Invest And Forget Funds, Which Companies Or Platforms Do MSE Investors Use Or Recommend?

Hoenir

TojoRalph said:

eskbanker said:

TojoRalph said:

I have also seen a requirement to be a UK Citizen OR UK tax resident, of which they are the former.

Where did you see that?  It would be very much the exception rather than the rule, so worth taking advantage of, as the vast majority will base eligibility on tax residency rather than citizenship....

 I assume also that brokers only report to HMRC when funds are accessed and withdrawn and thus when CGT or otherwise becomes payable? Thanks. 

Brokers will provide HMRC with any information requested of them. They won't know whether CGT is payable or not. As not a servive they provide. What ties everything together now is your National Insurance number. Using technology the dots are easily connected together. 

TojoRalph

Bostonerimus1 said:

TojoRalph said:

@dunstonh@jimjames@El_Torro@InvesterJones @Bostonerimus1 To explain their situation better. Having lived and worked overseas for a few years, more recently they started travelling and they plan to do so for the forceable future. Their tax situation they are looking at and as their income is limited, it may even make sense to become a UK resident again for tax purposes. From the comments received so far though, it appears that being a UK resident for tax purposes is a prerequisite for investing with the companies and platforms you people use? From what I have seen though looking at a couple of random UK based platforms, the requirement seems to be to state your country of tax residence? I have also seen a requirement to be a UK Citizen OR UK tax resident, of which they are the former. At the end of the day, they will do things correctly, but they would prefer the long term investment was with an established UK business/platform. Thanks.

To "do things correctly" they might well need some professional advice. The first question to ask is "what is their tax residency"? You have told us that they are not UK tax resident, so where are they resident? If they are trying to be resident nowhere then they will have significant barriers to owning things like mutual funds and opening brokerage accounts. My advice would be to open brokerage account in a country while tax resident and invest in low cost index funds. Then if they become non-tax resident they will probably not be able to invest more money and they will have to pay tax on dividend and capital gains distributions. Be carful of becoming tax resident by accident elsewhere as that might trigger nasty cross border tax issues.

I agree completely that they need to make sure that they get good advice. Likewise I share your very real concerns that they end up being tax resident where they might not wish to. It may well be that whilst floating around from country to country, the UK is the simplest place to be tax resident, I say that on the assumption that one can declare oneself resident for tax purposes voluntarily, even if one doesn't meet the days in the UK requirement to pay tax in the UK. So assuming they were UK tax resident, who would you suggest they look at to having low cost brokerage accounts with? The feedback from a couple they contacted is that as long as they are a UK citizen and can provide a UK address, then its their responsibility to sort their tax out. The last bit makes sense of course. Thanks. 

jimjames

TojoRalph said:

Bostonerimus1 said:

TojoRalph said:

@dunstonh@jimjames@El_Torro@InvesterJones @Bostonerimus1 To explain their situation better. Having lived and worked overseas for a few years, more recently they started travelling and they plan to do so for the forceable future. Their tax situation they are looking at and as their income is limited, it may even make sense to become a UK resident again for tax purposes. From the comments received so far though, it appears that being a UK resident for tax purposes is a prerequisite for investing with the companies and platforms you people use? From what I have seen though looking at a couple of random UK based platforms, the requirement seems to be to state your country of tax residence? I have also seen a requirement to be a UK Citizen OR UK tax resident, of which they are the former. At the end of the day, they will do things correctly, but they would prefer the long term investment was with an established UK business/platform. Thanks.

To "do things correctly" they might well need some professional advice. The first question to ask is "what is their tax residency"? You have told us that they are not UK tax resident, so where are they resident? If they are trying to be resident nowhere then they will have significant barriers to owning things like mutual funds and opening brokerage accounts. My advice would be to open brokerage account in a country while tax resident and invest in low cost index funds. Then if they become non-tax resident they will probably not be able to invest more money and they will have to pay tax on dividend and capital gains distributions. Be carful of becoming tax resident by accident elsewhere as that might trigger nasty cross border tax issues.

I agree completely that they need to make sure that they get good advice. Likewise I share your very real concerns that they end up being tax resident where they might not wish to. It may well be that whilst floating around from country to country, the UK is the simplest place to be tax resident,

For many providers being tax resident won't in itself be enough. Most will require a UK address as well which might rule this option out if they have no connection or address in the UK

Bostonerimus1

The best thing to do is set up accounts while you are in the UK and have a UK address. Then maintain UK tax residency and us a UK correspondence address. Make sure you avoid the possibility of tax residency elsewhere. Then you should be able to use UK tax advantaged accounts like ISAs.