Paying too little tax?
I thought not.
As a retired individual there is at least 20% income tax to pay when you take pension income, then there is 20% VAT to pay when we buy almost anything with that same income.
As an employed individual we have all the above and we suffer a further 12% deduction in National Insurance. Ouch!
But this isn’t news. We have always lived with this. It’s what makes the UK such a good place to live.
Let’s avoid some tax
If we can legitimately save tax, then we shouldn’t hesitate. So Melissa has been busy lately. Many of you with investments on Nucleus have probably seen a lot of activity.
By the 6th of April, as a group we had invested £620,000 into ISAs over the year. Much of that total was moved across from General Accounts just last month. By the end of this month, we will have invested a further £820,000. Absolutely all of that £1.4 million will be free from the ravages of Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax forevermore. Hoorah!
We are waiting for a few clients to get back to us at the moment, but I guess that over the balance of the 2017/2018 tax year, the total amount that we will invest into Tax Exempt Individual Savings Accounts will top £1 million in one year for the first time. The difference is because we can all invest up to £20,000 this year.
Now this £20k is on top of what we have in ISAs already. Between us we now have £16,164,584 in a totally legitimate tax free haven. That’s a lot of rainy day savings. That’s going to fund a lot of our dreams in the future. Tax free.
Have you got any lazy cash ISAs?
Bank cash ISAs are useless. What’s the point of tax free growth if bank ISAs don’t grow? Here’s how our Cautious, Moderate, Aggressive & AIM ISAs have performed. Your savings need to be growing! Get real. Get in touch!
Our Shares
Since November we have each owned a multitude of shares. The results so far have been better than we dared hope. We hope you have all enjoyed our investment growth spurt along with discovering you own Fevertree shares whilst you sip your Gin & Tonics 😀
However there have been some unintended circumstances, especially for those clients with investment pots that have less than £50,000 in them. You see we can only buy or sell a minimum of £500 worth of shares at a time. Now nobody wants to hear they can’t get a withdrawal until somebody else also sells, so I have been carrying the slack by buying or selling as needed with my accounts. It’s meant that clients got their money on time, but I lost growth.
Introducing our Lite Portfolios
When the markets hit a high recently we sold down all of the smaller accounts. Today with the markets lower we have bought back funds only in those smaller accounts. The asset proportions remain the same as our full model portfolios that still hold shares, but these “Lite” portfolios only hold funds. But it now means any withdrawals, at anytime, can occur within 10 days at the most. It also means my accounts can remain fully invested too.
We could have continued to hold shares within many of these accounts, but just much fewer. Unfortunately holding fewer shares would have increased the risk. With shares there is safety in numbers.