Declaring Dividends

By Samatha Ferguson

Dividends are payments from shares, unit and investment trusts, which, investors hope, are not only regular (usually twice a year) but also rise over time to reflect the companys (or trusts) growing fortunes. Dividends are taxable as income.

The good news is tax on UK share dividends is deducted before you get it. If you are a basic rate taxpayer, you dont have to do anything else. Nontaxpayers and ten per cent taxpayers dont need to do anything either. But theres bad news here: You cant reclaim the deducted tax under any circumstances. Even though its called a tax credit by HMRC, we refer to it as a deduction to save confusion.

Top-rate taxpayers have to declare dividends on their self-assessment form and have the cash ready to pay the gap between the 40 per cent rate and the tax deducted.

Whether you get income from unit trusts, investment trusts, or individual shares, look at the date the dividend was declared and ignore the period for which the dividend applied. A 10p a share dividend for the year ending 31 December 2006 declared on 1 May 2007 and paid on 1 June 2007 counts as part of your 2007 " 08 return, not the 2006"07 calculation.

If you invest for long-term growth in shares that pay low or no dividends, youll pay less income tax. But dont forget these shares tend to be riskier. And you can get hit for capital gains tax on your profits.

Dont forget if you are near the top of the basic rate ladder " earning around $36,000 a year " your dividends can push you into the top tax bracket. For instance, if you earn $36,500 and have $3,500 of dividends youll be over the $39,825 (in 2007"08) basic rate tax limit for a person aged under 65.

Dividends from stocks traded in foreign markets can be tough to deal with. You may have to convert dividend payments into sterling as well as account for them separately.

You need to fill out the foreign income pages of the self assessment form. The UK has double taxation agreements with most foreign countries. The effect of these agreements is to cap the tax due on foreign-sourced income so you are no worse off as a result of possibly being taxed twice.

Many stock market companies have schemes by which shareholders can opt to receive new shares to the value of their dividends rather a dividend cheque. Even if you choose this option, you still have to declare the value of the new shares and any balance carried forward in cash because it is not large enough to buy a share. Youre liable for tax on re-invested dividends in just the same way as a cash dividend. - 23309

About the Author:

Learn How to Invest Today from the basics to advance. Find financial freedom from debit and other money issues by learn how to invest and learning to control your money.

How To Invest In Stocks

By Gary Hamilton

As luck would have it for these people, investing isn't too complex to get into, and as galore confident investors may tell you, it's just a subject of getting started. Once you have tried a few investments that are good for beginners, investment knowledge begins coming quickly. There are more than one investment opportunities that are idealistic for firstborn time investors, and introductory timers might be amazed to learn that they're already laying out money and don't even recognise it.

We all acknowledge or have heard of someone who had built up a really good retirement fund, they'd sunk all of their money for years into their investments in the stock market and relied on having plenty of cash when they got older. With the radical swings in the market over the past few years, it's not surprising to hear that so many of these persons have lost everything. One of the largest reasons is that they made one of the greatest laying out capital faults that there is, they put all of their eggs in one basket.

The real artwork of laying out capital is knowing when to trade an investment. Any individual with some money may buy any investment, like a publicly swapped fund or a stock, nevertheless, successful investors acknowledge that a good profit from such an investment may only be made when the investment is sold. As a subject a fact the firstborn job of an capitalist is to defend his capital or important invested, while the second one is to make galore net income. So how does one go when it comes to doing a good job laying out capital successfully? The answer is by adhering to a rigorous trade discipline.

So what is this scheme? When you started out on a stock you give human being the proper to purchase the stock at a sure price on or before a given date.

It's tempting to jump in a couple of just because they take place to be a large dividend to their shareholders. It's whether or not the organization is not sound and growing there's really not much of a point to doing this. - 23309

About the Author:

If you enjoyed this article, check out my other articles on gym equipment and choosing a gym.

Trading Strategies - Why The Logical Strategies Pay

By Gnifrus Urquart

I've been an active investor for about 20 years of my life. In using either my tried and tested strategies, or trialing new ones, one thing I have realised is that the more an investment strategy makes logical sense, the more successful it tends to be.

There are so many strategies I've tried, I have lost count. And there are at least as many which I've let go without trying. There are just too many. I found a quick fire way though which helps disregard the strategies which are useless, so you can trial the ones which are worth trialing. Its logic. Look at the logic of your trading strategy and see if there are holes in it. You'll be amazed by the number of strategies with big logical holes.

Strategies generally make sense. The problem I am talking about is not about making sense, it concerns completeness. When these strategies do not cover all possible scenarios, you can be left in a position where you need to make decisions that are not following the strategy. The amount of judgment you can bring to such forced decisions depends on how close this situation is to others covered by the strategy. In a worse case scenario, it could be a complete guess.

When I am in this situation, where I have to make a decision outside a strategy I am trading because the strategy does not offer me guidance, I believe I am gambling. This is not good. I may make the right decision, but then again, I may lose my money. In all good investment strategies, you should not have to do this. You should simply plan the trade, and then trade the plan. There should not be room for guess work.

