The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
Clued
It has been frustrating at times but I made the best of it and got out when I was financial able but it was more difficulty for some others who could not afford to do so.
In my last role in a uncaring investment bank my manger (new to the company but at end of his career) was told after he joined he had to outsource everything to India and once complete he was gone, if he could not achieve this he would be gone a lot quicker. They used to sack people on a regular basis, usually every 6 months when upper management decided to get ride of a certain percentage.
The IR35 change made by Rishi Sunak meant I could never work again. They changed who paid the tax from the contractor to the company, however some contractors disagreed, sued and won, company had to pay the tax back to the contractor but could not reclaim it from HMRC. Because of this the banks where I could have worked stopped all contractors and would not take me on in a permeant role as I was too old. Still made no difference to me as I had little intention of going back which also meant commuting to London.
Trickymatters
You obviously know nothing about the FCA, how many courses have you done, I had to do so many and also pass (if not I was out of a job) these useless courses I have lost count. If you have had to deal with the regulations you may have some idea what you are talking about. They are a bunch of jobsworthy box tickers, this is a view taken by many in the industry, they enforce very little, hardly anyone gets prosecuted. Take a look at the USA SEC and FINRA which is far more effective especially with insider dealing. OFAC is far more effective for money laundering, which was the system used at the Bank I worked for and the system where I also had dealing. Why do think so many companies, individuals and even charities are be de-banked, not because they laundered money but because a transaction trigged some strange rule and it costs too much money to do the investigations, spend some time on research.
In my personal life I have had to move from a broker (pulling out of UK due to ridiculous regulations) and had to move 2 accounts of companies I own from an asset manger because of change of regulations which cost me a lot of money and a lot of time. I had a good relationship with the asset manager for many years (still have), they mostly handled my accounts on a discretionary basis but with some intervention from myself to maximise tax efficacy. Change of regs and they cannot handle my accounts in a way that worked well for both of us for years. They were very good and allowed me to leave without exit charges as they saw how unfair these change of rules are. This asset manager used to deal with clients who had a few hundred thousand pounds, but after speaking with them they are not now interested in any clients with less than £2 million because of the increase in FCA regulations and therefore costs. Another great win for the FCA small investors now blocked from good quality investment services because of the FCA.
Clued
I am used to being stitched up by governments as I worked in IT.
We get taxed by the EU and some of the tax was used to move an number of companies I have worked for to Ireland via grants, subsidies and low corp tax. Next subsidies were used to move to old eastern block countries. Was working at some of these as they were in the process of moving then no more work.
Saw how India IT workers were given visa to come to UK to work and learn the skills so these jobs can be moved to India were there is no tax on IT for export and I was expected to train these people. Once sat next to 2 Indian guys working for years through their own off shore company paying no tax in UK. If found out they would either go back to India or off to the USA. This was happening while our government were cracking down on freelances via IR35. Most of the departments I worked for are now off shored. Watched for years as as hundred thousands of job lost to India due to UK government not only giving visas but also grants for the Indian IT people to come to the UK to skill up to take the jobs away. Add in the fact no tax on Indian companies for IT if exported, this is unfair practice but the UK government does not care and does nothing while taxing us to oblivion, retired early to get out of this mess and avoided having to train these people to take UK jobs away.
"JL sold everything he could to bolster the balance sheet"
Also because he had no clue how to turn CPI around and needed the cash to keep CPI going to keep him in a job until retirement. We were sold a pup when he took over, he was going to save the company and turn it around but use up a lost more money (if you include the rights issue) than the company is currently worth.
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How Abrdn lost its vowels – then lost its way
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/abrdn-boss-quits-following-backlash-093641778.html
DEBS1
I apricated you polite reply, for me it is not about envy but fairness.
I have long retired so what Rishi does is irrelevant to my employment prospects. However using his position to get rid of UK workers so he could bring in his family company to make even more money seem unfair, especially if you are one of the people out of a job. Also he made a lot of money on his Moderna shares while paying them lots of public money but kept it quite saying nothing to do with him and will not disclose how much he made, does not seem fair to me.
Kier Stammer special tax unregistered pension scheme which circumvent the life time allowance rule seems particular unfair when he states everyone else but him must obey this rule.
It is not envy but the complete unfairness and hypocrisy that gets me when this pair which are trying to become our next PM while throwing mud around at other people. Not a great Boris fan and don't want him as PM but he is saint compared to these two.
Trickymatters
"you get all these goons turn up"
So which one of my points makes me a goon, they are all facts if you bother to do the research or have been caught out by them you would know. I had a role in large investment bank and had to implement some of the rules, they did nothing but tick boxes. There is a saying in the industry, the FCA regulate for the last crisis, in other words the close the door after the horse has bolted.
The money laundering regulations do very little except get people and small companies debanked due to the cost of compliance, far cheaper just to get rid of a small customer than do £1000s of investigation just to meet the regs even if you know there is nothing wrong but was flagged up for some meaningless reason. I ended up with 2 of my business accounts I had for years locked for months because of KYC, a real struggle to get the freed up.
