Share investment questions

[ACCYSTAN]

Hi,
I wonder if someone can offer some help

I have a normal shares account with HL, but they are charging me £12.50 per month just for having an account which considering I deal shares at most once or twice a year and I pay fees to deal, I think it stinks.

Here are my questions

Can I move £20k of my current HL shares account into a shares ISA?

If yes, can I move it into a shares account not with HL or will I have to sell and re-purchase?

Is it even possible to move shares out of a standard share account into a share ISA? Or do I have to sell and re-purchase?

Any recommendations for a company who I can buy and sell shares with and not pay a monthly fee for having an account?
AJ Bells fees are cheaper but still a rip off.

I sold £2995 worth of shares in late April making sure I didn’t go over my personal allowance,
If I sell some loss making shares say a £5k loss, can I use the total value of the loss to offset selling some shares for a £5k profit and will this not take me over the £3k allowance?
I was invested in a company that went bust and lost £10k worth of share investment last year, could I use that loss to offset against profits and not go over my allowance?

Thank you for taking the time to read

[alscar]

ACCYSTAN said:

Hi,
I wonder if someone can offer some help

I sold £2995 worth of shares in late April making sure I didn t go over my personal allowance,
If I sell some loss making shares say a £5k loss, can I use the total value of the loss to offset selling some shares for a £5k profit and will this not take me over the £3k allowance?
I was invested in a company that went bust and lost £10k worth of share investment last year, could I use that loss to offset against profits and not go over my allowance?

Thank you for taking the time to read

Just on the CGT q - within any one tax year yes losses can be offset against profits with then the allowance taken into account ( albeit these days a very small allowance and could be getting even smaller ) prior to any CGT being calculated and due at whatever tax rate is applicable.
Should your losses in any one year exceed your gains then as long as they have been accounted for in any prior tax returns you can carry forward such losses to offset any gains indefinitely until they are extinguished.

[xeny]

ACCYSTAN said:

Hi,


Can I move £20k of my current HL shares account into a shares ISA?

If yes, can I move it into a shares account not with HL or will I have to sell and re-purchase?

Is it even possible to move shares out of a standard share account into a share ISA? Or do I have to sell and re-purchase?

Any recommendations for a company who I can buy and sell shares with and not pay a monthly fee for having an account?
AJ Bells fees are cheaper but still a rip off.

I sold £2995 worth of shares in late April making sure I didn t go over my personal allowance,

To move into an ISA you'd have to sell and repurchase

Look at Scottish Widows or Barclay's ISAs. £5 or £6 to trade, no holding fee.

Are you thinking of the £3K CGT allowance? If so, it is an allowance on realised (i.e. sold) gain, not an allowance on amount sold. Generally it's better to make more and accept you're paying tax on it, than avoid making as much to stay under the tax free rate....

Why didn't you buy stuff in an ISA in the first place?

Edited by xeny on Sunday 20th September 10:34

[NortonES2]

xeny said:

Why didn't you buy stuff in an ISA in the first place?

Because he had more than 20K to invest?

[ACCYSTAN]

Sadly I went into it a bit blind and purchased shares in 2018, didn t give it much thought, recently needed a few quid and realised what a mistake I have made.

Trying to get my house in order

Thank you for all the advice , appreciated

Want to minimise my tax liability before I sell as while I was naive by not using an ISA some of the companies I invested in have done well and I’m looking at a healthy profit, just seems mad only a £3k capital gains allowance

Edited by ACCYSTAN on Sunday 20th September 16:35

[Panamax]

Just make sure you pay attention to Xeny's point above. The annual CGT allowance of £3,000 is £3,000 of GAIN, not £3,000 of sale proceeds.

Bear in mind that if you have a spouse you can transfer shares into their name without any liability to CGT. They can then also benefit from a tax free CGT allowance of £3,000 p.a. The spouse simply takes over the same "cost" of the shares that you paid in the first place.

[xeny]

ACCYSTAN said:

Trying to get my house in order

Look at things in the round - are you better off minimising CGT this year, or CGT going forward. If the former, sell to generate 3K of CGT liability each year, and rebuy in the ISA, repeating each year. If the latter, consider selling £20K in value, grin and bear the CGT, and get it into the ISA wrapper faster.

Of the two ISA providers I mentioned, I think Barclays offer a flexible ISA (which lets you within limits remove and re-add money in the same tax year, which can be handy), Scottish Widows doesn't.

[ACCYSTAN]

Good advice on the partner option

Can I put some shares in my kids names? I did actually buy them as an investment for their futures

[Panamax]

ACCYSTAN said:

Can I put some shares in my kids names? I did actually buy them as an investment for their futures

There's no "CGT free" transfer to kids. You'd probably need to sell and then gift the cash. Kids can't really hold direct investments until they are 18. However, the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown can offer you various approaches such as Junior ISA, into which £9,000 p.a. (per child) can be contributed.

Bear in mind that such gifts need to be counted towards your £325k IHT allowance, every rolling 7 years, although this may not be a real-world problem. (FWIW you get a £3k p.a. allowance for gifting before IHT even comes into the discussion. Plus as many £250s per person as you like, although you can't add the two together and give someone £3k + £250 outside the potential tax net.)

Gifting to kids inside the Junior ISA and Junior Sipp possibilities can be staggeringly effective over the long term.

Optimistic example: Invest £1,000 one-off and leave it to cumulate tax free for 20 years at, say, 10% p.a. That's a cool £6,700 right there.

[Philvrs]

IG ISA is flexible and has zero fees for holding or trading, and IGG is a ftse 100 listed company, so you would hope they are quite safe.