Daily Telegraph: Huge tax bills for Royal Dutch investors from Shell merger
By Paul Farrow (Filed: 31/05/2005)
Hundreds of British shareholders in Royal Dutch Petroleum face huge capital gains tax bills when it merges with Shell Transport & Trading.
Last week, the oil giant announced the timetable for this deal. If, as expected, the proposals are accepted, investors will exchange existing shares for shares in the new company on July 20.
The vast majority of shareholders will not have to pay any tax when the shares are exchanged. British Shell Transport & Trading shareholders qualify for rollover relief and will only be liable for CGT as and when they dispose of their shares in future.
However, it has emerged in the small print that about 2,000 British investors who own Royal Dutch shares do not qualify for roll-over tax relief. Many of these investors will be liable for capital gains tax of up to 40 per cent when their existing shares are replaced by a stake in the new company.
Rathbones, the stockbroker, said that it has several clients with capital gains of more than £100,000, as they have held the shares for more than 20 years.
The Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (Apcims) is in urgent talks with Royal Dutch Shell to resolve the matter. It has also written to the Inland Revenue and the Treasury asking for help.
Angela Knight, the chief executive of Apcims, said: “Shell really knows how to hit the elderly. Most Royal Dutch shareholders have held the shares for years. They deserve to be treated the same as the other shareholders, otherwise people will have to pay a fortune in tax.”
Sir David Howard, the chairman of Charles Stanley, the stockbroker, said that more than 100 of his firm’s clients were affected. He added: “I’m not sure Shell spotted the problem.”
Shell said there were many ways in which individuals could reduce any tax payment on acceptance of the offer.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
