Transfer of shares to wife

by **Rudy** on Sat Nov 28, 2009 3:22 pm

I'm in the process of transferring some shares to my wife to to use up her CGT allowance.

Presumably i can transfer to her any amount I want? i appreciate she only has a £10,100 annual allowance

Do I need to fill in any official form to do this or can I do the transcation myself by selling the shares in my name from my Barclays account and buy them back into her Barclays account ? Will HMRC treat this as a legitimate transfer If i do it this way?

The reason i'd prefer to do it myself is that Barclays can take up to 2 weeks to undertake the transfer and I have no control over what the share price spread could be when they undertake the transaction

Thanks

R

by **maths** on Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:02 pm

There is no restriction on the amount of any transfer.

You could simply execute a declaration of trust which would mean the beneficial interest in the shares would pass immediately to your wife at their market price when the declaration is executed (thus fixing the price).

The transfer of the legal interest (ie her name being entered into the company register can then follow although for tax purposes this is not strictly necessary).

by **mullet** on Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:10 pm

As stated, no money needs to change hands for a transfer between spouses or civil partners who are living together. Such a disposal is deemed to be at an amount of consideration which produces neither gain nor loss for you. Let's say the shares cost you £1000 plus £40 acquisition costs, and the transfer cost is £60. What this means in practice is that your wife acquires the shares at your cost price plus any allowable acquisition costs (indexation is dead now). Your CG computation would then be consideration £1,100 less costs £60, less purchase £1,040 = £nil. Your wife acquires at £1,100.

This is one of the last tax advantages of being married!

by **wamstax** on Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:12 am

But watch out that you don't end up with her not gettign any reliefs that won't transfer with the shares e.g. entrepeeurs relief

by **Rudy** on Thu Dec 10, 2009 12:50 pm

Thanks for your response to date. However this all just got more complicated

I want to gift the shares to my wife's Investment ISA which is held with Barclays stockbrokers. I have used her account before to trade with the original allowance of £7,200. We did well and the value of her account swelled to £20k before i sold the shares and help the receipts as cash in her ISA account.

I thought I would be able to gift shares to the value of the £20k from my account to her ISA but Barclays say you can only gift to the value of the current allowance of £7200. This seems odd to me since I could invest the £20k cash in the account in other shares and any further profit would be tax free (or at least i thought i could?)

Can anybody advise

by **Incredulum** on Fri Dec 11, 2009 2:50 pm

You are deeply confused.

You have an entitlement to put £7,200 into an ISA this year.
W has an entitlement the same.

You have a separate shares account.
W has a separte shares account.

1. Any transactions within the ISA are tax free.
2. Any transactions without the ISA are taxable - subject to the 10k annual allowance.

If you transfer shares which are standing at a gain to your wife, she can sell them and use her 10k allowance.

If you transfer your shares into her ISA you are subject to the 7,200 limit.

If you sell shares to Barclays and W buys them from Barclays then that is not you selling shares to your wife.