Calculating capital gains for old investments.

[droopsnoot]

I've got some old investments in a GIA that I went into around 1999 / 2000 with the Nationwide Building Society. I'm thinking of cashing them out and using the funds to go into an S&S ISA for no reason other than I want to be able to leave that bit out of my SA. The problem is that some of them have changed fund name, been incorporated into other funds, and I am wondering how I would calculate the capital gains tax that I would have to declare when I sell them - is there a site somewhere that I can put in the current fund, the date I bought, and it will work it out for me, or when I sell them will Aegeon (who now look after them) send me a statement for tax purposes?

I've never sold any of them before and I can't remember why they didn't go into an ISA in the first place as some of the other investments I did at the same time did. I initially thought I'd need to balance out how much I sell to get in under the CGT allowance, but there isn't enough in to be hitting that unfortunately.

[Mr Pointy]

Are you saying that (current value) - (how much you invested) is less than £12,300?

[droopsnoot]

Actually for a minute I was thinking that the tax had to be below that threshold, which of course isn't the case. The overall amount, if I were to sell it out, would probably be above that amount.

Could I only sell out a certain amount, to make sure that the capital gain on that amount is below the threshold? That would work, as long as I could calculate it. If I were to sell the entire investment it would be easy to calculate because I know what was put in. It's just when it comes to selling part of a specific fund.

[Alpinestars]

Sell £12.300 worth before 5 April, same again April 6, No taxable gain (assuming you have no other gains in either tax year).

[droopsnoot]

Yes, that would do it. I was just pondering on whether I'd be able to balance it to get more out per tax year, while still not paying any CGT, and the complexity of the history is putting me off. It's something I should have been doing for a few years, so I've only myself to blame. And I'm sure Nationwide / L&G / Aegeon sent me paperwork when the funds changed, but I've got so much from them that I doubt I'd find it.

[Alpinestars]

That’s going to be your issue. You could try writing to them and seeing if they have the data.

We used to use extel when I was at school, this might be of help.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-g...

[droopsnoot]

Thanks, I think the quickest solution is to limit to selling and perhaps choose a fund that hasn't significantly changed.

A web site that allows someone to enter their current fund and a purchase date to calculate the capital gain, taking into account fund changes and merges, seemed such an obvious thing I was sure that the issue was I just didn't know what it was called. I guess I should look into the Aegeon site in case it does just that.

[Alpinestars]

Isn’t that what interactive data (ex extel) does?

[droopsnoot]

Alpinestars said:

Isn’t that what interactive data (ex extel) does?

I had the impression it was from a fixed date, but I haven't looked in detail yet. I'll post back when I have.

[Mogul]

CGT calcs. can be a nightmare.

Modern platforms can track CGT in you GIAs for you, but only if you placed every transaction with the that platform over the years…

You can liquidate up to 4x the current CGT allowance (e.g. £49,200 worth) if you *know* that the gain is less than 1x (e.g. £12,300) but you can only *know* this if you have ‘perfect’ records….

i.e. securities with a base cost of £39,600 can be sold for up to £49,200 without requiring you to disclose anything under Self Assessment… IIRC

Are you already in Self Assessment?

I really have know idea how switched-on HMRC are… they may never catch up with you, but if they do and your records aren’t up to scratch, there could be some tax and penalties to pay which would be a pain so the only way you can guarantee to avoid that small risk is to sell up to £12,300 worth this year, £12,300 worth next year etc.

[droopsnoot]

I am already in self-assessment, and I had to go through a check a couple of years ago and provide documentation to back up all the figures, so I've no real desire to do anything wrong or flag anything up.

I must say I haven't looked in the Aegeon site - although they were taken out with Nationwide, they haven't actually moved, it's just the organisation that deals with them isn't Nationwide any more. I think there may be one fund that hasn't changed at all, so it would make sense to target that one, if indeed cashing them out is a good thing to do at the moment.