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The HfP chat thread – Monday 19th April

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Comments (323)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • estrangeiro8 says:
    19 Apr19 April 10:28

    Morning all, does anyone have a Trading212 referral code I could use? I’d like to open a S&S isa. Thanks in advance.

    • Rhys says:
      19 Apr19 April 10:33

      Here you go: http://www.trading212.com/invite/GISlRsY8

      Not sure if there is still a waiting list but hopefully T212 still tracks the referral.

      • estrangeiro8 says:
        19 Apr19 April 10:38

        Thank you so much Rhys. 👍 I checked last night and no waiting list currently… thankfully! I thought I’d check it out for the new tax year.

        • Rhys says:
          19 Apr19 April 10:42

          Excellent, that’s good. Let me know what share you get!

        • @mkcol says:
          19 Apr19 April 11:40

          Really no waitlist? Coz I signed up with Rhys’ code a few months back & was shoved into the waitlist, checked last week & I’m still there.
          Please let us know if the waitlist has cleared & you’re straight in?

          I ended up having to use Freetrade.
          And also opened a Binance account for my crypto.

  • 747_Brat says:
    19 Apr19 April 10:37

    O/T For some reasons, I had to submit a self assessment for tax year 2019-20. Am I supposed to submit a self assessment again for 2020-21?

    My only source of income for 2020-21 was employment for which I have already paid taxes through PAYE.
    Thanks.

    • Nadeshka says:
      19 Apr19 April 10:48

      What was your income?
      If over £100K then you have to do self assessment every year, regardless of whether it all comes from one PAYE source.

      • 747_Brat says:
        19 Apr19 April 10:55

        Thanks Nadeshka.
        It is below £100K. So I can choose not to file a self assessment since I have already paid through PAYE?

        • Nadeshka says:
          19 Apr19 April 11:00

          I guess it depends on the reasons why you had to submit previously. If the tax man is expecting a filing from you then you would likely need to submit or inform them of the change in circumstances and they could confirm if you still need to file.
          E.g. in the income >£100k case they still ask you to file in years it dips below if it’s likely to go back up. I know people who had secondary income who had to file for a year or two after they ceased that work before HMRC agreed they no longer need to file. I wouldn’t just assume you don’t need to.
          Their phone lines are an absolute pain but talking to someone might be the best way to figure it out.

          • 747_Brat says:
            19 Apr19 April 11:04

            That’s sound advice Nadeshka. I will give them a call to get advice directly from HMRC.
            Thanks.

      • Sam says:
        19 Apr19 April 11:55

        Does the 100k take into account pension contributions taken before tax so you then fall below the 100K threshold or is it 100k gross (before any deductions)?

        • Nadeshka says:
          19 Apr19 April 14:29

          Disclaimer that this is just personal experience, I am not a tax expert…
          If you have pension taken out at source via salary sacrifice then no you don’t I believe as HMRC only see the “netted” gross PAYE.
          The 100k threshold is primarily because at that point the personal allowance is withdrawn so you need self assessment to adjust for that reduction. If you sacrifice below 100k you get full allowance. Also true for tax free childcare.

          However if you ‘DIY’ pension contributions into a SIPP etc and are claiming back then you need probably need self assessment to get that tax rebate and adjust tax code as employer will be showing over £100k to HMRC via PAYE.

    • Louie says:
      19 Apr19 April 10:55

      https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return

      • 747_Brat says:
        19 Apr19 April 10:58

        Thanks Louie. This was very helpful. As per this, I don’t need to submit a self assessment! 🙂

        • Louie says:
          19 Apr19 April 11:10

          One thing though – have they issued a self assessment return for you to complete? If they have, you can’t simply ignore it because you don’t need to do one per the link above. You’d need to contact them to find out what to do.

          • WaynedP says:
            19 Apr19 April 11:19

            Best to phone and check – I’ve always found them super helpful.

            They will make an appropriate note on your file if they agree that you’re not obliged to submit a return, although they may need a year or two of returns showing PAYE-only entries.

            You risk a fine if you simply decide you’re not eligible and fail to submit a return if HMRC are expecting you to.

