Tax and your investments

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13. Date of acquisition

In order to work out indexation or taper relief on any shares, you need to know the date of acquisition. Usually it's easy - you just look at the contract note, and it lists the date of the transaction.

If you have bought shares in the same company over a number of years, the dates of acquisition of each tranche of shares will similarly be indicated by the transaction date shown on the contract note.

Complications arise where you have got shares in a company by some means other than a normal purchase. The two common instances are:

1. Shares you acquire because you already have a holding

   Examples of this are rights issues, bonus issues and stock dividends. For these, the date of acquisition is taken as the date on which you acquired the original shares.

2. Company reconstructions (takeovers etc)

   These can be difficult because the tax treatment depends on the terms of each particular deal. Take advice from a broker or research through a reference such as Extel.

Special rules exist for unit and investment trusts where units or shares are acquired over a period of time through a monthly savings plan.

1. Keeping it legal 2. How HMRC treats your investment income 3. Keeping records 4. The basis of dividend income 5. Dividend income 6. Interest income 7. Interest on Treasury Stock 8. Capital gains tax basics 9. Base cost 10. Indexation 11. Taper relief 12. Indexation and taper relief - together! 13. Date of acquisition 14. Disposal proceeds 15. Disposal of a holding with a history 16. Takeovers 17. Bonus/scrip issues 18. Share splits 19. Buybacks 20. Rights issues 21. Share options 22. Beneficiaries and minors 23. Calculating your CGT liability 24. Using your annual CGT exemption 25. Transfers between spouses 26. ISAs 27. Delaying capital gains 28. Other tips to reduce CGT liability 29. Conclusion