Member Info for Bonz1957

Maybe if our banks had been more interested in banking and customer care, and less interested in ripping us all off with PPI, CPP or rate swaps, or getting involved in LIBOR or foreign exchange fixing and money laundering, then it would be us taking over the Spanish and not the other way around. Reminds me of the demise of British Leyland, they couldn't organise a p***-up in a brewery so now we all drive foreign cars!! ATB.

Lol!! I used to be a financial adviser for a short time in my varied past, and have structured my finances to be as tax efficient as possible - I hate paying the tax man a single penny - and now I'm no longer working I even get the tax on my savings interest rebated each year. Remember evasion is good, avoidance is naughty!! More than happy to help those that ask for it - even the ungrateful ones!! - a simple thank you occasionally is worth more than any financial reward. Hard to know what to make of this continued rise in sp, is it down to those hoping for a windfall, or the markets liking the way SL is going and testing 7,000? But it will be very interesting to see how many people come on here next week wanting to know where part of their holding has gone. Not sure yet where my cash will go. Maybe I'll just use it to pay the next couple of months bills to save me taking the money from elsewhere, If it does get reinvested maybe I'll look for a top up in NG which has a better yield. ATB.

Hello stranger, how very nice to hear from you and once again thank you for your kind words. I may be hopeless at picking a good stock, or trading to maximise my returns, but I have learnt the basics over the last 40 years. Maybe people should have to pass a competency test before they are allowed to trade, that might save them from being confused every time something different happens. At least if they bothered to read the company announcements or prospectus for these events they would have 1/2 an idea of what is going on. You sound very much like a kindred spirit. I do love my warm flat real ale and enjoy a summers day listening to the sound of leather on willow. During the winter months I spend my time watching a larger ball being kicked around at my local Barnstaple Town or watching Arsenal on the Tv. My sign says 'A Home is not a Home without a Cat' and I doubt I will get to Heaven as I'm not very PC and tend to call those being dumb an idiot, so have upset too many people over the years. I look forward to that pint if we ever meet. ATB.

Just for additional clarification, this Special Div is for tax purposes treated just like any other div. It will carry a 10% tax credit and, as long as you are a basic rate taxpayer, you will have no further liability to pay any tax. So for arguments sake, you could get £6k from your pension and £35k from this or any other div, and as that would still be below the £41,865 at which you start to pay tax at 40% you would not be liable to pay a single penny extra!!. Hope this helps. ATB.

You will have NO liability if you take it all as Income, so why would you want to complicate things by taking part of it as a Capital Gain and possibly having a complicated Gain to work out? You have said that 'you can see you'll be within the lower tax band', so how can taking part of it as a Gain reduce a liability that is already Zero??? Based on the figures you have supplied, and assuming you do not have any other Capital gains to declare for the year your tax liability is Zero whichever way you go, so take the easy option. The only reason for volunteering to use all or part of your CGT allowance would be if your Income was close to or above the 40% tax rate and you wanted to avoid paying any extra tax, then you could choose to take it as a Return of Capital and have the gain treated under CGT rules.

If your only taxable income is £6,000 from your pension (any income you take from your ISA's does not count) then your £20k SL payment will still be well within the £41,865 you can earn before being liable to tax at 40%. Therefore take the C Share Income option - you do not need to do anything as this is the default option - and you will not be liable to pay any tax. This way you will not need to calculate any gain as you are taking the div as Income. Next week you will have 22,324 shares, and the only calculation you may need to make for any future transactions is to amend your 'pool' or base cost for the remaining shares by the % of the current value that you receive in cash - approx. 16% at today's cost.

The Record Date for the Bonus Shares is 15/6/15. If you read the post from marklowrie earlier today at 10.23am he quoted the IPO Prospectus which stated that if there is a change of owner then those who would have qualified for these shares will be compensated. ATB.

Nice piece of research marklowrie, looks like we will get our 38 shares (maximum) whatever happens. ATB.

Wise choice. Great company, good yield, no competition, and the 5 year share chart has only gone one way - up. Unless you need the income from the divs look to reinvest them into more shares and watch those 1000 shares grow. ATB.

I like your thinking, why wait months for the deal to finalise. Unless the offer is increased or the Bonus Shares are included, then might as well take the money now and run off to pastures new. ATB.

"The Boards of TSB and Banco de Sabadell SA ("Sabadell") note the recent media speculation. The Board of TSB confirms that it has received a preliminary proposal from Sabadell which may or may not result in a formal offer for the entire share capital of the Company. The proposal is for 340 pence in cash per TSB share." Wonder if we will still get our Bonus Shares or, if the deal goes through quickly, will the 340p a share will be based on our current holding? Those 38 Bonus Shares would be worth an extra £129.20. ATB.

