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  • RE: CGT on US shares (including accounting for PAYE deduction)

    Apologies - is it general. If a UK domiciled resident sells US listed shares they received for free, will they be required to pay *both* PAYE and CGT? Surely the answer is just a yes / no and based on a rule(s)? It would seem egregious to ask folks to pay close to 50% PAYE and then also CGT (which would be at the highest rate). Those individuals wouldn't be left with much! My best
  • CGT on US shares (including accounting for PAYE deduction)

    Dear Team. Please could you help me with the theory of this... Apologies for the long background, yet I'm unsure which parts are relevant ... so will likely give you more than you need. I write this as a UK resident and UK domiciled individual. I have been paying as I earn (income tax and ni) as a full time employee for more than the last ten tax years. I work for a non-SME (>100 employees) UK company which is on companies house and has all relevant UK codes (SIC, VAT number, company number etc etc). Ultimately this company is owned by a large US company listed on the US stock exchange. Around 2015 I was awarded shares in the US company. As the company had done this type of thing many times before, I had all appropriate documentation (W-8BEN etc). The shares vested at a rate of one quarter every year for four years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) and there was a rule that everything needed to be sold within 5 years of the last vesting date (eg by 2024). That time came a few months back and I sold everything. As the proceeds were in USD from selling a US listed stock, the US stock broker (Fidelity) withheld approx 47% of the proceeds. That was fine and made sense to me. (I am still holding those proceeds in USD at this time). Meanwhile, my UK company received the information regarding my sale, including the amount withheld and undertook a full calculation based on my actual earnings in the 24/25 tax year at that point and applying my tax code etc. The variance was small and it worked out that I was effectively due a small 'refund' vs the 47% withheld and that was added to the next payslip I received. Apologies (again) for the long background, yet I'm unsure which parts are relevant ... so will likely give you more than you need. To my question ... As summarised above, I have already paid c.46% in tax on these shares. Theoretically, will I also need to calculate a Capital Gain as well as the c.46% of tax I have already paid? If so (I really hope not!) what are the calculations and would it take into account that my 'gain' is much lower due to the c.45% tax already paid? Thank you very much for your time in reading and in anticipation of your response. All the best