CGT on EMI shares

[pip3005]

I was wondering if anyone could help on this please....

A colleague was awarded share options under the EMI scheme, which he held for a couple of years and subsequently sold all of them in February 2008. He bought and sold at the same time.

He was advised at that time that no CGT was due, although after taper relief his gain was higher than the his annual allowance and he had no losses to offset against his gain.
He is adamant that no CGT was due, whereas I believe CGT is payable. I was wondering if there any rules that would allow CGT to be avoided.

Many thanks in advance,
Pip

[AvocadoK]

Yes, there is CGT to pay. Looking on the bright side, the rate of CGT under taper relief was only 10%. If he had done the same thing after 5/4/08, he would have paid 18% tax (because he had not held the shares for 12 months, and the option period does not count for Entrepreneurs Relief purposes, whereas it did for taper). And he has avoided 40% income tax by having approved options rather than unapproved.

AK