that once she has the funds in her account and starts treating the grandchildren she will see that it wasn't as bad as she thought. At the moment her comment to me is "you've never liked M&S shares".

All I am trying to do with my limited knowledge is to maximise our net worth in the most tax efficient way. Thanks again.

Brunokid

Hal17 said:

 Any thoughts on our how I can give her a caste iron reason to sell! 

Starmer's  Autumn budget!

Prepare yourself for a CGT melt down

EthicsGradient

Hal17 said:

Thank you all for the prompt replies. We have both maxed our ISA's for this year. We transferred our S&S ISA's into cash ISA's where we were getting nearly 6%, although a little less at the moment. I am not sure how we would do the bed and ISA that has been suggested?

I guess we would wait until March next year, sell the portion of shares that would give us the £3K CGT allowance each for this tax year. And then in April at the start of the new tax year open two S&S ISA's and purchase M&S shares in that wrapper?

In someways I am hoping that once she has the funds in her account and starts treating the grandchildren she will see that it wasn't as bad as she thought. At the moment her comment to me is "you've never liked M&S shares".

All I am trying to do with my limited knowledge is to maximise our net worth in the most tax efficient way. Thanks again.

Yes, something like that. It depends on how you currently hold them - as paper certificates, on a platform that also offers an ISA, or on something that is just a general trading account (something M&S set up itself, perhaps?)

Did your wife's shares come via "an HMRC approved scheme" for employees? If so, she may be able to put them directly into an ISA as shares (I've never tried this; someone else will have to say if there's a chance this applies).

If you hold them as paper certificates, it would probably be cheapest to put them into a general trading account (there should be no fee for this), and then "Bed and ISA" them, with an account that offers both general and ISA accounts. This should mean just one fee for the combined operation, but it can't be done like the by you until the new tax year - it all happens on one day. To use this year's CG allowance too, yes, sell them (lowest fee almost certainly if you've moved the paper certificates into an online account) at the end of this tax year (make it as close to before April 5th as you can), and then put the proceeds into an ISA on or after 6th April, and buy the equivalent amount of shares (number or value, up to you and your wife - the price will vary slightly in the few days, of course). That means two fees.

Exactly what you can do depends on the value and capital gain of the holding, of course.

Beddie

Do you want to be happy?
Or do you want to be "right"?

You obviously have plenty of money, so whether you sell them or not will make no material difference. Why make a thing of it? Tell your wife you'll never mention it again, if that's what she wants. 

Or, if she agrees, do what you said:

I guess we would wait until March next year, sell the portion of shares that would give us the £3K CGT allowance each for this tax year. And then in April at the start of the new tax year open two S&S ISA's and purchase M&S shares in that wrapper?

Hal17

Beddie said:

Do you want to be happy?
Or do you want to be "right"?

You obviously have plenty of money, so whether you sell them or not will make no material difference. Why make a thing of it? Tell your wife you'll never mention it again, if that's what she wants. 

Or, if she agrees, do what you said:

I guess we would wait until March next year, sell the portion of shares that would give us the £3K CGT allowance each for this tax year. And then in April at the start of the new tax year open two S&S ISA's and purchase M&S shares in that wrapper?

Ha ha you should be a marriage counsellor. Wise words, your comment on the material difference is true, so perhaps its me with the problem. A happy wife is a happy life so I should just back off. Thanks again everyone.