Buying gilts - which platform to use?

mills112

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965335#Comment_81965335

thanks, yeah, with the ticker, you can't be doing sums!

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965348#Comment_81965348

Looking at an old certificate it says a copy will be produced if required to FICO (a bit of HMRC) so it looks like it is not sent automatically.

InvesterJones

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965348#Comment_81965348

Fidelity do send users tax certificates annually, they call them tax vouchers (distribution and tax letters). They don't say they send them to HMRC, instead you're meant to keep it to help you complete your tax return and in case HMRC ask to see it.

wmb194

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965348#Comment_81965348

No, they're for you to use. I don't use them, I keep my own, more accurate records e.g., Barclays Stockbrokers' tax certificates always used to misclassify a foreign interest payment from a bond IT as a foreign dividend. Last year's tax certificate from CMC misclassified foreign dividends as UK dividends and IT dividends as unit trust dividends. CMC doesn't offer unit trusts…

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964915#Comment_81964915

I have the luxury of being able to fit all of my investments within tax wrappers. I have only been holding short-term cash unwrapped.

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964915#Comment_81964915

For what it is worth I have some gilts outside an ISA and they tend to be the low coupon ones (ILGs) which mean you have very little income tax to pay and most of the return is capital gain which is outside the scope of CGT. I think it would be a bit of a waste to put that sort of gilt in an ISA. The ones I do have in the ISA tend to be higher coupon ones where more of the return would be subject to income tax if held outside the ISA. The trouble is the new issue gilts (conventional anyway) tend to have higher coupons and so the low coupon ones are getting rarer all the time.

mills112

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965442#Comment_81965442

like the tax certificates that you get from savings account. they don't say that they send them to HMRC but they do. HMRC get a lot of information that you aren't actually aware of until you get into trouble 😂

wmb194

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965816#Comment_81965816

BBSI returns are separate. The equivalent doesn't yet exist for investment accounts.

Have a look at section 5:

"HMRC does not require regular annual returns from third parties about dividend payments paid to UK resident individuals unless it is for overseas financial accounts reported under CRS…"

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/better-use-of-new-and-improved-third-party-data/better-use-of-new-and-improved-third-party-data-to-make-it-easier-to-pay-tax-right-first-time

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965816#Comment_81965816

There are reports that HMRC is receiving the information. There is no evidence they are using it (even when it would help them to do so). There have, however, been reports of "nudge letters" relating to offshore platforms and CGT.

fire_in_progress

Thanks everyone for responding to my original question - and subsequent comments (there's quite a lot of stuff I had not considered).

As one of the earliest replies to my post suggested, the question of which broker to use to buy gilts has been answered before and the search function (gilts + platform) is very useful in this respect.

Briefly, it seems to be AJ Bell and Scottish Widows, followed by HL (more expensive). Freetrade doesn't charge trading fees, but it has a limited range of gilts available.

Thanks again.