        • Sandra says:
          19 Apr19 April 11:12

          If you can access your HMRC account online it will tell you there if you need to complete a SA for 20/21 and it will be already waiting for you in your account.

    • Anna says:
      19 Apr19 April 11:45

      Do you get child benefit? If you’ve ever had to pay any back they then contact you each year to tell you to do a self-assessment. We’ve had to pay some of ours back (apparently it’s more advantageous to claim it and repay it, I’ve no idea why!). My OH must have completed the form incorrectly the first time as it told him at the end he owed HMRC £3000, he was having a fit but resubmitted and it was reduced quite a lot!

      • Jody says:
        19 Apr19 April 12:05

        No idea about any tax benefits, but claiming child benefit (even if you have to pay some back) ensures you have the necessary NI contributions towards your state pension. Obviously that doesn’t really matter if you’re paying enough anyway yourself, but can be helpful for a lot of people where it one partner that is the high earner and the other partner isn’t.

        • Anna says:
          19 Apr19 April 12:13

          That must be it! Having mainly worked for the state all my adult life I haven’t paid much attention to things like tax and NI. Though it’s quite astonishing how much better a pension looks as it doesn’t have an NI deduction!

        • Genghis says:
          19 Apr19 April 13:14

          We didn’t claim it but filled in a form to HMRC which allowed the NI contribution for my wife.

        • Nadeshka says:
          19 Apr19 April 14:36

          Also if you don’t apply for CB (even the cashless version) then your child won’t get an NI number automatically at 16 as the database of CB kids is used to generate the population of those needing NIs.

          To save that headache in 16 years seemed like enough of a reason!

      • Nadeshka says:
        19 Apr19 April 14:33

        If earnings are between £50-60k it’s worth claiming as you will get a partial payment – you get paid in full but repay part of it via self assessment. Note that this ‘earnings’ includes taxable benefits like healthcare, company car (catches people out) but can be reduced by pension sacrifice etc.

        If well over the threshold then you can claim for just the NI credits, no cash, and then no self assessment is needed to adjust. I believe it’s full NI credits for 12 years to whichever parent you elect.

    • Martin Short says:
      19 Apr19 April 13:21

      Its up to HMRC. They will send you a letter one way or another.

  • Cat says:
    19 Apr19 April 10:38

    I’m curious to see how well we do collectively compared to media predictions – where do we think will be on the green list next month?

    • meta says:
      19 Apr19 April 10:46

      I wonder how they’ll actually do the red list. Are they going to list all countries or just one line all other countries?

    • Yuff says:
      19 Apr19 April 10:54

      Which are the 8 countries expected to be on the green list?
      I would have thought Europe will be much better placed by mid May with vaccinations starting to pick up in most countries.
      Personally I would like either UAE or Mallorca to be on the green list pre 22nd May 🤞🏻For travel on 29th May

      • Blair says:
        19 Apr19 April 10:59

        For most of us here though, with office jobs in offices still closed, does Green versus Amber make much difference practically? Amber feels a lot like holidaying in summer 2020, which didn’t seem to stop HfPers

        • Scallder says:
          19 Apr19 April 11:08

          As long as you don’t have kids that go to some form of childcare setting/school… for those of us who does it makes a huge difference!

        • Pete M says:
          19 Apr19 April 11:10

          Depends on how seriously you take the home quarantining on return, I suppose (bearing in mind you are not meant to leave even for exercise on your own) and whether you can afford the cost of the various tests (which I guess most people here can and costs are coming down as well).

          • TGLoyalty says:
            19 Apr19 April 11:15

            It’s not just the cost. The stories of people not getting Day 8 tests back for 5+ days is an inconvenience as you’re meant to keep isolating.

