Questions on ISA-fund supermarkets-ITs

StinkyMonkey

@cheerfulcat

Thank you for this. I realise that I still do not have a good grasp of key terms such as discount/premium to NAV, trail commission, gearing etc. Would you suggest a source of background information on these (suitable for beginners, ideally!) or should I simply google them?

Also, can you explain whether a savings plan with an IT would have to be "notified" to the HMRC? I am not sure what my tax obligations would be once I start such a plan.

Many thanks.
SM

cheerfulcat

Hi, SM,

A good source of basic information is Incademy. The Association of Investment Companies also has a section explaining ITs. There is also an excellent book, Investment Trusts Explained by AA Arnaud, if you want to go into more detail. It's a bit dated now but still useful.

As to the tax situation - you don't need to notify anyone when you set up an investment plan but if you sell and make gains over the CGT exempt amount you'll need to declare them.

StinkyMonkey

cheerfulcat wrote: »

As to the tax situation - you don't need to notify anyone when you set up an investment plan but if you sell and make gains over the CGT exempt amount you'll need to declare them.

Good morning and many thanks for the links. I will spend some time going through them. One last(?) question perhaps, I am not sure what are the practical steps in "declaring" the gains. Can you explain or provide a link to another relevant source? I guess I should not worry about this right now but it would be good to know.

Thank you!

SM

cheerfulcat

You're very welcome, SM! Happy to help if I can.

Link to CGT info here, from the horse's mouth so to speak ( temptation successfully resisted...)

StinkyMonkey

cheerfulcat wrote: »

You're very welcome, SM! Happy to help if I can.

Link to CGT info here, from the horse's mouth so to speak ( temptation successfully resisted...)

Thank you, cheerfulcat. I will now start my reading - and will be back with more questions, of course.

Take care,
SM

cheerfulcat

Hi again SM,

Some more reading for you! TMF has a dedicated IT/UT board - here's a link to the most recommended posts - the posters forrado and Courant are particularly worth attention IMO. There is also a magazine covering ITs, which I find very useful, here; awful website but the magazine itself is very informative.

StinkyMonkey

cheerfulcat wrote: »

Hi again SM,

Some more reading for you! TMF has a dedicated IT/UT board - here's a link to the most recommended posts - the posters forrado and Courant are particularly worth attention IMO. There is also a magazine covering ITs, which I find very useful, here; awful website but the magazine itself is very informative.

Good morning cheerfulcat. Thank you for the links. I will see if I can find the magazine at the end of the month. I do note that it is published only 4 times a year, less often than several other investment/financial publications. Would that mean that the 'news' is not too 'fresh'? I guess you have read it before and you have a feeling of the importance of the time lag between issues.

cheerfulcat

Good morning, SM,

Sorry not to reply sooner. I subscribe to Investment Trusts magazine and find it very useful. Yes, as it's a quarterly publication some of the " news " isn't fresh but it's still pertinent - things like fund manager moves and long term trends are still handy to know. In any case, it's not really focussed on news as such; it's more analysis, so the time lag is not so important.

There is a monthly publication, Investment Trust Newsletter; I'm still in two minds as to whether it's worth the ( expensive ) subscription. It says on the website that it tells you when to buy and sell but it really isn't a tipsheet as such - there's a fair bit of information on various ITs and some bits and bobs of news. I think that you can download a sample copy from the website.

I got my subscription to the newsletter as a replacement for the sadly now defunct Scrutineer newsletter. Access to the back issues seems to be messed up on the website but you can download issue 1. There's a contact number if you want to request back issues, should you find the first one of interest.