Is it hard to calculate tax in a general investment account?

[Deleted User]

Does anyone have any experience of using a general investment account to buy funds/shares?

Was it difficult to calculate the tax etc? I'm thinking that accumulation funds may be tricky.

ColdIron

You will get a Consolidated Tax Certificate detailing most of the information you need. Dividends, Equalisation, Interest (if any). I have 2 GIAs, one ITs and another with Acc funds. I've not found it much of a bother tbh. Just keep good records

dunstonh

Does anyone have any experience of using a general investment account to buy funds/shares?

Millions of people do it.

Was it difficult to calculate the tax etc? I'm thinking that accumulation funds may be tricky.

Most platforms will supply an annual consolidated tax voucher that makes it easy for income reporting.    However, for CGT, the quality of CGT reporting varies significantly from nothing extra to completely working it out for you.

I always prefer to utilise income units unwrapped as it makes CGT calculations easier.

EthicsGradient

ETFs held in general investment accounts can get complex; even if they are marked as 'distributing', and pay a dividend that comes as cash into your account and is thus easy to see as income, there can still be some 'excess reportable income' which is effectively accumulated income in the shares, and which ought to be counted as income (and can then be counted as a cost for capital gains purposes, like an accumulation fund). See, for instance, https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/content/documents/general/ga-uk-reporting-fund-guide.pdf . Since this does not appear as cash, some platforms (eg Interactive Investor) ignore it totally, and it's up to the individual to find out how much it is, and at what time of year it should be counted as being received. KPMG have a site (sign-up is free) where they collate the information they can find - https://www.kpmgreportingfunds.co.uk/?ReturnUrl=%2fHome%2fPublicInvestor - but it's all a bit of a faff.