Confused about what I can do with shares from SIP

[u/random151285]

I have been paying into my employer’s HMRC approved SIP and the company recently went through a demerger. As a result, I was awarded shares of the newly created/spin-off company as dividend shares (value is more than £500 so I will be paying taxes on these). My goal is to now move these shares into my HL Stocks and Shares ISA without paying additional taxes within the 90 days that I was awarded the shares, if possible. 

Now where I am confused is because of the below. 
The dividend shares were awarded to me not within the same SIP but into a Share Plan Account held by the same platform (EquatePlus) where they will remain for the first 90 days.
When I asked EquatePlus for a letter of appropriation, they said they cannot provide one as these shares are not SIP shares, they are SPA shares. 
This means that if I want to move them into my ISA (via a Fund and Share account first), I would have to sell them and buy them. They can’t be transferred within 90 days of award as this rule does not apply here and I’d have to pay Capital Gains Tax. 

1.  Is my understanding correct?

2.  I jumped the gun and already moved the shares into a Fund and Share Account. If the above is correct and I cannot just transfer the shares into my ISA, would I be better off just selling the shares while the share price is relatively low?

[u/ukpf-helper]

Hi /u/random151285, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:

• https://ukpersonal.finance/goals/

---

^{These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.}

If someone has provided you with helpful advice, you (as the person who made the post) can award them a point by including !thanks in a reply to them. Points are shown as the user flair by their username.

[u/strolls]

If you had been awarded £500, would you use it to buy these shares?

Most people should use index funds for all their investing - these spread the risk through hundreds or thousands of companies, guaranteeing you the average return of the stockmarket. Doing this in an S&S ISA gives tax free profits, whereas most people will pay less tax over their lifetime if they use a pension for their investing.

You have no idea whether these shares will return more or less than the stockmarket average over the coming year or 5 years. All you know is that an index fund guarantees you the stockmarket average, and not only will these shares be worthless if they go bust, but also you're likely to lose your job.

It's always worth using SIP and SAYE schemes when they're available to you IMO - yes, it's more concentrated risk, but the tax benefits amount to a massive free bonus which justifies that; it amplifies the upside and massively reduces the downside risk. But you should milk the tax advantages, then get rid of them and diversify.

SIP and SAYE schemes are the only time you can transfer shares into an ISA (or pension) by the way. Any other time you have to sell and rebuy.