sharesave over £100k what to do????

[ilovemyfood]

I need some advice. I have a sharesave held over a period of 10 years (max amount every year). I've always purchased the shares (rather than take the savings because the shares have always increased in value) and they've gone up over the years to the extent that its now worth in excess of £110k. But recently I've been made aware of changes that are coming to capital gains tax which could potentially mean that i may have to pay 40% tax on any profits i make over my annual personal allowance. I'm not very financially savvy and would like to ask opinions on what you would do if in this situation. I'd be quite happy to transfer to my spouse to maximise our personal allowance for CGT purposes but there have to be other ways as well that i havent thought of.

Hi @ilovemyfood just bumping this for you and hopefully some Mumsnetters will be along soon with some useful advice. We've also moved it over to the Money Matters section for you.

The first step is to establish exactly what is the level of the potential CGT liability if you sold the shares tomorrow. As most have been held over a number of years it might not be as high as you fear.

Having sized the problem you will then be in a better position to identify the most suitable solution.

Do you have any projects in mind for the savings, or were they designed to be long-term?

As PP advises, I think you need to figure out your CGT liability and go from there. There will be loads of ways to mitigate it, but you need specific advice tailored to your circumstances.

Sell up to your CGT per annum. Can do it twice next year before and after April

I had a work share save that came in at £43k for a five year plan. I transferred some to DH at maturity and the company gave advice on that.then we sold enough each year each up to the max profit allowed which a few years ago was about £11k profit a year each. It’s now £12,300

So calculate the difference between purchase and selling price and don’t exceed 12,300 in profit and sell as pp advises before the tax year ends and after the new one starts.

Has your company not provided any guidance on this?

Thank you all. So from what I understand is:

Thank you SunSeed: so my next job is to calculate the price at which the initial shares were purchased for and the price at which they are at right now and calculate how many to sell so that we stay within the £12,300 profit bracket.

BUT, i wish to then purchase them again at the current rate.

Why? because we wish to keep them as a security for old age (even though we have pensions). we have no pressing need for the money right now as we're debt and mortgage free.

HaggieMaggie: No, the company doesn't provide guidance on this (or not that i'm aware of). My DH has some coming up for maturity in the next few months, I didn't know he could transfer them to me. Thank you for that.

You cannot buy the same shares again at the new rate for another 30 days if you are hoping to use the new cost price as your base price for any future disposal, therefore not minimising your gain. Please see capital gains manual CG13370 and CG51560 in particular for the rules on "bed and breakfasting" as its affectionately known. When you dispose of a security there are share matching rules to consider. In 1998 legislation was passed to disallow someone to sell shares and repurchase in the next 30 days.

I would recommend visiting an accountant as they're best placed to calculate correctly your gain/loss but also to advise with calculating potential gains on any acquisitions you plan on making very soon after. With such a high value portfolio you really can't afford to not take professional advice on this.

Calculating CGT on shares, especially if you have acquired over a long period isn't as simple as sale price less the cost you bought those specific shares for. The shares form a pool that needs valuing.

Why? because we wish to keep them as a security for old age (even though we have pensions). we have no pressing need for the money right now as we're debt and mortgage free

Single company shares are about as far from ‘security’ as you can get. The tales of ‘oh they were worth xxxx but now yyyy’ I’ve heard over the years. Get your money into a balanced portfolio unless you want a speculative investment (which is what they are).