Any tax-effient way of realising salary part paid in shares?

The tax paid on company share schemes depends on the nature of the scheme.


However, in general, the higher rate tax you pay depends on your total taxable income in the tax year. Pension contributions are non taxable, so any contributions you make will lead to a reduction in tax, including any higher rate tax. It does not matter where the money for the contributions comes from, the fact that it came from selling shares is irrelevent.


So its not a matter of getting your dividends or share sale proceeds paid into your pension but rather simply increasing your pension contributions by the value of this extra income.

There are some complications:
1) You cannot get tax relief on pension contributions beyond your earned income. Usually money made from selling shares is not earned. So if your shares are worth more than your annual salary, after deduction of any other pension contributions you make, it would be sensible to split the sales over more than one year.
2) Higher rate tax relief can get a bit messy and you may have to complete a tax return to ensure you get it. However if your pension contributions are taken prior to deduction of tax and the share selling transactions are managed through your employer's payroll system everything should be OK.