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How much Capital Gains Tax you pay when selling company shares or share options for a profit depends on:
Simple. There is no tax to pay if your annual contributions to your ISA stayed in the £20k limit.
In this case the calculation is straightforward as well:
Use our Capital Gains Tax calculator to work out how much you need to pay.
Read more in our guide to tax-efficient investments.
It all depends on your relationship to your employer:
Type of shares | How you received them | Capital Gains Tax |
Your company’s common shares | You owned at least £2,000 worth of shares in your company | You only pay CGT on gains over £100,000 that you make during your lifetime |
Your company’s common shares | You owned at least 5% of the company | You might qualify for Entrepreneurs’ Relief and pay CGT at a reduced rate of 10% |
Your company’s common shares | Through a Share Incentive Plan (SIP) | — |
You or other companies’ publicly listed shares | Through a Save As You Earn (SAYE) plan | — |
Your company’s share options | Through a Share Option Plan | Normal rate (on the difference between the exercise price and what you sold them for) |
Your company’s share options | Through an Enterprise Management Incentive Plan (EMI) | Normal rate (on the difference between the exercise price and what you sold them for) |
If the person giving you the shares was your spouse, then you don’t need to do anything.
Otherwise you need to calculate and pay CGT.
If you made a capital loss when selling shares, you can:
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