CGT on Investment Funds (it's that time of year)

martindias

I have a Hargreaves Lansdown account and over the years have been transfering £20k a year into an ISA. Now the CGT allowances have been slashed I am having to do far more calculations each year when submitting my self assessment.

Last year i just used the current price of the unit at time of sale when working out my gain which i know means i paid way more tax than i needed to. I just got sooo totally confused. 
I don't really understand why HL can't work this out for you at the click of a database button. i'm not asking them to work out my tax - simply what my capital gain is, as they have all the data. I find digging around their platform, through loads of different menus, pages and options, a complete nightmare. The if/when i find the history of unit purchases working out the average buying price is mind boggling.

So key question is - is there an investment platform that accurately works out your capital gain when selling an investment? If there is i'm hoping/planning to transfer my portfolio.

This portfolio is my pension as my work pension on my retirement (10 years ago) was diddly squat. 

InvesterJones

Don't HL tell you the total price paid for the asset? At worst you can use this divided by the number of units (doesn't account for equalisation mind so will be slightly in tax person's favour) to get the average price.

Fidelity have a capital tax report which works this out, but it's not available for all funds on the platform.

Hoenir

Not a service they provide. As often is more complex than a click of a button. 

They do however provide you with contract notes, details of corporate actions, dividends etc. Easiest thing to do is maintain proper records on a spreadsheet. In case the HMRC request your detailed workings. 

wmb194

martindias said:

I have a Hargreaves Lansdown account and over the years have been transfering £20k a year into an ISA. Now the CGT allowances have been slashed I am having to do far more calculations each year when submitting my self assessment.

Last year i just used the current price of the unit at time of sale when working out my gain which i know means i paid way more tax than i needed to. I just got sooo totally confused. 
I don't really understand why HL can't work this out for you at the click of a database button. i'm not asking them to work out my tax - simply what my capital gain is, as they have all the data. I find digging around their platform, through loads of different menus, pages and options, a complete nightmare. The if/when i find the history of unit purchases working out the average buying price is mind boggling.

So key question is - is there an investment platform that accurately works out your capital gain when selling an investment? If there is i'm hoping/planning to transfer my portfolio.

This portfolio is my pension as my work pension on my retirement (10 years ago) was diddly squat. 

Execution only stockbrokers usually only do the minimum but they do usually show you a profit and loss figure: when I look at my HL app it shows the current value for each holding and then the nominal gain/loss and +/- percentage for each. You don't have this? 

Did you transfer your holdings from another broker? This often 'breaks' the gain/loss calculations as the purchase cost data often isn't communicated.

EdSwippet

martindias said:

I don't really understand why HL can't work this out for you at the click of a database button. i'm not asking them to work out my tax - simply what my capital gain is, as they have all the data.

Not necessarily. HL cannot know whether or not you hold any shares of the same fund or company on another platform.

Section 104 and multiple brokerages - HMRC Community Forum

In practice, you may not hold any of the same shares elsewhere, so that in your particular case, HL could provide an accurate number. However, awkward or not (and I'll vote for awkward), HMRC rules for CGT makes it broadly impossible for any platform or broker to calculate a customer's capital gains with any confidence, so they're forced to leave it up to you.

And yes, it's a PITA. But then, so is almost everything about tax anyway.

dunstonh

IFA platforms have CGT calculators (to varying levels of quality).   However, each one puts the liability firmly with the IFA.  I suspect many of the DIY platforms don't want to take on the liability themselves.

Quill68

A j Bell do. 

EdSwippet

Quill68 said:

A j Bell do. 

Hmm. Does an AJ Bell CGT report indicate anywhere that the numbers it shows might be completely wrong? It should; to claim this report is 100% accurate is reckless of them. See this thread from last year:

iWeb Tax Certificate - MSE Forum

martindias

No HL don't but other platforms apparently do - can't figure out why when HL is one of the more expensive platforms but doing what you say and diving the asset value by the number of units sold seems like the only way to go.

droopsnoot

All of my GIA stuff was bought in the Nationwide back in around 2000, pretty much all of the funds have changed names and been re-issued with different numbers of units over the years, and I'm also struggling to figure out exactly what I'm supposed to be paying as I've been gradually transferring from the GIA to my ISA, just to not have to cover it on the self-assessment every year. Neither Nationwide nor Aegon (the people who took it over) can provide any information (because that counts as tax advice), and while I have stacks and stacks of paperwork, it doesn't really make anything much clearer. I found two ways to calculate it when there have been disposals, and both came out below the CGT threshold last time I did my SA - now that has dropped for 2023/2024, I have got two massively different figures and no real idea which is correct. And of course, leaving it until now is always the best idea.

martindias

wmb194 said:

martindias said:

I have a Hargreaves Lansdown account and over the years have been transfering £20k a year into an ISA. Now the CGT allowances have been slashed I am having to do far more calculations each year when submitting my self assessment.

Last year i just used the current price of the unit at time of sale when working out my gain which i know means i paid way more tax than i needed to. I just got sooo totally confused. 
I don't really understand why HL can't work this out for you at the click of a database button. i'm not asking them to work out my tax - simply what my capital gain is, as they have all the data. I find digging around their platform, through loads of different menus, pages and options, a complete nightmare. The if/when i find the history of unit purchases working out the average buying price is mind boggling.

So key question is - is there an investment platform that accurately works out your capital gain when selling an investment? If there is i'm hoping/planning to transfer my portfolio.

This portfolio is my pension as my work pension on my retirement (10 years ago) was diddly squat. 

Execution only stockbrokers usually only do the minimum but they do usually show you a profit and loss figure: when I look at my HL app it shows the current value for each holding and then the nominal gain/loss and +/- percentage for each. You don't have this? 

Did you transfer your holdings from another broker? This often 'breaks' the gain/loss calculations as the purchase cost data often isn't communicated.

Yes i do see the profit loss on their dashboard but this doesn't help when liquidating portions of holdings - or does it? I find gettging around these maths mind boggling. Gets worse with age (for me anyway)

Only ever used HL although more recently have started an ISA with InvestEngine at much lower charges. Ideally i want to transfer my entire portfolio to InvestEngine over the next 15 years (if i live that long) which i hope wil make life a lot simpler for whoever/whenever they inherit my remaining assets.