Cost of shares acquired long ago

Cost of shares acquired long ago

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My husband is the legally appointed deputy for his elderly aunt who suffers from Alzheimer's and now lacks the mental capacity to manage her own affairs.  She currently owns a number of shares in organisations such Lloyds/TSB, Barclays and British Aerospace which she has acquired over the past 50 years or so as a result of some outright purchases but also through rights issues, capitalisation issues, company takeovers etc.  My husband is considering selling some of these shares but is having difficulty finding the acquisition dates and values for all the shares to consider the capital gains tax implications of doing so.

Can anyone point me in the direction of any guidance on acceptable methods of estimating the relevant costs in cases like this?

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By Marion Hayes
28th Feb 2012 19:32

1982 is as far back as you need to consider

CGT rules deem all shares owned on 31 March 1982 to have been acquired for that value on that date, but you do need to work back to the holding in place on that date.

As regards other shares I have found the Registrar to be more than helpful in similar circumstances, as are the dates on the share certificates and the companies own websites.

Yahoo have a share quote site which carries historical values.

In addition, if you are going to use a broker for any sales he will have access to all the share histories of each company.

Alternatively I would only sell shares up to the value of the annual exemption which would mean that you did not need to worry about the costs.

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