A meeting of opportunities?

[Simpo Two]

I have a further £15-20K to invest in the stockmarket, and I'd like to do it today to catch any post-referendum surge. My long term aim, however, is to invest for dividend performance as I live on investments.

I also have an unused ISA allowance for 2016/17 - and this gave me an idea. If I took out a stocks and shares ISA containing 3-4 solid performing good dividend payers, and assuming I'm already at my £5K tax-free divident allowance, could I take dividends from those shares tax free? Or does the ISA system only work for income tax?

And is it possible to set up such a thing in one day?

[Simpo Two]

Thanks Sid - good news, and rather to my surprise I managed to open an ISA trading account with Computershare this morning!

The snag now is that from my shortlist of shares, four are with Computershare (HSBC, Rio Tinto, Vodaphone, Persimmon), two with Equiniti (Carnival, Astra Zeneca) and one with Capita (L&G)... I had hoped to avoid multiple accounts. Can shares be transferred from one to the other afterwards?

I must also throw the predictable question into the mix - what do the assembled and redoubtable massiv suggest by way of other shares? Short term priority is something that's been affected by referendum uncertainty, longer term priority is solid dividend peformance.

[Simpo Two]

sideways sid said:

Yes, you can take dividend income out of an ISA without liability to tax.

Even if the £5K threshold has already been reached? My accountant who's just been on the blower thinks not... but he's not always right.

[Simpo Two]

Thanks all - I have told my chap to go and bone up a bit.

So - one day to cast not only votes but also any last minute investments.



ETA - Too bad, money spent!

Edited by Simpo Two on Thursday 23 June 14:12