What do people typically do with company shares

veryangryman

When your shares are well up, do you just hang onto them till retirement so that you dont get too screwed with taxes?

Or do you cash them in while theyre "peaking" in your opinion?

New to this, go easy on me :)

Geuze

How does retirement affect any tax due on shares?

Income tax is due on any dividends, that is not really related to retirement,

CGT is due on any gains, again not related to retirement.

Shedite27

I presume you mean the company that you work for.

There's lots of different schemes to acquire shares, APSS, bonuses etc, each with their own rules. In general, most of the shares I get from my company I get to keep tax free (bar CGT) once 3 years are up. After 3 years, I sell them and invest the money elsewhere, either in a savings fund or AVC to the pension. Reason I do that is to avoid having too much of my money tied into the one company I work for. I don't want my money to be totally reliant on one company, I prefer diversification. Similarly, if the company went broke, I wouldn't want to lose my job and my savings in one go.

witchgirl26

Depends on the type of shares I suppose. My old company I got granted shares once I passed probation. They vested at different points. Once they vested, all I could cash them in for was the amount they were worth on the day they vested so I did, paid the tax & took the extra money.