selling a company (not valuation)

[dcw@pr]

I own company A. Company A owns company B. I want to sell company B.

From the point of view of minimising the tax implications of getting the money from the sale, would it be better if I personally owned the shares in company B, or does it make no difference?

[Ade355]

An accountant might suggest taking the sale as a capital gain at 10% (assuming your not over yr £1 million lifetime limit) by selling B, then windup company A and take the capital in A as a gain. If you dont want to wind-up A, then just sell the shares from A to yourself personally.

Alternatively if we are talking about reletively small amounts (under 100K) then it might just be better to take the sale proceeds as dividends/expenses/PAYE over a protracted period and some as capital gains (using yr allowance)

[dcw@pr]

Ade355 said:

An accountant might suggest taking the sale as a capital gain at 10% (assuming your not over yr £1 million lifetime limit) by selling B, then windup company A and take the capital in A as a gain. If you dont want to wind-up A, then just sell the shares from A to yourself personally.

Alternatively if we are talking about reletively small amounts (under 100K) then it might just be better to take the sale proceeds as dividends/expenses/PAYE over a protracted period and some as capital gains (using yr allowance)

Interesting. Say company B was being bought for £1m, could I sell myself the shares from A for £1, or will mr taxman get peeved?

[Ade355]

If you are a director & own a controlling stake of voting shares in A, then you can sell the shares for whatever you like... however this in itself does not achieve anything.

You need to actually distribute the proceeds of the sale to yourself, just owning the share does not achieve this. Once you own the share, then wind up B and take the remaining cash personally and declare a capital gain on your SATR and pay the tax due.