Need advice – missed CGT reporting in past tax return (proceeds over 4× exemption, but no tax due)

PeteSouthgate72

Hi all,

Hoping someone here can help clarify something about CGT reporting — and whether I need to fix a past tax return.

I’m already registered for Self Assessment because I have rental income and some dividend income. I've been buying and selling stocks for a few years through Trading212, and I’ve recently realised that in 2022–23, while my gains were below the CGT exemption (£12,300), my total proceeds from selling shares were over £49,200 (which I now understand is 4× the CGT allowance and means I should have reported it). I didn’t include any CGT info in that return.

In 2023–24, I’m fine — both my gains and proceeds were below the thresholds, so I think no action is needed for that year.

I’ve already built a spreadsheet with all the transactions and matched them using HMRC’s pooling rules. I'm happy to fix the 2022–23 return, but I'm just not sure:

• Do I have to amend the return if no tax was actually due?

• Is it easy to amend online (still within time)?

• Would HMRC charge penalties even though I didn’t owe any CGT?

There’s also a complication I’ve noticed in older tax years. Between around 2014 and 2018, my dad had access to my Sharebroker account and it looks like he was transferring shares from his account to mine and then selling them shortly after (within a few days or a week). I'm guessing it was for tax purposes on his side.

I’ve got the broker statements and I’m slowly working back through them, but it's messy. I doubt much CGT would be due from that period, but I want to make sure I'm doing things properly.

Also, I expect to make a CGT loss in 2024–25, so I want to report that correctly and carry it forward.

If anyone’s been through something similar or knows how HMRC would likely treat this, I’d really appreciate the guidance. Would also be good to know if I need to formally notify them about all this or just sort it out through amendments.

Thanks in advance,   

Pete

TheGreenFrog

PeteSouthgate72 said:

Hi all,

Hoping someone here can help clarify something about CGT reporting — and whether I need to fix a past tax return.

I’m already registered for Self Assessment because I have rental income and some dividend income. I've been buying and selling stocks for a few years through Trading212, and I’ve recently realised that in 2022–23, while my gains were below the CGT exemption (£12,300), my total proceeds from selling shares were over £49,200 (which I now understand is 4× the CGT allowance and means I should have reported it). I didn’t include any CGT info in that return.

In 2023–24, I’m fine — both my gains and proceeds were below the thresholds, so I think no action is needed for that year.

I’ve already built a spreadsheet with all the transactions and matched them using HMRC’s pooling rules. I'm happy to fix the 2022–23 return, but I'm just not sure:

• Do I have to amend the return if no tax was actually due?

• Is it easy to amend online (still within time)?

• Would HMRC charge penalties even though I didn’t owe any CGT?

There’s also a complication I’ve noticed in older tax years. Between around 2014 and 2018, my dad had access to my Sharebroker account and it looks like he was transferring shares from his account to mine and then selling them shortly after (within a few days or a week). I'm guessing it was for tax purposes on his side.

I’ve got the broker statements and I’m slowly working back through them, but it's messy. I doubt much CGT would be due from that period, but I want to make sure I'm doing things properly.

Also, I expect to make a CGT loss in 2024–25, so I want to report that correctly and carry it forward.

If anyone’s been through something similar or knows how HMRC would likely treat this, I’d really appreciate the guidance. Would also be good to know if I need to formally notify them about all this or just sort it out through amendments.

Thanks in advance,   

Pete

Hard to say what tax purpose he had in doing this.  His transfer of shares to you would have been a deemed disposal by him for CGT purposes at market value (irrespective of price paid - which I assume was zero otherwise stamp duty would have been due) and your base cost will be the market value.  If he wanted to give you the value of the shares then instead of transferring them and then selling them it would have been far easier to sell them and then transfer the cash to you.

TheGreenFrog

PeteSouthgate72 said:

Hi all,

Hoping someone here can help clarify something about CGT reporting — and whether I need to fix a past tax return.

I’m already registered for Self Assessment because I have rental income and some dividend income. I've been buying and selling stocks for a few years through Trading212, and I’ve recently realised that in 2022–23, while my gains were below the CGT exemption (£12,300), my total proceeds from selling shares were over £49,200 (which I now understand is 4× the CGT allowance and means I should have reported it). I didn’t include any CGT info in that return.

In 2023–24, I’m fine — both my gains and proceeds were below the thresholds, so I think no action is needed for that year.

I’ve already built a spreadsheet with all the transactions and matched them using HMRC’s pooling rules. I'm happy to fix the 2022–23 return, but I'm just not sure:

• Do I have to amend the return if no tax was actually due?

• Is it easy to amend online (still within time)?

• Would HMRC charge penalties even though I didn’t owe any CGT?

There’s also a complication I’ve noticed in older tax years. Between around 2014 and 2018, my dad had access to my Sharebroker account and it looks like he was transferring shares from his account to mine and then selling them shortly after (within a few days or a week). I'm guessing it was for tax purposes on his side.

I’ve got the broker statements and I’m slowly working back through them, but it's messy. I doubt much CGT would be due from that period, but I want to make sure I'm doing things properly.

Also, I expect to make a CGT loss in 2024–25, so I want to report that correctly and carry it forward.

If anyone’s been through something similar or knows how HMRC would likely treat this, I’d really appreciate the guidance. Would also be good to know if I need to formally notify them about all this or just sort it out through amendments.

Thanks in advance,   

Pete

If I were you I would amend the return.  I have amended online in the past, with amendments not requiring additional tax, and that was that.  

On losses you simply report on your next tax return.  There is a box for it in CGT pages but I think that in theory you can also just note in the additional info section of your return if you do not need to fill in the CGT pages for other reasons.