And there was me thinking the FTSE might just try to break through the 7,000 barrier - shows how much I know!! Wonder how long it will be before the serious brigade chastise us for footy talk on here?? though we should be OK as this is a relatively quiet board. Made a change for us to win up there and for them to get booked for diving - how the mighty have fallen!! Will be interesting to see how SL fares for the rest of this and the beginning of next week, and how many are confused by the consolidation with the sp staying relatively similar. ATB.

LOL!! ATB.

Must admit I'm with the RAC 'cos I get it free using my Tesco Clubcard vouchers, but that didn't stop me pocketing a few of these at launch. One of the better IPO's of recent times. ATB.

Mmmm, only game I've seen this season was our League Cup exit to the Saints, I'll forgive that if you take 3 pts from the upcoming Spurs game lol!! You're a braver man than I am dabbling with AIM, my last foray there was that £500 punt on PTV that is now worth less than £10!! I get tempted in about once every 10 years but usually pick a loser!!! I am also in UU, a good defensive stock - as are all of the utilities - just wish they offered a better div and a DRIP. ATB.

3 so far and counting. The rest of my portfolio is heavily biased towards Utilities and the Privatisation stocks, and weighted towards Blue Chips that offer DRIPS and SCRIPS and a good yield. My 10 biggest holdings are in BT, BP, NG, SL, SSE, BG, RR, IMT, LLOY, and in my beloved Arsenal FC - big game tonight so I may be very p1553d off tomorrow if we lose!!! Went through some old paperwork a while back and worked out that at some point or other since the mid 70's I've held shares in over 300 companies, but many have now been taken over, merged, gone bust or taken private, etc. Left with just over 100 now - virtually all in certificated form - most of which pay a good div which is reinvested so they're growing nicely. There are of course exceptions, one of my speculative £500 punts is now worth £9.25!! I am more of a collector and a hoarder, rather than an active trader, so don't fit the normal investor stereotype. Have roughly a 60:40 split between shares and Unit or Investment Trusts, and always saw them as an alternative to a Pension. It will be a sad day when I have to start selling them off to fund my old age, they are like children to me with my first ever purchase in BP being 40 years old this year!!! Sad but true!! ATB.

Thank you kind Sir/Lady for your kind words. Wow - 9 house builders, not sure I knew there were that many. Reminds me of the days when I had a full set of Water and Electricity companies, along with all of the generators and distributors - most now sadly long taken over. Sadly PSN are my only one, originally bought as Beazer many moons ago, though I can claim HWDN by association!! SL are another getting their scheme away by April 2nd. Wonder what companys will find to offer us next as a way to get around having to pay tax. Long live Tax Avoidance. ATB.

Unless I'm completely wrong - and I occasionally am - it is almost always the Registrars that operate the DRIP or SCRIP schemes. At least they do on all of the schemes that my various holdings are involved in as far as I can tell from my paperwork - I am old-school so virtually all of mine are in certificated form. SL are slightly different in that they run their own Shareholder Services but use Capita's address. It is much easier for co's to use Registrars to handle everything and simply transfer shares out of their 'Treasury' account or arrange for them to be bought in the markets as and when needed. Who knows where the sp could go in the next few weeks or months. With the FTSE trying to clear that magic 7,000 hurdle, if it does break through and go on a run then it could take most shares with it. Though don't expect it to be long before the next ISIS/Euro/Ukraine crisis sees us all running for cover. ATB.

Just seen the end of my first post to you was cut off despite being within the character count!! It should have read: If you hold your shares in a brokers nominee account or directly with SL then they will be held in CREST. Just be aware of the fact that it can be very expensive to deal through a Registrar, very often considerably more expensive than through an execution only broker. If/when you decide that you want to sell all or part of your holding you may find it a lot cheaper to transfer your CREST holding to a broker who charges £10 or less - even if there are transfer fees involved. Finally, you can if you wish register a vote, whether or not you think this is a good thing for you, but in reality it is already a done deal. Personally I think it is an excellent deal as I don't think it will be long before we see 490p, at which point our 9 shares will be worth more than the original 11 were, and we will have all received a nice chunk of money without incurring any dealing charges. For anyone who wanted to keep all of their cash in SL there is nothing to stop them reinvesting their cash, though for my money there are better yielding shares out there if you are after the dividend income. ATB.

.....cont. As far as deciding on the B/C option your choice should be relatively easy. If, when you add the £4161 to your other income for the 14/15 tax year (earnings, pensions, other divs, savings interest, etc) you are still a basic rate taxpayer - i.e. the total is below £41,865 - then the C Share option should be best for you. As this is the default option you do not need to do anything. ATB.