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A follow up for anyone else reading this - I believe the HMRC response above is incorrect. I called HMRC and spoke to the Capital Gains technical team, who said that based on their reading of the HMRC capital gains guides (esp https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg51550p), sharepooling is the only acceptable method for calculating the cost basis for personal capital gains from stocks. There are some exceptions - same day sales and bed&breakfast sales being the most common. This is the guide the helpline person pointed me to regarding exceptions to sharepooling: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg51565 I also went and read the actual tax law, "Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992: Chapter I - Share pooling, identification of securities, and indexation" and "Finance Act 2008" using https://www.legislation.gov.uk. I am not a lawyer or accountant, so I take this with a massive massive grain of salt but it also seems to be the only option laid out there. Between 1998 and 2008, calculating cost basis using first in, first out (FIFO) was allowed. In 2008, the law was changed to remove that option, leaving only sharepooling (and the exceptions mentioned above). You can view the law at different points in time on that site, which is how I attempted to work this out.

I own many stocks of the same company. I sell some but not all of them. I am wondering if it is possible to calculate the cost basis of a sale by looking at specific stocks' purchase price, rather than forming a sharepool, to determine the cost basis. To illustrate: Bought 5 shares at $10 Bought 5 shares at $20 My broker tracks these shares individually, so I can choose to sell 3 of the ones I bought for $10. Given I know which specific shares I sold, can I use a cost basis of $10?

If the stocks were acquired as part of an employee equity compensation program that grants RSUs, where stocks are granted and then vest at a later date, does this change the answer? If not, is the purchase price (and therefore cost basis) that of the grant or vest date? Thank you!

I acquired stock in a single company prior to moving to the UK. Now, as a UK resident, I sold some of that stock. What is the cost basis I should use when calculating the sharepool value? A concrete example: I purchased 5 stock units in Company A for $10 each prior to moving to the UK. 1) I read somewhere that the cost basis is set to 0 for stocks acquired while not a UK tax resident. Is that correct, or should I use the purchase price ($10)? 2) If I use the purchase price, what exchange rate should I use - that of the date of acquisition or of sale? Thank you!