I am registered as self-employed via self-assessment and have been paying capital gains tax (CGT) on the sale of my assets (stocks and shares) for several years. I have not registered as a business, a sole trader or a limited company, but I wish to purchase items related to my employment. Can I claim the cost of these items against the CGT I pay on the profit made from the sale of my stocks and shares without registering as a sole trader, etc? 

Arthur replies: 

Unfortunately, your question is not clear to me. However, if you look at HMRC’s Business Income Manual at BIM56860, you can see HMRC states, based on recorded court cases, that an activity of buying and selling shares and other financial instruments undertaken by an individual will normally amount to investment or speculation falling short of trading. So, it is not a trading activity but rather a CGT activity. Allowable expenses can be seen on HMRC’s Capital Gains Manual at CG15160, where the relevant expenses are: (a) acquiring the asset; and (b) incidental costs of acquisition and disposal. Regarding this last category, see CG15250 where it states that the expenditure must have been incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the acquisition or disposal.