Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)

Can I put shares from my employee share scheme into my ISA?

If you are in

• an HMRC approved all-employee share scheme run by your employer (that is, a savings related share option - 'Sharesave' - or profit sharing scheme), or

• the new Share Incentive Plan

  then you can transfer any shares you get from that scheme into the stocks and shares component of an ISA without having to pay Capital Gains Tax, provided your ISA manager agrees to take them. The value of the shares at the date of transfer counts towards the annual limit.

This means you can transfer up to £7,000 worth of shares in each of the tax years up to 2005-06, or £5,000 in any later year from 2006-07 (assuming that you make no other subscriptions to ISAs, in those years). (The reduction from £7,000 to £5,000 after 5 April 2006 is subject to consultation.)

Remember that if you want to transfer more than £3,000 worth of shares you must have a Maxi ISA

You must transfer the shares within 90 days from the day they emerge from the scheme. Or, in the case of an approved profit sharing scheme, from the third anniversary of the date you received the shares, if earlier. Your employer should be able to tell you more.