I have a bone to pick with our tax system

nicko33

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=334

Meltdown_2

The usual phrase "lies, damn lies and statistics" springs to mind in respect of the graph.
Who decided that the data is best presented in terms of "quintiles" (fifths) of the total?
If the data was divided up into tenths, I'm sure you would get a much bigger disparity between the top and the bottom groups.

nicko33

Meltdown wrote: »

If the data was divided up into tenths, I'm sure you would get a much bigger disparity between the top and the bottom groups.

Certainly you would.
Divide it up into individual households and there would be a much bigger difference between the top and bottom households.

Table 16 in here does break it down by deciles (on page 24, p26 of the pdf)
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_social/Taxes_Benefits_2005-2006/Taxes_Benefits_2005_06.pdf

john_kane_2

cheerfulcat wrote: »

The ability to " bed and breakfast " shares was done away with by G Brown in 1998...
LINK

thanks to both of you for posting your help. i think i could get around this by investing selling then re-investing in very similar funds but run by a different company. i dont invest in shares but funds instead. therefore, say for investing in India, I could invest in JP Morgan's India Fund then sell if i've made £9k profit from it and then the next day invest in Investec India Fund. Could I do that?

ive got my aca tax application paper to study for next week (going back to college for 6 weeks to do financial reporting, taxation and audit). sooooo not looking forward to it!

thanks again

john

ps also

Why should we bother giving you financial advice, john-kane? What's in it for us?

hopefully down the line when if i can qualify as an accountant then i can come on here and give people advice as well as all other knowledge i pick up. also hopefully ive helped a lot of people on poker forums with thousands of posts ive made. always good to help people out as hopefully they'll pass on the favour to the next newbie.

cheerfulcat

john_kane wrote: »

i think i could get around this by investing selling then re-investing in very similar funds but run by a different company. i dont invest in shares but funds instead. therefore, say for investing in India, I could invest in JP Morgan's India Fund then sell if i've made £9k profit from it and then the next day invest in Investec India Fund. Could I do that?

Yes, no problem there.

King_Weasel

john_kane wrote: »

hopefully down the line when if i can qualify as an accountant then i can come on here and give people advice as well as all other knowledge i pick up. also hopefully ive helped a lot of people on poker forums with thousands of posts ive made. always good to help people out as hopefully they'll pass on the favour to the next newbie.

OK, john-kane. I was responding to your opening "bone to pick" which seemed to focus on the problems of people paying 40% tax, when they have just gained the maximum benefit from the income tax changes. But I think I would better have directed my post at MrSafeGaz, and I can't assume you share his attitude.

Anyway, all the best with your studies and I hope you don't get addicted to the poker.

My own (free) financial advice is given just below.

Blowsy

john_kane wrote: »

...I could invest in JP Morgan's India Fund then sell if i've made £9k profit from it and then the next day invest in Investec India Fund. Could I do that?

You could also wait 30 days, then buy back JP Morgan's India Fund.
Bear in mind though, in some cases you'll incur entry and exit charges so if you've made only a small gain you have to weigh up whether it's worth 'crystalising' the gain with your CGT allowance and taking a hit on (re)entry charges.