Capital Gains Tax -Moving from Ireland to UK with substantial share portfolio

[ronaldo]

Hi,

I've an uncle whom over the last 15 years or so has acquired quite a substantial portfolio of shares. He was considering selling them up and using the money to purchase a property in London (he's moving there from Donegal).

Is it possible for him to keep the shares and sell them after moving to London and avail of the annual UK Capital Gains Tax Free allowance of £9,200 (€13,340) as opposed to our allowance of €1,270. If possible, he could sell them in increments ensuring that the profit in any year is less than €13,340 saving him €2,414 in tax per year. He could also transfer shares to his wife and she could make the same savings.

I'm not sure if it's allowable to do this or of the technicalities involved - e.g. how long would he have to be living in London before he would be able to use the UK CGT-free allowance?

 

[z109]

Isn't this the method high profile Irish business people have used to escape CGT? (e.g. Denis O'Brien moved to Portugal when he sold up his ESAT shares [broken link removed] ).

From that very anecdotal evidence, it looks like he can just bring his shares with him. I think he would need to be resident in the UK for six months to be considered tax resident there. If he moved before the end of the year, his last tax resident year in Ireland would be the current one (2007). Mind you, I am not an accountant, so the best advice would come from an expert. As it's a large amount of money, it's worth paying for this advice!