You might not be able to shield your shares from a falling stockmarket, but you can at least protect your investments from the taxman with a stocks and shares individual savings account (Isa).

The Isa “wrapper” is a tax-efficient way to invest in shares, unit trusts, investment trusts, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), open-ended investment companies (Oeics), real estate investment trusts (Reits), and both corporate and government bonds.

You can even park your cash here while you’re scouting around for what to buy next. Just make sure to be aware that, depending on your provider, you may not earn interest on your cash while you decide what to subsequently invest in. That’s what cash Isas are for.

Still, with a stocks and shares Isa, you won’t pay any capital gains tax (CGT) on your investments. Better yet, any income, whether dividends from shares or interest on bonds, is also sheltered from tax in your Isa.  

Remember that the value of your stocks and shares Isa can go down as well as up. If it does fall then you can’t top it back up if you’ve used up your £20,000 allowance already. And remember, that £20,000 allowance is spread between all of your Isa accounts, not just the one.

So, for example, you might put £10,000 in a cash Isa and £10,000 in a stocks and shares Isa. But in this scenario, if the value of your stocks and shares Isa falls, you will have to wait until the start of the next tax year to pay in more money. You can, of course, transfer money into your stocks and shares Isa from, say, your cash Isa. 

What if you already have investments outside of a tax wrapper that you would like to save into your stocks and shares Isa? Not a problem. There is quite a useful trick known as the “bed and Isa”.

First you sell your investments on your trading platform. Then you can buy them back inside your stocks and shares Isa. It’s as simple as that. Because the investments were outside of the tax wrapper when you sold them, they will be subject to your £12,000 CGT allowance for the year.

If you are in danger of breaching that limit, consider selling your investments in different tax years. Otherwise, you can transfer an investment to a spouse who hasn’t yet used up their allowance. They can then sell it and buy it back in their Isa.

Because investment platforms do the selling and then the buying in rapid succession when they carry out Bed and Isa services, the good news is your exposure to price movements in the market is kept to a minimum. 

There are several things to consider when choosing an investment platform for your stocks and shares Isa. Some charge a flat fee, good news if you have a lot of money invested (over £25,000). Other platforms will charge a percentage of the value of your funds, which suits better if you are investing smaller sums.

Then there’s the fee you will be charged for buying and selling investments. And finally, there’s the range of investments that they offer, as well as the small, but important things, such as reliability and customer service. 

Lockdown Shaming 

“Lockdown shaming” has become the latest ammunition in neighbourhood feuds. Police are urging the public to stop exploiting the coronavirus lockdown to settle neighbourhood vendettas after forces reported being “inundated” with thousands of daily allegations of people breaching coronavirus restrictions.

The West Midlands police, the second largest force in England and Wales, revealed it had been receiving 1,000 Covid-19 related calls a day. The majority of reports were for low-level incidents, such as neighbours reporting someone they had seen walking the dog twice in a day.

However, some are ongoing neighbour disputes and nothing to do with coronavirus. The police have asked the public to curb “deliberate false reporting” to punish nuisance neighbours or settle long-running feuds. However, the other side of the coin is overzealous policing.

We’ve had a glimpse of what a very British police state might look like. Police across the country have confused government guidance with actual law, busting people for illicit Easter egg purchases and scrambling drones over the Peaks to reprimand walkers.

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