Change of M&S Unit Trust Management 26th Sept

Briskly

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82095948#Comment_82095948

Thanks, sorry I meant to say they are accumulated units! I feel a bit more reassured now about the new management going bust……

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82096135#Comment_82096135

Never say never, but it is extremely unlikely a budget would retrospectively reduce the CGT allowance.

If the allowance were increased then you'd be able to sell more within the current tax year to make full use of the new allowance, but I'll eat my hat if the next budget increased the CGT allowance for 2026/27.

If there were any concern at all that the next budget might vary the CGT allowance for 2026/27 then arguably the best strategy is to sell prior to the budget - because whilst a retrospective change would be unconscionable, a negative change which only affected disposals made after the budget day would mean people would at least be forewarned that the disposal might involve them paying additional tax.

DRS1

When they changed the rate of CGT back in 2024 they left the old rate for disposals before the change and only applied the new one for disposals after the change. That made for a messy tax return in 24/5. Hopefully they will only make any change for a new tax year rather than part way through the current one.

Briskly

Thanks for all the help everyone - very much appreciated. I was wondering about the CGT calculation - it seems best to sell £3000 a year but if I did sell up completely, presumably I would have to get all the statements from the last 24 years or so to knock off the accumulated amounts that have already had income tax deducted. Is it likely M&S would be able to send these? I will be a significant amount I think. Or would it just result in a battle with HMRC? Also I seem to remember being able to use the past years unused CGT allowance in days gone by. Has this been stopped? Sorry about all the questions……. !

wmb194

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82096948#Comment_82096948

No, you cannot use past tax years’ CGT allowances: it’s use it or lose it.

If they’ve been declared to HMRC within four(?) tax years, what you can do is carry forward realised capital losses.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82096967#Comment_82096967

Very good point about the 4 year time limit for claiming capital losses for offset against future capital gains.

For those of us who routinely submit annual self assessment tax returns this is easy enough, but I do wonder what channels those who do not self assess use to lodge this information with HMRC.

eskbanker

For those of us who routinely submit annual self assessment tax returns this is easy enough, but I do wonder what channels those who do not self assess use to lodge this information with HMRC.

Reporting losses

Claim for your loss by including it on your tax return. If you’ve never made a gain and are not registered for Self Assessment, you can write to HMRC instead.

https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax/losses

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82096948#Comment_82096948

I don't know about M&S sending statements but I do wonder if you have some online account which may show a record of the amount subject to income tax and the date when it was credited. It may be something you have to register for. Do they send you information for including in your tax returns each year - would you have kept those? I know when I had paper share certificates I would get a lot of stuff in the post most of which went in the bin but I did keep the dividend certificates at least.

One thought I have is that you say you inherited the units from your father. When was that? I know you say a long time ago but was it 24 years ago? And did you get a valuation of the units as at the date of his death? That would be your starting point for your base cost and if it was less than 24 years ago you wouldn't have to go back 24 years for the accumulations only to the date of death.

If you can't get details of the accumulations then you could still make allowance for the base cost you do know about when you sell. So if you have 1000 units with a base cost of £4500 and a market value of £17000 then you could sell say 200 units a year (the base cost would be 900 and the sale price would be 3400 so a gain of 2500). You could edge the number of units sold up towards 250 to get closer to the £3k annual allowance - 250 would give you a gain of £125 or so. Someone mathematical could give you an exact number but of course we don't know the number of units you hold - which probably go down to a number of decimal places. But there is bound to be a formula using £3k and the overall gain divided by the number of units.

artyboy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82096398#Comment_82096398

Wasn't that technically a retrospective change, in that any disposals that day incurred the new higher CGT rates, even if they had been sold before the budget announcement, with the expectation that the (then) lower rates would apply?

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82097269#Comment_82097269

That sounds like the anti forestalling provision. I don't know why it was called that. But I guess people knew what was coming in advance so could have tried a bit of planning. It was probably better when they just sacked Chancellors if there was a leak.