ISA & shares

[caduceus]

Do you have to buy shares through a shares ISA to be able to have an ISA for any profits made from buying/selling shares? As I don't currently have an ISA acct, and have already setup and bought shares through an online company.

I want to do all I can to keep the tax mans grubby mitts off my hard earned wegde. So I was thinking of just selling the max monetary amount of shares (£10,465?) every year, and holding onto the rest, IF they go up that is....

Can I just open an ISA acct, and when I sell shares, transfer the money from the online company (which is set up with a link to my current acct) through my bank and into an ISA? Or is the fact that if the shares weren't bought through a 'shares ISA', you can't store them in one?

Thanks in advance.
Cad

[simon458]

No - you have to have bought them in the ISA.

[aka_kerrly]

Depending on the online share company you are currently using you maybe able to transfer your existing share holdings into a stocks & shares ISA without having to sell them. This is sometimes referred to as in-specie transfer/re-registration

[DayTrader]

aka_kerrly said:

Depending on the online share company you are currently using you maybe able to transfer your existing share holdings into a stocks & shares ISA without having to sell them. This is sometimes referred to as in-specie transfer/re-registration

Are you sure? I am 99.9% sure you can't. Any links?

[M001]

I have opened a share ISA with existing shares and the rules stated that you had to sell them first, before buying them back to place into the ISA.

[caduceus]

aka_kerrly said:

Depending on the online share company you are currently using you maybe able to transfer your existing share holdings into a stocks & shares ISA without having to sell them. This is sometimes referred to as in-specie transfer/re-registration

I bought them through iii.

[DayTrader]

caduceus said:

I bought them through iii.

As I and M001 have said - you have to buy them in the ISA - you can't transfer them.

You can only subscribe cash to the ISA so you have to sell the shares then buy them back.

Taken from Motley Fool:

"What happens if I already have shares that I want to put into an ISA?

You cannot transfer shares into an ISA. You can only 'subscribe' cash. So if you have shares that you want to get into an ISA, you'd have to sell them, put the cash into an ISA and then use that to buy them back within the ISA.

This is worth repeating. You cannot simply transfer your shares. You have to sell them, put the proceeds into the ISA and then buy the shares back from within the ISA. You will incur charges when selling the shares in the first place, including dealing costs and Capital Gains Tax (if applicable). Then you will incur dealing charges when you buy them back from within the ISA - not to mention the 0.5% Stamp Duty!"

[aka_kerrly]

Apologies I misread your OP as you DO have a an isa but wanted to transfer stocks from another provider to a new isa. Sadly as your existing shares are outside of a isa product they will have to be sold and repurchased within your new isa, a process referred to as 'bed & isa-ing'

The issue is depending on the value of your current holdings you may end up triggering a cgt charge and you are going to incur dealing charges when you repurchase the shares. On the plus side any future gains will not be liable to tax so the transaction is beneficial longer term.

[Noble Anonymous]

Some providers offer an incentive to bed and isa, offering free sale and then you pay to purchase in an ISA wrapper.I have done this with Hargreaves Lansdown myself but you have to transfer them first to their nominee account and I am unsure of your level of holding? If it exceeds your ISA allowance on your share certificate.

Do remember most providers charge a 0.5% fee for holding your shares in an ISA wrapper (some may charge different amounts?)

I thought in-specie was when you transfer into a pension?

[caduceus]

aka_kerrly said:

Apologies I misread your OP as you DO have a an isa but wanted to transfer stocks from another provider to a new isa. Sadly as your existing shares are outside of a isa product they will have to be sold and repurchased within your new isa, a process referred to as 'bed & isa-ing'

The issue is depending on the value of your current holdings you may end up triggering a cgt charge and you are going to incur dealing charges when you repurchase the shares. On the plus side any future gains will not be liable to tax so the transaction is beneficial longer term.

Sorry for the late reply. Been a hectic last 4 days. Thanks for the replies so far gents. Much appreciated.

Regarding my holdings, I am only £90 odd pounds in profit so far, 3 oil/mining companies combined. So I wouldn't trigger any CGT charges I assume (AFAIK you can earn 10k odd before being liable for CGT). But with 2 off the 3 companies, I don't want to sell quite yet, as positive movement is on the horizon.

Think I'll wait till RKH comfirm their farm in/buy out before I sell them.

[caduceus]

Noble Anonymous said:

If it exceeds your ISA allowance on your share certificate.

I assume this is something that was emailed to me, as I have received nothing in the post, cert wise, since buying through iii....?

[Noble Anonymous]

I was trying to explain that if you hold £20000 of one share, you cannot transfer all of these in one year into your ISA. You will have to do it over two or more years depending upon the value.So in effect a partial transfer of your share holding. Hth.

[jfbrin]

Just check to make sure those oil company shares are eligible to be held in an ISA.

Some of the small exploration companies are listed on the AIM market and are not ISA suitable.

Hargreaves Lansdowne have a handy checking facility on their website e.g.

http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/c...

HTH

JB

[caduceus]

Sorry for the delay in responding. Thank you for your advice and info gents.
Looks like RKH and SRES are not eligible to be put in an ISA But RRL are? Wierd. They're all AIM listed...

So if I'm right (I do need to sit down for an hour and research) you can only buy up to £10,600 worth of shares a year. How much profit are you allowed to make in a year? What is the limit? Is it £10,600 too? I'm guessing I've got this arse backwards

[caduceus]

lambofan2 said:

caduceus said:

So if I'm right (I do need to sit down for an hour and research) you can only buy up to £10,600 worth of shares a year. How much profit are you allowed to make in a year? What is the limit? Is it £10,600 too? I'm guessing I've got this arse backwards

You can put in around £10.6k this year and this goes up to just over £11k next year.

You can make as much profit as you want. Nothing is taxed - no capital gains tax when you sell and no income tax on dividends.

Some people have £10m+ in their shares ISA's...not bad considering you could only open them less than 20 years ago IIRC.

Thanks LF, that sounds perfect. Just need to find the right time to sell up and buy back in through an ISA.

Are all shares ISAs much of a muchness?
I guess you don't really take the interest rate into acct, as the profit your looking for is in the share price.

[caduceus]

lambofan2 said:

You aren't meant to keep cash in them - and the ISA provider may return any cash to you if you don't buy shares promptly with it.

Most providers are the same - some charge a fee (up to about £100) a year whereas a couple are free - III.co.uk is free and also highly recommended so I would go with them

So I then just sell shares at a profit, and throw the cash into an ING savings acct, etc, if I'm not going to reinvest any/all of it.

Already have my current shares in iii. So will have a look on their site at a shares ISA.