Calculating Capital Gains Tax on Unit Trusts

beardiedog

I liquidated my Unit Trust in January 2025 into which I paid £50 per month since 2000.

How do I calculate the gain and how do I declare this on my Self Assessment for 2024/25.

I declared the re-invested dividend each year.

Totally confused, any help gratefully received.

Bookworm225

assuming it is purchases in the same UT each month then the "pooling" rule applies

you must add up the number of units purchased by each £50 and then take the average cost of a unit based on total number of units sold, that gives your purchase cost for the CGT calculation

have you read the instructions?
HS284 Shares and Capital Gains Tax (2024) - GOV.UK

beardiedog

Thank you.

TheGreenFrog

When you refer to "re-invested" dividend I assume you mean that you have an accumulation product and you have, rightly, declared each year's accumulated income on your tax return.  As referred to in the link posted above by @Bookworm225, you therefore need also to factor in all of these accrued income amounts (which will increase your base cost, in effect).  Also check for equalisation amounts which may appear after unit purchases - these also need to be factored in and will reduce your base cost.  See also the following:

https://techzone.aberdeenadviser.com/public/investment/Guide-Taxation-of-Collectives

probate_slave

I agree with TheGreenFrog as to reducing the gain by the total of accumulated dividends, which shouldn't be subject to both income tax and CGT.
However, on the equalisation payments, I disagree: OP can ignore these for accumulation funds. There are some gigantic threads here arguing the point back and forth, but even the Aberdeen guidance linked aboves agrees that:
"There is no adjustment for ‘equalisation payments’ on the notional distributions from accumulation shares. That’s because the capital has not been returned to the investor and therefore does not alter the acquisition cost. "

TheGreenFrog

probate_slave said:

I agree with TheGreenFrog as to reducing the gain by the total of accumulated dividends, which shouldn't be subject to both income tax and CGT.
However, on the equalisation payments, I disagree: OP can ignore these for accumulation funds. There are some gigantic threads here arguing the point back and forth, but even the Aberdeen guidance linked aboves agrees that:
"There is no adjustment for ‘equalisation payments’ on the notional distributions from accumulation shares. That’s because the capital has not been returned to the investor and therefore does not alter the acquisition cost. "

Thanks, good point.

beardiedog

TheGreenFrog said:

When you refer to "re-invested" dividend I assume you mean that you have an accumulation product and you have, rightly, declared each year's accumulated income on your tax return.  As referred to in the link posted above by @Bookworm225, you therefore need also to factor in all of these accrued income amounts (which will increase your base cost, in effect).  Also check for equalisation amounts which may appear after unit purchases - these also need to be factored in and will reduce your base cost.  See also the following:

https://techzone.aberdeenadviser.com/public/investment/Guide-Taxation-of-Collectives

Yes. Thank you, I wondered how I should treat the dividend amounts.

beardiedog

Thank you very much everyone for your help.