Advice sought on selling sharesave scheme shares and limitting the CGT I will have to pay

parxuk

Disclaimer: I am a bearer of little brain. I have tried to research this but just find myself getting more confused. Layman’s term would be very much appreciated please.I am looking for advice on how best to limit my exposure to Capital Gains Tax on the sale of shares. The shares were bought by me when I participated in a company Sharesave scheme. I paid in to the scheme each month (from salary) for 3 years and at the end had the option of buying shares (which I did).I would now like to sell the shares. Luckily the shares have gone up in value.I believe I could sell the shares myself but any gain over £3000 is subject to CGT?I have read that it might be possible to transfer/gift the shares to my wife and that she wouldn’t be subject to CGT, but I am unsure how correct this is? If so can I transfer the whole amount to her as shares and then she can sell them? Would she not then be subject to CGT?I am so confused by the whole thing I have no idea what to do, and would be grateful for any assistance.Thanks in advance

eskbanker

Best thing to do (apart from changing that ridiculous text sizing that hinders legibility!) would be to transfer them into an ISA, where they could subsequently be disposed of without any CGT issues:

https://www.gov.uk/tax-employee-share-schemes/transferring-your-shares-to-an-isa

p00hsticks

eskbanker said:

Best thing to do (apart from changing that ridiculous text sizing that hinders legibility!) would be to transfer them into an ISA, where they could subsequently be disposed of without any CGT issues:

https://www.gov.uk/tax-employee-share-schemes/transferring-your-shares-to-an-isa

That is only an option if you do it within 90 days of acquiring the shares though.....

parxuk

Thanks for the replies. Firstly I have no idea why the text style or formatting is the way that it is. I have tried to edit the font but cant, and also when I preview the post I have spaces between paragraphs, however when I save it just goes into one continuous string of text without the spacing (whichs is annoying).

Unfortunately it is more than 90 days since I aquired the shares.

sheramber

When you transfer some shares to your wife as a gift, there is no CGT payable on that transaction.

Your wife will be due to pay CGT when she sells them. That will be based on the price you paid for them and the price she sells them for. 

However . She will have her own £3000 exemption to set against it.

If the lotall gains will be more than £6000. - £3000 each- then sell in parts over more than one year. 

parxuk

Thanks for that sheramber. Need the money for a big purchase so will likely get rid of them all ASAP, but gifting 50% to wife to we can both use the £3000 exemption seems a good course of action.

As well as paying CGT, will the money we make from the sale of the shares count as taxable income for the year? for instance if my wife is currently a basic tax rate payer but is not too far from higher rate, could the profit from the sale of shares push her in to the higher rate?

Thanks again

DRS1

parxuk said:

Thanks for that sheramber. Need the money for a big purchase so will likely get rid of them all ASAP, but gifting 50% to wife to we can both use the £3000 exemption seems a good course of action.

As well as paying CGT, will the money we make from the sale of the shares count as taxable income for the year? for instance if my wife is currently a basic tax rate payer but is not too far from higher rate, could the profit from the sale of shares push her in to the higher rate?

Thanks again

No and No.

But your income tax rate will impact on the rate of CGT you pay.