Capital Gains - simple questions

[Bechbung]

I'm filling in paper form SA108 and have capital gains that have to be declared. Over the years I have not filled in box 24 'Disposal proceeds' and box 25 'Allowable costs (including purchase price). Perhaps it's about time I did. What exactly do they mean?
Suppose I've sold three different shares (say, AA, BB, CC), and the total purchase cost had been £30,000 with a cost of £30 broker's fee. I then sold them to realise a total of £50,000 minus £30 broker's fee. (Forget that this example might be under the requirement to report.) Capital gain is £20,000 minus £60.
What would go in boxes 24 and 25?
For Box 26 'gains in the year, before losses' I would normally fill in as: £19,940.

[DrBunsenHoneydew]

You have to do each share as a separate working out. Don't forget Stamp Duty is another allowable cost.
Some shares will have gains, and some might have losses even if in aggregate there is an overall gain. You have to separate the gain cluster out for Box 26. If all your shares have gains, there will be no difference. e.g. you might have 50000 gains on two shares and 30000 loss on the third. So put £50k in Box 26 not the net £30k

[Lootman]

You have to do each share as a separate working out. Don't forget Stamp Duty is another allowable cost.

I think it is easier to just record the net cost basis and the net proceeds at trade time. Then at tax time you don't have to worry about allowable costs.

That is how my broker records things anyway.

I use an accountant, and I send him the net cost basis and net proceeds, along with the gain or loss which I am sure he recalculates anyway.

He then enters the allowable costs as zero because I already factored them in. Seems to me like a waste of effort to document and maintain records of cost items like commission, stamp duty and whatever else. Just use net numbers.

[Bechbung]

Many thanks for both your responses.
First, DrB. I normally have an Excel spreadsheet with all the transactions that has all the necessary details that I print out and send. Then I put the total capital gain or loss in either respective boxes 26 or 27. That's always worked for me. But I thought, given that box 23 is the number of disposals (which I take to mean the number of transactions involving share sales across the tax year), that the following two boxes (25 & 26) were expressing an aggregate measure of some sort over all my transactions. I gave a simple case as if I'd done three transactions.
Are you sure from my example I'd put £50k in box 26 'gains in the year'? I'd have thought my gains of £19,940 would go in that box.

Second Lootman. Yes I record the net cost basis and net proceeds for each trade. I like to do the process myself. It would be useful to know why you put 'zero' in the 'allowable costs (including purchase price' as, per my question, I don't understand what it means. (That's why I'm asking.)
Similarly, what does box 25 'Disposal proceeds' mean? Here's what I got from one source on the web, not quite on topic:

In basic terms, the Capital Gains equals disposal proceeds (the amount you sell the shares for) minus acquisition cost (the amount you bought the shares for).
http://www.scruttonbland.co.uk/blog-pos ... -portfolio

I see this as defining the term 'disposal proceeds' as the amount of money you get back from the sale. In my example I take this to be £50,000 minus £60. So this is the aggregate of my three transactions. Yes, I specify those details of the transactions in a separate spreadsheet. Presumably this box 25 would be to test the threshold (4 times cap gains relief I believe) of whether to report. Am I along the right tracks?

[Alaric]

Presumably this box 25 would be to test the threshold (4 times cap gains relief I believe) of whether to report. Am I along the right tracks?

If the total of your gross gains is less than the annual limit, you don't need to report any detail, conditional on the gross proceeds being less than 4 times the limit.

[Lootman]

Second Lootman. Yes I record the net cost basis and net proceeds for each trade. I like to do the process myself. It would be useful to know why you put 'zero' in the 'allowable costs (including purchase price' as, per my question, I don't understand what it means. (That's why I'm asking.)
Similarly, what does box 25 'Disposal proceeds' mean?

Another approach is to look at the cash flows. The amount of cash deducted from your account to settle a trade is in fact the cost basis you need for taxes. It is the base amount of the trade plus costs. The cash credit for a sale is the base amount of the sale minus costs, and that is what is credited to your account.

So all I do is record those two cash amounts for each round-trip trade, at the time of the trade. As it happens my broker also maintains cost basis information as well, so there is a cross check there. (Although corporate actions can add complexity here - I am describing the simple case).

And because I am using net amounts, the allowable cost on my tax return is always zero, because those costs have already been factored in. To include them would be to double count them. There was a recent discussion on TLF about how various data items are not really important even though they are asked for - other examples are "number of shares" and "acquisition date". (For security positions anyway).

To your other question, the use of "acquisition" and "disposal" instead of the more intuitive and simple "buy" and "sell" is, I believe, to allow for different kinds of trade. For instance I do some short-selling, and in that case the initial opening trade is in fact a sell. The position is then closed out by a buy. Or you may acquire a share as a gift or bequest, and then there is no "buy". Personally I think they should use "open" and "close" instead.

[PinkDalek]

I haven't studied the whole thread but:

I'm filling in paper form SA108 and have capital gains that have to be declared. Over the years I have not filled in box 24 'Disposal proceeds' and box 25 'Allowable costs (including purchase price). Perhaps it's about time I did. What exactly do they mean?
Suppose I've sold three different shares (say, AA, BB, CC), and the total purchase cost had been £30,000 with a cost of £30 broker's fee. I then sold them to realise a total of £50,000 minus £30 broker's fee. (Forget that this example might be under the requirement to report.) Capital gain is £20,000 minus £60.
What would go in boxes 24 and 25?
For Box 26 'gains in the year, before losses' I would normally fill in as: £19,940.

Using your figures in conjunction with https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... s-2018.pdf and assuming all are gains and all disposals are Listed shares and securities:

Box 23 Number of disposals - 3
Box 24 Disposal proceeds - £50,000
Box 25 Allowable costs (including purchase price) - £30,060 (assuming no other costs of acquisition and disposal)
Box 26 Gains in the year, before losses - £19,940

Then attach your excel spreadsheet, summarised to reflect those numbers, if you haven't already so done.

[88V8]

It's that time again, completing the paper tax return.
It's some years since I paid CGT although I always try to use up my allowance.

In the process I usually go well over the disposal limit and therefore have to provide details.
Unless tax is actually due I have never filled in the CGT pages. I merely send a list of my sales, number of shares, dates, gross cost, net proceeds.

V8