          • Sam G says:
            19 Apr19 April 12:05

            I saw in The Times that the govt is hiring Mitie to conduct 10,000 daily checks so seems like it’ll be getting a bit stricter

        • TGLoyalty says:
          19 Apr19 April 11:14

          Atleast another PCR test to buy and a lamp test on day 5 to be “released”

          • Pete M says:
            19 Apr19 April 11:23

            I have found it surprising (and so I think has the government!) how compliant people in this country actually are. In particular the middle classes seem to generally follow all the rules to a T (poor people can’t afford to, the rich don’t care), even a year down the line. A local authority public health director in London was positively astounded by this in relation to surge testing over the weekend, for example. When I compare this to Germany where people are really, really fed up now (it’s basically been one long lockdown since November) it is rather impressive!

          • Cat says:
            19 Apr19 April 19:31

            I’ve found it astonishing how compliant they aren’t!

            I’m so sick of seeing students, their parents, colleagues and fellow passengers on public transport with their masks under their chin. Surely they know by now that that’s not where the mask belongs!

            I hope everyone takes it seriously and home quarantine’s as mandated by law.

      • Rob says:
        19 Apr19 April 11:29

        It is likely that the Government starts counting the Chinese vaccine at, say, half – so a country 70% vaccinated with that is only treated as 35% vaccinated. UAE is now starting 3rd doses as people are not developing sufficient antibodies.

        • Yuff says:
          19 Apr19 April 12:04

          I saw 2 weeks after 1st does in Chile was 3.5% efficacy , 56% after 2nd dose.
          However things should start improving in Europe quite quickly I would have thought!
          Quarantine not possible as daughter needs to go back to school, so anywhere we go needs to be on the green list.
          Can’t even spend half term together as son at school in Spain and daughter at school in UK……….not going to put either of them through quarantine
          Need to cancel bookings by 22nd so hoping things are clearer in 4 weeks………

          • TGLoyalty says:
            19 Apr19 April 12:10

            as long as its 95% effective at keeping people out of hospitals and dying it would still have given us a major advantage vs the virus.

    • Stanley says:
      19 Apr19 April 12:21

      Malta and Israel are my two top picks…..

      • Mrs_Fussy says:
        19 Apr19 April 20:26

        Problem with Malta is the mask policy. I was jumping to book but a resident cautioned me to review it before booking. Let’s hope Isreal opens up to individual travellers soon

    • The Lord says:
      19 Apr19 April 12:55

      Greek islands green, mainland amber is my guess. Most of the islands currently have no cases

      • Stanley says:
        19 Apr19 April 13:01

        Be interesting to see if they do this or bracket one country together. Mallorca could go green potentially….

        • Yuff says:
          19 Apr19 April 16:17

          Mallorca, until recently, has been below the uk in cases, it has only just ticked up to 30/100k in 7 days and has been around that figure, or lower, for many weeks.
          They have vaccinated about 18% with a first dose and 6% with a 2nd dose.
          I can’t see the UK separating Mallorca, or the canaries, from Spain as a whole because they can’t check who has flown via the mainland so Spain will be taken as a whole in my opinion.

        • Cat says:
          19 Apr19 April 20:01

          If they separate the islands into a different category to the mainland, do you think flights via Athens / Madrid will still necessitate a quarantine?

          It’s a tricky business!

  • Pete M says:
    19 Apr19 April 11:30

    One of the predictions for the green list is here; https://www.gridpoint.consulting/blog/predicting-country-classifications and another (a bit older) here: https://twitter.com/PPaulCharles/status/1377348446437400583/photo/1

  • gillydee says:
    19 Apr19 April 11:34

    I have a Qatar future travel voucher valid to September 2022. We’ve rolled the associated holiday to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to Nov 21 but it’s a bit concerning that Vietnam is still pretty much closed to tourists and Cambodia is experiencing growing numbers of COVID infections.

    Is there any advantage in rebooking now, before the current Qatar book with confidence guarantee expires at the end of this month? Or do we just sit it out until Vietnam reopens? If we booked now and had to cancel again, would a refund result in a new FTV with extended validity? Or still expire in Sep 22?

    Grateful for any advice….

    • kitten says:
      19 Apr19 April 12:06

      With QR only rely on what you can see.

