Advice on stocks & shares ISAs?

zag2me

Im just about to invest in my Mini Stocks and shares ISA too before the April deadline. I've been entertaining the idea of starting out with a FTSE 100 tracker from halifax. This has a 1% charge on it which seems a little high to me. Is this a good deal for the complete ametuer starting out? Or can you get better commission. I'm probably only going to invest a grand this year to test the water.

By the way all the arguing in this post was funny but pointless. Most of the posts that seemed offensive have smilies next to them which usually indicates sarcasm or a joke :P

GDVS

dchurch24 wrote:

That'll be because you want ALT-156 for a £ sign. 163 would get you ú.

(or change your keyboard to UK )

156 is the ASCII code, 0163 (the 0 is important) is the ANSI code. If it's 1-3 digits it's ASCII, if it's 4 digits then it's ANSI.

I don't know much about investment (hence my being here reading this thread) but I speak fluent geek so this may be the only sensible comment I ever make .

el-dog

Until GDVS moved this to the top I'd missed this thread but I must say, notwithstanding a touch of mud throwing I found it hugely educational - thanks to all.

However, unless I've missed it I believe there is still an outstanding issue, (stalled in the cash arguements!) namely where to re-allocate monies held in equities whilst still maintaining the benefits of the ISA S&S wrapper.

Any thoughts?

Regards

El-dog

cheerfulcat

Hi, El-dog,

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. If you mean " what non-equity holdings are allowed in a S&S ISA ?" the answer is bonds and medium/long gilts.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

muddyfox470

i used iii.co.uk had a look around, read up on some of the funds available and chose the ones that i favoured, either on past performance or just on the areas i preferred (oil + emerging countries)

i understand these are very volatile and quite risky, but i invested £2k between 4 funds, iii allows you to put only £500 in each fund for certain isa's and it is basically pick and mix. i may add some other funds shortly to do with eco / energy.

just saying what i did, and obviously don't go with me just because i did it, do your research and cross reference. i went with biggish companies (JPM, ML etc) which had relatively decent past perfomance (mainly because of decent managers) - altho obviously past performance isnt an indication of future ... in 2 weeks i had already got 7.5% and it has been lingering around that value for a bit.

ian

edit: fees were very reasonable too!

cloud_dog

el-dog wrote:

However, unless I've missed it I believe there is still an outstanding issue, (stalled in the cash arguements!) namely where to re-allocate monies held in equities whilst still maintaining the benefits of the ISA S&S wrapper.

Any thoughts?

Regards

El-dog

El-Dog, we did answer this on page 5 (although you probably have to trawl through a bit of dust).

The basic answer is that if you have a S&S ISA with a broker, i.e. dealing account, then you can sell investments and retain the resultant monies within the S&S ISA wrapper but, any interest received on the monies is taxed at basic rate (so not as advantagous as a Cash ISA). If you have a S&S ISA via the CoFunds fund supermarket you can transfer investment holdings into a fund called "Cash Reserve". Same rules apply for the any interest received. Am not aware of other Fund Supermarkets providing this facility - certainly FundsNetwork does not.

cloud_dog

schiff

My investments in S&S ISAs have been sound, fairly productive and a bit boring - in a Corporate etc Bonds Fund.

My question: is is possible to buy AIM shares within a S&S ISA, with the choice of share and timing of purchases and sales entirely in my hands? If AIM shares are not allowed, I assume FTSE and FTSE 350 shares are! So, same question about the latter.

If so, this leads me to another point. With £3000 in a Cash ISA, you can't replace any funds you withdraw. If you sell shares in S&S ISA at a profit, the profit obviously stays in the ISA, IT and CGT free. But can you re-invest the proceeds in some other share - and so on ad infinitum?

Eg: Seven shareholdings of £1000 each to start off with. Two make a 100% profit on sales. ISA now worth £9000, with £5000 invested. Can a further shareholding be bought (within the ISA wrapping, so tax free, etc) for £4000?
And so on?

cheerfulcat

schiff wrote:

My question: is is possible to buy AIM shares within a S&S ISA, with the choice of share and timing of purchases and sales entirely in my hands? If AIM shares are not allowed, I assume FTSE and FTSE 350 shares are! So, same question about the latter.

The AIM shares question is slightly complicated. You can hold them in an ISA but only if they are quoted on another, recognised exchange. The definition of "recognised exchange" is unfortunately not clear in the regulations. AIM shares have other tax attractions in any case - principally the fact that they are treated as a business asset for CGT purposes, which means accelerated taper relief; more here. FTSE shares are OK and yes, you are wholly in control of purchases and sales.

If so, this leads me to another point. With £3000 in a Cash ISA, you can't replace any funds you withdraw. If you sell shares in S&S ISA at a profit, the profit obviously stays in the ISA, IT and CGT free. But can you re-invest the proceeds in some other share - and so on ad infinitum?

Yes, you can re-invest the proceeds of sales to your heart's content.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

isasmurf

The latest Bulletin from HMRC addresses the issue of AIM shares. This basically confirms what cheerfulcat says. I was going to link to the list of recognised stock exchanges in the Guidance, but they've taken it offline. Anyway, I found the list somewhere else. The list of "recognised stock exchanges" can be found here

cheerfulcat

It still isn't 100% clear which exchanges are "recognised", unfortunately. In particular there is a Berlin market which may or may not be a "recognised" exchange - HMRC is far from clear on this.