Question on company stock options

Hi There,

I was given stock options by my company nearly ten years ago. There is a condition that you must buy / sell within the ten year time frame. I recently sold mine and after the exchange rate etc I received 5,695 Euro. Do I need to pay CGT on this? Also any idea of how I go about paying it or how much I need to pay? I would like to get the tax bill settled so that I can put the remainder to work on paying off some debts etc.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Thank you
JJ

JJ343 said:

I recently sold mine and after the exchange rate etc I received 5,695 Euro. Do I need to pay CGT on this?

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Most likely yes.

What was the acquisition price and the market price at the time that you exercised the options? What was the selling price?

Also any idea of how I go about paying it or how much I need to pay?

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In very simple terms you pay 20% CGT on any capital gain less allowable expenses and reliefs. www.revenue.ie has explanatory material on how CGT is calculated, when it must be paid etc.

Acqustion price was approximately $12 and the selling price approx $17.

Was $12 the market price or a discounted price? If the latter then you were/are also liable for income tax on the difference. These days this must be paid within 30 days of exercising the option. Not sure what the rules were in the past. And it could be different if this is a Revenue approved scheme but many (most?) are not.

You can index the acquisition price for inflation up to c. 2003. And then deduct allowable expenses, your annual CGT allowance etc. This is all explained in the Revenue CGT summary guide(s). Ditto for converting from $ to € etc.

Thanks Clubman, I'll look into it.

I was given option a few years ago and we were told that there was no tax to pay if if we held them for five year.

In my case the company crashed and I did not gain anything, Do I still need to inform the tax office that I received options?