Couple of quick noddy questions sorry to be a pain

Snakey

First time investing outside of an ISA or a pension... so I've got my GIA and the difference is that I'll need to think about tax at some point.

Presumably life isn't as easy as investing in accumulation units and hey presto what would have been dividends are magically transformed into capital growth for tax purposes!

Although my dividends this side of 5 April will be below £2k, I'm still going to have to know what they are as it will impact my total income (I have possible personal allowance clawback issues if I don't estimate my freelance income exactly right and make the necessary amount of pension contributions).

If I get income units, it looks as if I have to pay extra to reinvest the dividends which is a faff albeit a minor one. But if I go for accumulation units to avoid that, is there an easy way to see at the year-end what my dividend income was?

And a supplementary question... Firefox won't let me access the KIID's as it says Halifax haven't set it up properly so it's not secure, so I can't easily see which funds are which. I was thinking of just jumping in to VLS100 (this investment is only around 1% of my overall portfolio, so while it would hurt to lose it if the market's about to tank, it won't ruin my life, and I am planning for this to be the start of a regular investment) but which is INC and which is ACC? The two sets of initials I have to choose from are: VVLSRU and VVLSRI. They are both described the same way in words ("VANGUARD INV UK LT LIFESTRATEGY 100 PERC EQTY"). Any ideas?

londoninvestor

Snakey wrote: »

If I get income units, it looks as if I have to pay extra to reinvest the dividends which is a faff albeit a minor one. But if I go for accumulation units to avoid that, is there an easy way to see at the year-end what my dividend income was?

Yes, you should get a consolidated tax statement from your broker showing this.

Snakey wrote: »

The two sets of initials I have to choose from are: VVLSRU and VVLSRI. They are both described the same way in words ("VANGUARD INV UK LT LIFESTRATEGY 100 PERC EQTY"). Any ideas?

I just literally googled VVLSRU and VVLSRI. U is Acc, I is Inc.

Snakey

"Broker" here meaning that my share dealing account on the website will automatically provide me with the documentation I need in due course? I don't have an actual human being involved in this other than myself (and you). Apologies if that's another stupid question.

Heh, I swear I had also just literally Googled it before posting... but clearly I did something different because it kept asking me if I was sure I didn't mean "VVLSRE" and giving me results for that! Anyhow, thanks for doing it for me properly.

londoninvestor

Snakey wrote: »

"Broker" here meaning that my share dealing account on the website will automatically provide me with the documentation I need in due course? I don't have an actual human being involved in this other than myself (and you). Apologies if that's another stupid question.

Yes, it varies a bit but generally there'll be a "statements and documents" type of area on the website and you'll see it there. With HL for example, you get a PDF with all your transactions during the tax year, and a neat table that summarises your taxable dividends - which makes it pretty easy for your tax return.

Snakey wrote: »

Heh, I swear I had also just literally Googled it before posting... but clearly I did something different because it kept asking me if I was sure I didn't mean "VVLSRE" and giving me results for that! Anyhow, thanks for doing it for me properly.

No problem

londoninvestor

Actually, if you use Halifax, I'd guess it looks much like my Lloyds account (they use the same underlying infrastructure). In which case it would be under Valuation & Statements >> Tax Certificates.

Snakey

Sweet. Well, the cash is now in there and all sorted for execution on Wednesday, so evil fingers crossed for a nice drop in value tomorrow and Tuesday.

short_butt_sweet

the tax certificate will only be available after the end of the tax year. which is fine for filling in a tax return. not so good for knowing your taxable income just before the end of the tax year so that you can adjust your pension contributions.

income units may work better for you, in that you can find a list of income received so far on the halifax site (and add it up). there may not be similar info for accumulation units.

londoninvestor

short_butt_sweet wrote: »

the tax certificate will only be available after the end of the tax year. which is fine for filling in a tax return. not so good for knowing your taxable income just before the end of the tax year so that you can adjust your pension contributions.

income units may work better for you, in that you can find a list of income received so far on the halifax site (and add it up). there may not be similar info for accumulation units.

Very true, you actually need the info before year end to adjust your pension contributions.

However, as far as this year is concerned, if you want to invest only in VLS100 then you have it easy.

That fund pays its next dividend on 31 May 2019. So if this is your first investment in your GIA, you're not going to get any taxable dividends in 2018-19.

londoninvestor

Information from Trustnet here.

Note that Trustnet is also a good source of information for calculating dividends without waiting for your tax certificate. You can see the dividend per share on that page - multiply that by the number of shares you held on the day before the ex-dividend date.

This will be a slight overestimate because of equalisation - for units that you've held for less than a year, part of what you receive won't count as a taxable dividend. (That's a complication that applies whether your units are Acc or Inc.)

However, presumably overestimating your dividends is better than underestimating in your scenario.

Apodemus

Snakey wrote: »

... Firefox won't let me access the KIID's as it says Halifax haven't set it up properly so it's not secure, so I can't easily see which funds are which...

I would suggest you should download another browser (or check that your Firefox has all the latest upgrades)! I use Opera, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer as there are occasionally sites that don’t properly load with all browsers.

Snakey

I have LTA issues too, so if I pay too little pension I lose 7 percentage points but if I pay too much I lose 13. This is a wonderful set of problems to have and I'm not complaining, but I want to get it exactly right if I can because it will give me satisfaction.

If there's no dividend in 2018/19 I'm OK to leave it as it stands for now and mull it over (inc vs acc, or even whether VLS is the place to be) at my leisure. If the value goes up I might sell on 5 April anyway.

Reviewing whether to change browsers always ends up as a brought-forward and carried-forward item on my monthly To Do list, along with things like backing up as often as I should. I find Firefox is worse just after it's done an update. I have Chrome, so I might give that a try.