Capital Gain Taxes - RSU Banking

Hi - I work for a bank and have been given restricted stock units based on a US share plan (not UK). as part of my salary which vested over 3 years. I sold some of the restricted stock units last year after a holding period of longer than 2 years and more and made a capital gain. Following questions A) Do I still need to pay capital gain tax even the share plan is based on the US (I work in the UK)? B) Do I still habe to pay capital gain tax even if I was holding these shares longer than 2 years (some even much longer)? C) does the Restricted Stock Unit Plan from Bank not fall under Capital gain exemption? Thanks a lot

Hi RSU,

1.  Yes you will still pay capital gains as it is based on where you are resident at the time the gain occurs.  
2. If the value of the shares increases between when they vest and when you sell them, you will have made a capital gain.
Depending on how big the gain is, you may need to pay capital gains tax. the present annual exemption is £12300 and this will reduce to £6000 on 6/4/23  
3. answered at 2.

Thank you.

A) Both US and UK. Note that the vest values and sale values need to be converted into GBP at those points in time for the UK tax. On the plus side there is a generous £12,300 tax free limit until this April. B) In some countries stocks that are older have different tax levels, this is not the case in the UK. Actually all stocks purchased, have a value and are added to a single value, an average (mean) holding value known as the Section 104 holding (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/shares-and-capital-gains-tax-hs284-self-assessment-helpsheet/hs284-shares-and-capital-gains-tax-2019#how-to-work-out-the-gain-for-shares-in-a-section-104-holding). Even when you sell from your broker and it asks "old or new" that's irrelevant in UK tax and your choice was meaningless* If you had a vest within 30 days of one of your sales, you need to read up on the 30 day rule. I'm afraid this whole thing is quite complicated. C) There used to be some special share plans for specific UK shares in specific old-school UK companies, it's *extremely* unlikely from your description that your bank and its US share scheme are one of those approved schemes. *Unless you head to another country that treats this differently in which case, utilise the UK's tax free limit and sell the oldest (deemed most valuable, outside the UK) 1st. All hope is lost if you're from the USA as you have to pay tax on gain in both the US and UK. The treaty doesn't work that well for that.