In order keep my job I was forced to do many courses and pass all the tests which were completely irrelevant to my job to meet the FCA rules, they were regarded as a joke but cost companies a lot of money.
As I said companies that are not registered in the UK and do no business in the UK must produce ESG reports to list on the LSE, so usually do not bother and lists elsewhere. The ESG reporting regulations makes not one jot of difference but adds costs and not in force on any other exchanges, one of the many reasons companies are leaving the LSE or listing elsewhere.
Perhaps you should try dealing with the FCA rules on a professional basis then you too would be a goon in your eyes.
“I feel Rishi Sunak is a good bloke and has worked hard for the country”
Do not agree with this he worked hard for himself, he stabbed Boris in the back who took him from nowhere to become Chancellor, lost to Liz Trust but somehow managed to manoeuvre his way to PM without a vote by the party members as in the rules (could not risk losing twice).
Supported the vaccine while making a fortune from Moderna shares through a hedge fund where he was co-founder and kept this very quite.
Then look at Infosys, his family company (once denied he had heard of Infosys on a Sky interview) which has gained a lot of large new government contacts while he has been PM. Gave grants to Indian IT people to come to the UK, made visa easier for Indian IT people as part of trade agreement all benefitting Infosys. Changed the IR35 rules to make it almost impossible to employ UK IT freelances clearing the path for more work for Infosys. Liz Truss changed these back but first thing he did as PM was revert to the rules he put in.
All perhaps a coincidence but has made the Sunak family a lot richer.
In balance look a Kier Stammer, got a special tax unregistered pension scheme when he stood down as Director of Public Prosecutions in 2013. This means he is exempt for pension lifetime allowance while criticising the removal of the life time allowance for everyone else stating he will put it back but of course he is exempt. We are all equal but some are more equal than others.
Although I think the Conservatives are useless and done a poor job I am dreading a Labour government and what it will do to the UK and my shares especially utilities like CNA and O&G with have substantial holding in the UK.
"They will milk any domestic energy companies to death."
Already done by the tories, take a look at KIST and SQZ SP, most if not all not doing any new NS projects, a couple of small NS companies close to bankruptcy, however Labour are worse, Harbour said with the new Labour taxes some projects will be taxed at over 100% so their off as well. Shell and BP have only around 5% of their investments in the UK and this is falling, both probably off to NYSE in a few years due to ESG pressure in UK.
If you mean 9 months in my SIPP (though I have held a smaller amount elsewhere for a few years), paid around 90p old money.
IMO this SP crash was mostly due to the drop in dividends, the Oaktree purchase would have taken a number of months when those in the loop would have known about the dividend drop. Leaked out and here we are. All while trusty Rusty is saying he does not know why the SP is dropping, nothing to see here, nothing has changed, not me (well seems that way). Bart man springs to mind.
"FCA more power to deal with poor practice"
The things the FCA do for me
Restrict retail investors by locking them out of placing, I am not allowed to buy a share in a placing at say 114p with no fees and stamp duty as I do not know enough and can't be trusted with my own money but I can but the same share on the market for 116p + fees and stamp duty
Make retail investors tick a lot of boxes. Cost me extra money (2 sets of fees) to transfer a share with a KID from IWEB share account to IWEB ISA as it can't be done in one transaction as I have to tick the KID box.
Make retail investors sit tests to invest their own money
Make companies produce ESG report just to list on the LSE even if they do no business in the UK
Push ESG agendas
Push Woke agendas
And you want to give them more power!
Just a pity they are so pathetic.
Same amount once a day (or it looks like it as they are always at the same price) if not blocked by some strange rule they set themselves. How much are we paying Peel Hunt for the genius strategy, another one of trusty Rusty's great ideas to save the SP and we get all this for just a 2/3 drop in the dividend.
Well done Rusty, for all your great work you have even detached the SP from HH prices.
Or another way to look at this is the Latier curve. Once you go over the peak the more you increase tax the least you get.
Since we are at the highest tax rate for 70 years we are either at the top of the curve or falling down the too high tax side. I like a number of people I know retired early due to not being worth working because of tax and it has gone up a lot more since then.
This is a big problem for Labour as more and higher taxes less tax income but what do Labour stand for if it is not more spending and more tax take is out of the question so left with more borrowing but the the counties credit card has been maxed out. Then what is left is property and or wealth tax grab, then see the great exodus to be replaced by unskilled workers with no money to their name (bit like now but much worse).
As has been said after about 2 years of Labour the country will turn on them like they have the conservatives.
For the record we have at least 10 trillion of debt if you count the off balance sheet items, I once asked an economics professor about this as I thought this must be wrong, the answer was that it was probably more.
Here is an idea, instead of maximising the tax how about we maximise the average income, to do this we need to drop taxes off from the top of the curve, just a thought.
By the way it was not covid that caused the problem, it was the lockdowns done by the Conservatives with Labour shouting we should lock down sooner for longer. Great strategy, they knew the Conservatives would be in deep trouble trying to pay for this however this will soon be their problem.