Skip to content

Getting Started

Overview

This document is a guide to getting started with ShareCalc and gives you step by step instructions on how to get started. ShareCalc is a tool designed for you to input your investment data into and it will then automatically calculate and classify your capital gains and income tax liabilities. UK tax is complex so it's always essential to check that the output of the system is correct for your situation and if in doubt, to seek professional advice.

Scope and Limitations

To begin, we recommend reading about the system scope and limits to assess whether ShareCalc is suitable for your needs.

Broker and Account

All transactions must belong to an account and all accounts must belong to a broker so the first step is to create a broker and an account, which you can do by clicking the "Accounts" link in the left hand sidebar.

Residency

The system accounts for your UK tax residency so we recommend reviewing your residency by clicking the "Residency" link in the left hand sidebar and add any residency changes to your status as necessary. If you've always been UK resident, then you do not need to do anything. You can always update this later, so if you just want to try out the system, you don't need to fill this in yet.

Initial Setup Requirements

For UK tax calculations on assets, you need either:

  1. A complete record of all transactions during your current ownership period, or
  2. The total quantity and calculated cost basis of your Section 104 holdings

Your ownership period begins when you first acquire an asset and ends when you sell your final unit. Once you've completely sold an asset, you can generally disregard that ownership period's transaction history for future tax calculations. However, you should carefully consider whether you need to retain transaction records. Some common examples where historical records may be required include, but are not limited to:

  1. The transactions occurred in the tax year you're calculating.
  2. The transactions were affected by the bed and breakfast or same-day rule.
  3. The ownership position generated excess reportable income in the tax year you are calculating
  4. The disposals during that ownership period are taxable in the tax year you are calculating or a future year (e.g., the ownership period spans a period of temporary non-residency)

For ShareCalc, you can either import your full transaction history or initialize the system with Section 104 holdings.

Initializing with Section 104 Holdings

If you prefer not to import your full transaction history, you can initialize ShareCalc by entering initial Section 104 Holdings as acquisition events:

  • Basic Setup: Enter a single acquisition with your total holding quantity and GBP cost basis for each asset
  • Multi-Account Setup: For accurate balance tracking across accounts, create separate acquisition entries for each account and asset:
    • Enter the quantity held in each account
    • Allocate the cost basis proportionally across accounts
    • Ensure these initialization entries predate any other transactions
    • Double check that the generated tax event has the right quantity and cost basis

Note: While you can consolidate everything into one transaction for tax purposes, multiple account-specific entries are necessary for balance tracking. The tax calculation will automatically aggregate all initialization entries into a single Section 104 holding.

Add Data

You have two options for adding data to the system:

  1. Import from broker history
    1. You can automatically import your broker history under the "Import" link in the left hand sidebar. Currently, the system only supports Interactive Brokers, but if you have a preferred broker, please get in touch and we will add support.
    2. After you have imported your broker history, you will need to fill in any missing information for assets under the "Assets" link in the left hand sidebar.
  2. Add transactions manually
    1. To add transactions manually, you first need to create any assets that you will use in the transactions (including currencies), which you can do under the "Assets" link in the left hand sidebar.
    2. Once you have created the assets, you can add transactions manually under the "Transactions" link in the left hand sidebar and click the "Add" button to manually add a transaction. See the transactions documentation for more information on different types of transactions and their fields.

Run Tax Calculation

Now you can generate the tax report by clicking the "Tax" link in the left hand sidebar. If you are missing any information, then the system will give you a list of issues, which you can use to fill in the missing information. Please see the calculation errors section for more information on how to fix issues.

Validate Balances

Once you have all of your data in the system for a broker, it's a good idea to go to the Balances section and check if the calculated balances match your actual broker account. If they don't, then you are probably missing data, have an error, or accidentally entered some data twice.

Workflow

In general, the workflow with ShareCalc is to import your data, try and run the tax calculation, fix any errors, and then validate the balances and tax output.