Can I gift my shares to my spouse / civil partner?

Yes. You can gift shares to your spouse or civil partner.

This gift is free from capital gains tax, so it can be an effective way to make use of two capital gains tax allowances (i.e., £3,000 each and £6,000 in total).

If you are looking to gift your shares from an upcoming ShareSave maturity you would need to select Choice 1- Exercise (Buy and KEEP shares) on your ShareSave maturity election task for your shares to be transferred to your Share Plan Account on EquatePlus. From there you can click on the Transact button then Transfer option to instruct the transfer of your shares electronically to a third-party brokerage accounts held in your own name. From there it would be possible to make a further onward transfer/gift to your spouse or civil partner. The exact process would depend on your chosen broker so you should always consult with them before initiating the transfer on EquatePlus.

EquatePlus is only able to hold shares originating from an employee share scheme and is subject to certain limitations such as only facilitating transfers to third-party broker accounts that you hold in your own name.