I notice ii offer a "Bed & ISA" service, where you can sell shares in your dealing account and buy them back straight away in the ISA, for one dealing fee.
However, this is still subject to the bid-offer spread.
Now whilst I believe we are not allowed to do an in-specie transfer, surely all the shares are held in the broker account, as they are nominee holdings ?
Therefore does the broker also need to sell and buy back the stock as well ? Or can they just reassign their holdings and issue me the trading documentation ? Therefore pocketing the difference.
This is more of theoretical interest, since I have already used my ISA allowance long a go, but still need to make capital disposals this tax year.
Hi jonesj.
I did a relatively large B&I (about £40k) via my broker, Charles Stanley, last year for an illiquid AIM stock which would typically have a 2-3% bid ask spread. I recall they did execute a buy/sell trade and charged me the usual dealing commission of £11.50 but as I recall no material spread on the trade (perhaps a few basis points) or Stamp Duty (presumably as the shares in question qualified for the AIM exemption). In that instance, the transaction costs were much smaller than the tax gain from crystallising a capital loss to offset against gains elsewhere so the trade made sense.
Gus.
