tax advice on stock options please!!

Annie2003

Jimmo, thank you for spending so much time to guild me through. I would never know where to start without your help. Feel a bit braver to contact the US broker enquiring the other side of tax issues now.
As you mentioned ‘no-one from HMRC is going to be interested until such time that tax is at stake, normally after you have actually sold whatever capital asset you now hold.’ After I sell the shares, do I inform HMRC so they will calculate the tax due? Or fill self-assessment tax form/pay the tax and waiting for a tax inspector to check? At the moment, I can only use the difference of option price and share price as a taxable gain.

jimmo

Annie,
No problem, in my perverse way I’ve enjoyed the challenge but please be careful. You really shouldn’t rely on postings on this board as any more than pointers.
It is up to you to do your own research. After all, if I’ve got it wrong it is your money that is at stake, not mine, and you can’t sue me. Also, if the taxman challenges you, you really can’t say someone on the internet advised me.
In some ways I hate to do this but when you are logged on to the board there is a Thanks button on each message and you have never, so far, clicked on it in any of the posts. I suppose it’s really an ego thing but I also like to think that the thanks count helps others.
Assuming you are going to exercise all the options this year (2008/09) the letter of the law requires you to pay the tax due by 31/01/2010.
Make sure you do that. Informal arrangements tend to come and go but I would suggest that some time after 5 April 2009 you contact HMRC to explain your situation. In my days a one-off issue like this could be dealt with informally but you could have to make a Return.
Come back if you need to but I think your present priority is to sort out the US side.

Annie2003

Sorry, Jimmo, didn't know what the thanks button was for. I've press all of them.

jimmo

Thanks and good luck.
In my very limited experience of talking to US businesses as a customer they are light years ahead of anything in the UK on Customer Service so I imagine that they really will help you but I always smirk when they end with "Have a nice day."