USD share spouse transfer: Hargreaves Lansdown? Interactive Investor?

BuyCurious

I’m new to all this but am hopefully catching up quickly on ways to achieve the below while making better use of tax planning that previously eluded me.  Until a week or so ago I had no idea of most of the terms below, and no share trading accounts.

Things I’m here to check are:

1. General approach – have I understood these correctly?
1. The 30-day bed and breakfast rules to allow me to repurchase shares and avoid the current year CGT liability
2. Spouse transfers so that we can make use of their CGT allowance in the next 2-3 years
2. Having looked at online I am considering two options for making a same-broker transfer of US shares. But am unsure whether either will really work based on the (lack of) information I see online about services

The story so far…

I sold some shares in a US based “sell only” employee benefits account in mid-October to cover some expected UK costs.  The disposal resulted in a pile of USD in the US trading account. Most of the costs didn’t arise so I’m looking for ways to repurchase some of the shares to reduce the pre-Budget 20% CGT liability that would be due on the disposal, and make use of future CGT allowances.

In case it matters I can use Wise FX services to bring USD to UK at reasonable cost.

So far I’ve transferred enough USD (as USD) to a new Interactive Investor account to repurchase shares with c. £6000 gain. Because I did this within 30-days of original sale under the B+B rules I don’t get a fully-loaded CGT liability on those shares. The direct transfer of USD-USD has saved USD-GBP-USD FX costs.  I will sell  £3000 of gain in each of tax year 25/26 and 26/27 to use the CGT allowance. So I think I’ve avoided a current year 20% CGT liability (and future liability of 24%) on £6000 (although I will need to cover the B+B loss / gain).

I’d then like to do something similar to make use of my partner’s CGT allowance for this year, plus the two following ones. The general plan is…

1. Repurchase shares with c. £9k gain in next few days into an account in my name, again making use of B+B rule to reduce my CGT liability for this year.
2. Transfer same shares to spouse’s new trading account before Christmas, using spouse transfer to avoid CGT liability arising.
3. Sell enough shares to generate c. £3000 of gain before April 2025, and then same in each of next two tax years (on the assumption that the gain will remain similar).

Options I’m considering:

1. Interactive Investor: Try and get more USD to my existing account in time to purchase ‘spouse shares’ while avoiding FX costs.  Open spouse account and make transfer. Main snags here is that I can’t see them explicitly saying they can handle spouse transfers except in relation to ISAs.  Should be the cheapest immediate route, but with a risk I may not get the USD there in time to make the purchase before B+B window expires so will end up converting them to GBP with ii’s 1.5% FX fee. Would also require a £4.99 per account monthly fixed fee (once the current 6 month fee offer expires) and £3.99 trade fee.
2. Hargreaves Lansdown: No USD cash holding mechanism, so would require converting USD to fund HL GBP account via Wise (0.33% fee), then GBP to USD to make the purchase at HL internal FX rates (nominally 1.0%). Open spouse account and make transfer. HL mention spouse transfers more often in their web blurb – but again I can’t see a specific description of the process. I’m more confident that the account opening, FX transfers, etc could be completed faster here.  Approx £3.50 monthly total holding based fee across accounts and £11.95 trade fee.

On the whole I think the costs for each route just about balance out.

Thank you for reading this far.  I could write more, but would be running into various ”What if…?” confusion on my part so will leave it there for comments.  In summary I’m asking for views and experience on if the general process is valid, and whether both, either or none of ii and HL could make it work – time factors aside.  Let me know if I missed anything important.

Best wishes

BC

sausage_time

Why not bed and ISA?  I recently did this with Trading 212.  Sold shares in our joint names to give a ~£6k gain in our US based GIA, bought back in my S&S ISA (in my name - could have split over 2 ISAs).

BuyCurious

sausage_time said:

Why not bed and ISA?  I recently did this with Trading 212.  Sold shares in our joint names to give a ~£6k gain in our US based GIA, bought back in my S&S ISA (in my name - could have split over 2 ISAs).

Because as I understand it I need to bed-and-breakfast rather than ...-ISA to avoid the capital gain liabilty that has arisen, in other words buy them back outside an ISA.

But happy to be corrected.

sausage_time

Re-reading your post I think you have a handle on the basics but I'm not sure I follow all your logic after the initial buy-back.   If I understand...

• You sold a number of share in your name leading to a significant gain
• You will buy some(?) back under the 30 day rule leaving a gain of £6k (subject to share price and FX movements).  As an aside, are you confident of the original purchase prices(s)?  If you are "buying" at various times under a ESPP or RSU scheme for example you will need to work out the Section 104 price and also take account of FX rates.
• If the residual gain is £6k won't you have a CGT liability on £3k?  
• You will transfer some (additional?) shares to your partner (no immediate CGT impact).  When they sell this will also be with respect to that Section 104 price.

BuyCurious

Thanks. I think you're playing back my intent so sounds like I have the basic process OK.

No spousal involvement in current holdings hence the desire to put some shares in their name to use their individual allowance. I don't think I can apply their £3k allowance to my sales to make a £6k total, but if there is a Tax Return box to do that it'd be handy.

I wouldn't say I'm fully up to speed on the S104 calc - but am aware of it and will be more clued in by the time I do my Tax Return.

Main Q that leaves is whether HL and ii can both do the spouse transfer easily.  Maybe it is such a basic task they don't mention it.