SAYE Employee Share Option - About To Mature

[Muskythedog]

Just short of 3 years ago I registered for my works SAYE share scheme that gives us the option to purchase shares in the company at the October 2012 price less a 10% discount. Luckily the shares have risen from £2.26 to (present market turbulence accepted) hovering around the £7 mark so our £9k savings are worth just over £28k as things stand at the moment.

We really don't know the first thing about stocks and shares and capital gains tax, how do we go about getting a reputable independent financial adviser, is word of mouth /personal reccomendation the only real way?

From the limited amount of reading I have done it appears that I will be liable for CTG on anything over £11,100 - is this only on the profit or the total value of the shares? Do I have any options for the balance of the shares, or is it a question of sitting tight and hoping they hold their value until April 2016 when I can sell another batch without paying tax? If the option was somehow available to sell the majority/all of the shares as I have enrolled again in a new scheme last year so am already exposed to the shares so don't need to worry about missing out on any further potential gains.

Any advise/thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks

[JungleJim]

i think capital gains tax is based on the market value of the shares on the day you excercise your option, not on what you pay for them.

so if you exercise and imediately sell cgt = 0

[JungleJim]

actually scrap that - i'm wrong. Check your schemes paperwork, it should be explained there.

[*Badger*]

You're only liable for CGT on the gain, which is the profit.
So 28-9 = 19. As you say, sell over 2 financial years, no CGT to pay.

[fat80b]

You need to be looking at an ISA assuming you have this years allowance available.

You can move shares received as a result of an SAYE scheme into an ISA within 90 days of them exiting the SAYE scheme. They can then be sold inside the ISA free of CGT.

Google SAYE and ISA and you'll find ISA T's and C's that explain how to do it. Sometimes you need a letter confirming the shares came from a scheme.

https://www.tddirectinvesting.co.uk/help/faqquesti... For an example.


If you can, ask the company administering the scheme to automatically set up an ISA and transfer the right number of shares into the ISA for you.

We had a scheme administered by Equiniti who recently did this.

Bob

[Muskythedog]

Thanks for all the replies, it's really appreciated. The scheme is an approved scheme administered by Barclays so I am assuming the most sensible port of call would be to sell as many shares as I can before hitting the £10k CTG threshold, open Barclays Share ISA, transfer the remainder of the shares into it within 90 days and sell from there, thus avoiding any further tax?