[Accounting for currency fluctuations for Capital Gains]

1 hour ago, jlz said:

There is a guide at https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-shares/work-out-your-gain

Thanks, a lot of useful info there, but I couldn't find anything explicitly relating to dealing with currency.

To complicate things further:

From a previous employer I had a bunch of options that I bought to hold on leaving. These shares are in $. If I sell them they get paid into my $ account and from there I can transfer them into my IG fund in $ too. As such the value stays in $ right until I should need to convert them back into £. I have no idea how to account for the cost at buy time compared to sell time in £, given fluctuations in £ <--> $ between the time I bought and when I might want to sell them in future.

[Accounting for currency fluctuations for Capital Gains]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out how to account for currency fluctuations when calculating Capital Gains (CG) on a sale. It probably helps if I give an example.

Suppose I have £1,000 and I fund my account when the effective exchange rate to $ is 1.3. So I have $1,300 in my account.

I then buy 130 shares at $10 each.

At sale time, the shares are $20 each so I now have $2,600 in my account, but the current effective exchange rate is 1.2, so conceptually I have 2600/1.2 = £2,166. If I cash out then is my CG £1,166 or do I calculate it based on the rate at buy time and so only £1,000 gain?

Alternatively, suppose I leave the funds in $ until later and the rate drops to 1.1 and then I cash out, giving me a total of £2,363. is the gains now £1,363, £1,166 or £1,000.

(All the above ignore commission and other charges for simplicity)

I am sure this is solved problem, but I'm struggling to find the answers.

[Depositing Dollars. Do they stay in Dollars?]

@CharlotteIG, Thanks for clarifying that. I have another related question.

When buying shares, IG's fees in GBP and converted out of the USD funds as needed. If there were GBP funds in the account as well, would it use those funds for any GBP-related fees, while keeping the actual share purchase using USD? I.e is the system 'smart' enough to use the most appropriate currency funds as needed?

[Depositing Dollars. Do they stay in Dollars?]

Hi,

Using my own using my USD Bank Account, if I deposit USD into the USD account shown in the "How to Deposit" section of IG , does that deposit stay in dollars or does it get converted to GBP. I want to buy US stocks and don't want to convert from and to GBP each time.

I hope that makes sense

Thanks