Investment & Investing

Sign up to the premium version of revolut or similar for a month (assuming the amounts justify it, otherwise maybe the free version)

Anyone with interactive investor want to refer me and hopefully make £200?

Yep I’m up for it, I have the link for referral here and can share if you PM me your email

i can as well

Sorted, thanks all. Anyone else needs a referral, hit me up.

anyone know much about FX? USD -> GBP is bad atm (>2 year low) for me with US stock sale proceeds, should i just suck it up and invest in UK as normal, or just leave it in USD for a while earning nothing?

My CFO thinks FX will become more favourable. Take that for what it is worth (random advice off the internet).

What's the best isa right now?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa/

For cash or stocks and shares? Tonts has posted a link for cash ISA. For stocks and shares I'd look at Monevator depending on what you want to invest in, how much you want to invest, and whether you already have investments with anyone.

Vanguard is a cheap starter for a fresh ISA as long as you are happy with one of their funds (no app available). iWeb is reasonably priced/good selection but looks very dated and no app. I think Interactive Investor is a good compromise of selection/price/usability, but I have less experience with the app-only stuff like Freetrade etc.

You can get referred to Interactive Investor - I think you get a year free and the referrer gets £200. I can refer you or there's plenty other people on here with ii as well (DM someone your email address).

I am running into many people selling and rebuying all non ISA investments ahead of the next budget. Is that the consusus here?

well I'd say if you can have things inside an ISA that of course makes sense.
Likely that cgt allowance goes to 0 and the nominal rate also increases. So wrap everything up that you can before then including maxing your and your spouses cgt allowance for the year

Why is there the big fascination with ISAs? When are they taxed or when are the accounts that aren't ISAs taxed? I throw some money in pension, some in like bonus saver type accounts and the rest is blown on coke and hookers. Why would I consider an ISA in this situation, rather than the bonus saver or term deposit type stuff?

Pensions taxed on the way out, not on the way in.
ISA taxed on the way in, not on the way out.

Coke and hookers only tax deductable for Tories during Tory govts.

So people declare they're putting money in an ISA when they do tax returns or the bank takes the tax out on deposit or what?

You have an annual ISA allowance, you can invest that each year into an ISA of your choice. You don't get any tax rebate on what pay into an ISA but when you get the money out again you don't incur income or ctg tax. You don't need to include this on your tax return.

You get tax relief (up to a point) on your pension contributions but then you pay income tax when you come to draw down on your pension.

(far from an expert, but have some experience with RSU and withholding rates)
Usually high earners would have 45% income tax and 2% NI applied, being the rates due on earnings at the upper limits of regular taxation.

It is possible someone has gone 45% tax, 8% NI as a default, as they are "normal" rates (on a payslip) but not at the same time (45% is for annual income over ~125k and 2% NI is applicable over ~£50k)
we used to err on the side of caution and "over withhold" on vestings if they were close to a new bracket, the difference would be paid out when it was actually payrolled.

I know this isn't directly answering your question...

I'm about 6 cans of Monster away from understanding what any of this means.

I understand the allowance (it's made up of a cash portion and a S&S portion or something).

What I don't understand is where I'm being taxed when I use an ISA cash product versus a Bonus Saver cash product.

For arguments sake, if I stick £5k into a Bonus Saver at 4% versus doing the same with an ISA - what's the practical difference? Am I supposed to declare the interest earned as income or something with one of them and not the other?

Am I supposed to declare the interest earned as income or something with one of them and not the other?

Yes. You will be taxed on the interest on the Bonus Saver, but not for the ISA. If you have a stocks and shares ISA, any gains you make will not be subject to capital gains tax.

Yes. You should declare the interest earned on your tax return.

ROFL

If I'm permie though, I didn't think I did a tax return. Doesn't my employer do all that shit now?

https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/who-must-send-a-tax-return

Who must send a tax return
You must send a tax return if, in the last tax year (6 April to 5 April), any of the following applied:

you were self-employed as a ‘sole trader’ and earned more than £1,000 (before taking off anything you can claim tax relief on)
you were a partner in a business partnership
you had a total taxable income of more than £150,000
you had to pay Capital Gains Tax when you sold or ‘disposed of’ something that increased in value
you had to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge
You may also need to send a tax return if you have any untaxed income, such as:

money from renting out a property
tips and commission
income from savings, investments and dividends
foreign income

waves at HMRC

If you earn over £500 in interest if you’re a higher tax rate payer, or earn over £1000 in interest as a lower tax payer on a standard savings account in a tax year you will get taxed. That’s why people use cash ISA’s, especially as interest rates are higher.

I don’t do a tax return, but HMRC adjusted my personal allowance to reflect that I went over the savings threshold and had to pay tax on some of the interest earned.

HMRC definitely have tabs on this forum these days…