You can include your shares in an ISA wrapping up to the annual �7,000 allowance. If you contact a firm of financial advisors like Hargreaves Lansdowne (www.h-l.co.uk) they will arrange for this to be done providing you have a certificate for your shares. If they are held in a nominee account (i.e. in bulk with everybody elses's shares as a result of a demutualisation for example,) it may be more complicated to arrange. Shares usually pay annual dividends, normally ddeclared at x pence per share held. If your shares are in an ISA wrapping this dividend can be reinvested and used to buy more shares, or the dividend paid out to you tax free.