      • Sam G says:
        19 Apr19 April 18:01

        I’d be worried about any plans for these countries later this year – Thailand is headed in the wrong direction (except potentially some of the holiday islands by Q4) and none of these countries are in a good position vaccine wise. Ultimately they haven’t “beaten” covid, just avoided it and it could easily be raging by then or at least still under restrictions that aren’t going to make for an enjoyable trip!

  • EDA says:
    19 Apr19 April 11:34

    Struggling to re-book my cancelled Japan flights on BA booked in the 50% off Avios sale. BA is saying that if I want to move them to next year I need to pay full Avios as the ticket is only valid for 12 months after booking.

    Anything I can do?

  • Jenny says:
    19 Apr19 April 12:05

    Boris cancels India trip (finally) https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2021/apr/19/uk-covid-news-tories-coronavirus-stop-boris-johnson-campaigning-scotland-india-trip

    Now time to put India on the red list (with over 275,000 daily infections)

    • kitten says:
      19 Apr19 April 12:13

      There is apparently a worrisome India variant emerging too.

      • Rhys says:
        19 Apr19 April 12:22

        Latest I heard is the India variant isn’t as concerning as UK/South Africa variants

    • TGLoyalty says:
      19 Apr19 April 12:24

      and 1.4bn population … its c20/100k a day

      back in late december / start Jan the UK was seeing 60-70k a day which is 90-105/100k a day

      • kitten says:
        19 Apr19 April 14:04

        Are flights being stopped from India?

      • Jonathan says:
        19 Apr19 April 14:33

        Do you believe the reach of their testing programme is anywhere near as great as European/NA countries?

        Mortality is much lower on a per capita basis though as life expectancy in rural/high density inner city areas is much lower so generally it’s a younger/lower risk demographic infected Same with sub Saharan Africa. High numbers with low fatalities is good in some respects but is an excellent breeding ground for variants.

    • ChrisC says:
      19 Apr19 April 12:30

      That may sound a lot but what are the infection and death rates as a proportion of the population?

      • DeB20 says:
        19 Apr19 April 14:27

        Very low apparently. Bear in mind that they have a population just under 1.4 billion. So approximately 20 per 100,000 and therefore lower than the UK numbers in the last few months.

        It will be interesting to see how the UK government reacts though. And also how the scientists respond here, especially given the general attitude that the virus does not like warm weather. Have they looked at the current day temperature in Mumbai or New Delhi, or for that matter in a few cities in Thailand, where the virus is on the rise?

        If they did, then they would have to revise the view that they currently hold about the virus not liking warm weather. (Highs for tomorrow BKK 33C, BOM 34C, DEL 34C.)

        • andy says:
          19 Apr19 April 15:13

          The thing about warm weather is the virus likes spreading indoors. So in a European summer and spring it struggles more than in winter when everyone is inside. Bangkok is hot at the moment and people will be inside air con, malls, etc and that’s how it spreads. Somewhere like Bangkok doesn’t have loads of outdoor bars and restaurants etc.

          • kitten says:
            19 Apr19 April 17:50

            So do you think it spreads in air conditioning systems? any difference if warm air or cool air is being pumped out?

          • TGLoyalty says:
            19 Apr19 April 20:40

            No it spreads indoors

            They will be inside because that’s where the air con is.

  • Anna says:
    19 Apr19 April 12:17

    I don’t know if it’s an IT glitch due to the current extra 2 avios per £ spent offer, but my BAPP seems to have stopped clawing back avios on refunds. Though I could just end up with a negative 4 figure balance in a couple of months if the system catches up …

    • Louise K says:
      19 Apr19 April 14:39

      Clawed mine back on a cancellation last month. At this rate I have no chance of generating my 241 this year.

      • Anna says:
        19 Apr19 April 15:56

        That’s another point, my target spend doesn’t seem to have been adjusted either.

    • Jonathan says:
      19 Apr19 April 16:50

      It’s always been bank error in your favour for refunds when there’s an earn bonus with Brighton. Earn at enhanced but deduct at standard.

      • Ming the Merciless says:
        19 Apr19 April 19:37

        As I can confirm. Netted close to 500k Avios last summer on plat bonus. Some refundable flights due to a meeting that kept being cancelled then rebooked…

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