Tracking capital gains when stock trading regularly

Dornfield

I have a trading account with Hargreaves Lansdowne, but rarely do any trading, as when I've asked them if they offer a tracking mechanism to ensure I'm aware of any due capital gains payments, they say they don't.  It really, really puts me off trading regularly. I do not want to fall foul of HMRC because I have not kept tabs on share purchase price and then sale price.  If true that they don't offer GC tracking, it seems HL are missing a trick, as I want to remain honest when it comes to HMRC, but the lack of a simple tracking tool means that I trade very infrequently, and usually 'bed and breakfast' the same very limited number of securities when I do trade, so avoiding any CG tax liability in the short term.
How do people ensure they are tracking any capital gains? If HL don't track this on my behalf, is there simple software that people do use? I can only imagine that using Excel would be painful, and I'd likely stuff it up.

masonic

Being put off trading regularly doesn't sound like a bad thing, as trading generally eats into investment returns. There are calculators and spreadsheets available on the internet that can be used for this purpose, or you can make your own. I made my own loosely based on https://www.cgtcalculator.com/

Capital Gains need to be calculated in the context of all of your taxable investment accounts if you have investments in more than one. For example, bed & breakfast rules can mean that you haven't made a disposal even though one broker would see a sale, and your average acquisition price must be calculated based on all of your holdings across your accounts.

Eyeful

1. Regular Trading normally puts  more of your money into the pockets of those who provide the service to you, while at the same time increasing the odds of you making less money from investing.

2. If you must trade do so within a S&S ISA, then you will not need to worry about the tax man. 

Hoenir

You'll need to maintain your own records. Record losses made as well as profits. 

wmb194

Dornfield said:

I have a trading account with Hargreaves Lansdowne, but rarely do any trading, as when I've asked them if they offer a tracking mechanism to ensure I'm aware of any due capital gains payments, they say they don't.  

It really, really puts me off trading regularly. I do not want to fall foul of HMRC because I have not kept tabs on share purchase price and then sale price.  

If true that they don't offer GC tracking, it seems HL are missing a trick, as I want to remain honest when it comes to HMRC, but the lack of a simple tracking tool means that I trade very infrequently, and usually 'bed and breakfast' the same very limited number of securities when I do trade, so avoiding any CG tax liability in the short term.

How do people ensure they are tracking any capital gains? If HL don't track this on my behalf, is there simple software that people do use? I can only imagine that using Excel would be painful, and I'd likely stuff it up.

An execution only stockbroker won't do this for** you and anyway it won't know whether you own the same shares elsewhere, relevant to the Section 104 pooling rules, so might not have the full picture. You could just use a spreadsheet but I keep track of everything in MS Money 2005 UK* and use its reports and Excel exports to complete my SA.

If you use HL a lot you'll end up paying a small fortune in commission. iWeb is £5 per trade but there are the likes of Trading212 with zero commission.

*Other personal finance databases available e.g., AceMoney, MoneyMangerEx.

**Having said this IIRC someone said that AJ Bell produces an annual CGT report but you'd still need to double check its data.

https://www.ajbell.co.uk/faq/will-you-send-me-tax-certificate#:~:text=If%20you%20hold%20a%20Dealing,know%20via%20a%20secure%20message.

ColdIron

As above, not trading frequently is probably a blessing in disguise

It's easy enough to do in Excel. Just record each purchase from your contract notes and keep a running total of number of shares/units (ever) bought and total costs (including trading fees and stamp duty). Your weighted average cost per share is one divided by the other so your gain per share sold is easily obtained

Sales don't change the cost of acquisition so you can keep using that figure until you buy again and rinse and repeat

tigerspill

masonic said:

Being put off trading regularly doesn't sound like a bad thing, as trading generally eats into investment returns. There are calculators and spreadsheets available on the internet that can be used for this purpose, or you can make your own. I made my own loosely based on https://www.cgtcalculator.com/

Capital Gains need to be calculated in the context of all of your taxable investment accounts if you have investments in more than one. For example, bed & breakfast rules can mean that you haven't made a disposal even though one broker would see a sale, and your average acquisition price must be calculated based on all of your holdings across your accounts.

Does this work for funds - or just individual shares?  Thanks for the pointer.

eskbanker

tigerspill said:

masonic said:

Being put off trading regularly doesn't sound like a bad thing, as trading generally eats into investment returns. There are calculators and spreadsheets available on the internet that can be used for this purpose, or you can make your own. I made my own loosely based on https://www.cgtcalculator.com/

Capital Gains need to be calculated in the context of all of your taxable investment accounts if you have investments in more than one. For example, bed & breakfast rules can mean that you haven't made a disposal even though one broker would see a sale, and your average acquisition price must be calculated based on all of your holdings across your accounts.

Does this work for funds - or just individual shares?  Thanks for the pointer.

It'll apply to any financial investments bought/held/sold outside a tax wrapper.

lr1277

When you say trading, do you mean selling and buying the same share within a short time frame?

If you do, as far as I know, if you buy a share (withing a general trading account) within 30 days of having sold the same share, then for CGT purposes, the share price gain is based on the price when you bought the share the first time. Though I don't know what happens if the share price has gone down since the 1st time you bought it.

Charles Stanley Direct (CSD) provide CGT reports. Though I have never traded, in the way I described above, I found the reports useful when compiling my tax return. One of the many reasons I chose CSD over HL.

Edited to add: CSD has some advantages, HL has some advantages, but for me the advantages of CSD outweighed HL's advantages for the type of buying and selling I do.