Also, the point about trialing a strategy is that you are finding out whether it will make consistent returns over the fullness of time. The point about trading a strategy is that you know it makes consistent returns over the fullness of time. If you have had a guess mid way through the strategy, you cannot be confident its the strategy or your guess which is making the money. You will need to start again.

So if you have a new strategy which looks promising, apply your logic to it first. Try to understand all the trading scenarios you may face and ensure the strategy stands up to all of them and deals with them. This simple piece of advice could save you thousands.

And don't forget to dummy trade before you put any money down. When you are dummy trading you will most likely find a bunch of trading scenarios you never thought about before. Make sure these are covered by the logic of the strategy too. Its much easier to sort this stuff out without money, than when you have money on the line. - 23309

About the Author:

After decades of successful investing, Gnifrus Urquart enjoys reviewing his favorite investment strategies and offering general investment advice

Before Buying a House Consider the Kind of Location That It Comes With

By Jason Myers

Acquiring a new house is a major decision that you are likely to make somewhere down the line as you move forward with your life. And when that time finally takes place, there are two things that are highly important and both of them will either make or break a purchase; the house itself and its locality.

When it comes to the house, you need to ensure that it is exactly as your criterion stipulates. Since you expect to spend a considerable amount for your house acquisition, you might as well make a good decision. For instance, ensure that the interior dcor and overall design is something you can work with.

The second most important thing is the location. Even when you locate a house with all the necessary features, the location will have a big weight on whether you buy it or not. It should provide ease in accessibility from your regular routes. It needs to have close access to schools, hospitals, malls and every other point of interest that is required in making daily living complete.

You should not compromise on the safety at any price. Crimes should be as rare as can be, and police visibility in the area should be praiseworthy. If you have minors with you, a peaceful place is necessary since you would like your youngsters to be in a safe environment as possible.

Forecasting the future of the locality should be considered too. If an area is gaining popularity, it only implies that the road network is due for improvement and appreciation of value in the property will be witnessed some years down the line.

If you can match a particular area befitting all these qualities and other related requirements, you have the green-light of buying a home from there because you are confident to choose the best possible surroundings to live in, probably into your retirement. - 23309

About the Author:

As the housing crisis bottoms we'll have plenty of one in a lifetime real estate investing opportunities. You may also want to read our articles about home refinancing so you'll have funds to invest!

What Are LEAP Options?

By Ahmad Hassam

British Pound is known to be a stable currency. Great Britain is a strong economy. But, Great Britain was finding it difficult to stay within the tight exchange rate band set by the European Monetary Union (EMU) in the early'90s. One person who made history with options was George Soros who is famously known as the man who broke the Bank of England.

George Soros is a famous name in the world of investing. He had always believed in contrarian investing. Contrarian investing means doing exactly opposite of what the crowd is doing. George Soros had this intuition that the Bank of England would be forced to devalue British Pound. So he bought call options on German Marks and put options on British Pound. He made a bet of $10 Billion by leveraging all the assets in his hedge fund.

Bank of England had made a number of public statements regarding its intention of staying within the EMU. When George Soros made his bet on the intrinsic weakness of British Pound, other currency speculators followed suit and placed their bets too. This build up an immense selling pressure on the British Pound! Bank of England was brought to its knees as it was unable to sustain the immense selling pressure on the British Pound within a few days of the speculative attack on the British Pound. Bank of England was forced to devalue British Pound in a few short days.

When you a strong intuition, you should go for the big kill. George Soros made a cool $1 Billion profit on his bet in a matter of a few days. Can you make such a bet? Maybe not but this one example show the immense power options have if used correctly. Options are risky; there should be no doubt about it.

Most people who trade options lose money, plain and simple. Options give you the right to buy or sell an underlying security like stocks, futures, commodities or currencies at a price before a certain date. This price is known as the Strike Price. This date is known as the Expiry Date. However, in European Style options you can only buy or sell on the expiry date not before that.

Time factor is very important when valuing an option. Further out the options contract is from expiration, you will have to pay a higher premium. As the options contract approaches the expiration date and if it is out of money, it loses its value very fast.

Have your heard about the LEAP options? LEAP stands for long term equity anticipation. It basically means that the option is much like the regular option except that the timeframe to expire is greater than 1 year. LEAP options are basically long term options. Leap options can help you profit over the long haul. You can use LEAP options in options strategies like the covered calls, straddles, spreads and so on.

LEAP options can be incredibly profitable if used correctly. However, LEAP options are risky because the option writer usually demands a hefty premium for taking on the long term risk. The buyer of the LEAP options has the right to exercise the option prior to expiration should the price of the underlying stock move in the money. Long timeframe means that the possibility of the LEAP options moving in the money is always high hence a high LEAP options premium.

LEAP options can be a great trading vehicle for swing traders as they mitigate some of the time decay that is inherent in short term options. See, closer the out of money option is to expiration, faster its value drops. What this means is that the buyer of the options loses the premium that was paid for getting the right to buy or sell the underlying security. - 23309

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Learn Candlestick Charting! Know Fibonacci Retracement!