We need your help! Fractional Shares in ISAs

Reports that other brokers are suspending the purchasing of new fractional shares within ISA wrappers. It will be interesting to see if Freetrade do the sameā€¦

Take it all with a pinch of salt as the headline does say ā€œPredictionā€ in it so they are just guessing what is likely going to be brought up.

It is understood that Mr Hunt is also close to approving plans to change decades-old legislation to allow so-called fractional shares to be held in saversā€™ Isas. This would make it easier to invest in certain stocks.

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The Telegraph is an unofficial branch of the Conservative Party PR team. Iā€™d be surprised if they wrote this with out some knowledge

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Yeah, I think this is why the Treasury has stayed quiet. Itā€™s an opportunity to paint Jeremy Hunt as a white knight coming to the aid of young investors.

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According to some reports Interactive Brokers have suspended fractional shares until further notice.


Had the email yesterday.

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That sounds like trying to time politicsā€¦

Sorry I had to itā€™s funny because itā€™s true and all that.

Will be interesting to see if 212 follows suit.

The reason I mention 212 is they use IBKR for asset custodianship.

I did successfully place a order of 2.something or other shares of BBOX today, which went through with success.

This doesnā€™t seem to be correct. As always when it comes to your financial assets, read very carefully the legal fine print (not what some cs person is told to say on a forum or chat)

T212 uses a white label IBKR product.

Do I own my shares? ā€“ Trading 212.

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As it not so clearly states, IB donā€™t hold your shares

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Morning all,

Really appreciate all the questions and support that weā€™ve received on this thread. I wanted to reach out to see if anyone might be keen to be ā€œon deckā€ (sorry if this is a North Americanism, baseball term :wink: ) to speak to some journalists as a case study following the Autumn Statement. Theyā€™re keen to get an ISA investor who might have views on any changes to the ISA Rules (including fractions).

Ideally youā€™d be happy to share a photo and talk about how any changes in the rules may help or hinder your investing journey.

If youā€™re interested, drop me a DM here (or an email at alexander@freetrade.io ) and I can talk you through it a bit more.

Thanks again!

Alex

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If fractional shares are only an issue in ISAā€™s then please FT make the transfer of assets from GIA to ISA easier

Thatā€™s the rules not Freetrade, you canā€™t transfer shares from a GIA to an ISA, needs to be cash.

What o would suggest is Iā€™m all for simplifying ISAs of thatā€™s what the government wishes to do.

But this does not make it better for anyone.

Not you, not me and not even HMRC.

I can explainā€¦

  1. Letā€™s say they go ahead with this.

Most of the people who have fractional shares are most likely people growing their investment pots and are unlikely to be investors with mega money.

The one thing that could deter HMRC is that this is in most cases and exercise on futility.

As 90% or a large percentage of the investors are in the growing thier investment pot stages of thier journey this comes of as a tax grab that HMRC wonā€™t win.

Most of the investors that fit this description wouldnā€™t have enough for the tax grab to be worth it and it will place an administrative burden on HMRC for very few gains in return.

In a time when the UK needs to be efficient due to cost of living, the extra admin work that HMRC would now have to complete would likely leave them worse off, and could feasibly lead to a situation where at one point or another the public purse will have to pay for this extra admin work.

  1. Itā€™s not unfeasible that in time this could be a long and drawn out debate between HMRC and opposition parties.

Some have speculated that if this were to carry on for an extended amount of time, the only way to settle it would be in the courts.

Once again there would be no winners and everyone would lose.

A court case or a series of them is likely to be a waste of tax payers money, particularly in a time when we are ina cost of living crisis.

In conclusion if HMRC really did go for this, there would be no winners and very few gains to be had by any party, including HMRC themselves, over something that could be fixed with a simple re wording of an existing rule.

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Update on the petition.

Although the first fer weeks were a bit of a ā€˜slow starterā€™ with about 180 signatures obtained in 2 weeks, we have reached a place where circa 200 signatures have been obtained in one day.

While it did start out slow to begin with, the good news is that early signs of traction are showing and things are ticking over nicely.

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Jeremy Hunt is set to announce the biggest overhaul to UK individual savings accounts in almost a decade, as he looks to boost the use of the tax-free savings vehicles to provide capital for economic growth, according to senior officials.

The chancellor in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday will outline an Isa reform road map. This will include plans to alter rules around fractional shares and long-term asset funds, a type of open-ended fund invested in illiquid assets including private equity and real estate.

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Did I miss the ISA changes in the autum statement or there was none?


via Winners and losers of Jeremy Huntā€™s 2023 Autumn Statement

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Was there any indication on when these proposed changes would be implimented?