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. - 23204

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.

Credit Card Debt Consolidation Loans: Understanding the Basics

By Layla Vanderbilt

Have you been hit hard by the recent recession and looking for solutions to your credit card problems? There is help for you, if you know where to look. Debt consolidation loans are becoming ever more popular as people try to recover their financial situations. This type of loan can help get you out of credit card debt, even if you are being denied for other types of loans.

A consolidation loan for credit card debt puts all of your debts together into one package. A loaning company pays off these debts for you and creates a loan for you to pay off. By organizing all of your debts into one you are making it easier on yourself by lowering overall interest and monthly payments. As long as the interest set my the lending company is reasonable this is often a good solution. The biggest problem people have when dealing with a credit card debt consolidation loan is that they don?t make their payments on time. there are several penalties for this.

To make sure you don?t end up in debt, you need to ensure that your interest rates stay low. Keep making on time payments to ensure that your rates get changed. Even paying the bill a few days late can cause your interest rates to go up. Credit card consolidation companies are eager to give you lower rates, so long as they can trust that you will make on time payments.

If you try searching online for loaning companies you are probably going to come up with numerous results. Sometimes the best place to start is the bank. Talk to the banker to find the best solution for your debt problem. They will either offer you a loan through the bank itself, or lead you in the direction towards a company that can help you. When you search on the internet you cant be certain who is reliable and who isn?t. The banker will help recommend a company that has a good history.

Some lending companies go right to your creditors. They negotiate lower interest rates and payments plans so you can pay off the money yourself. In the end every creditor simply wants the money you owe them, even if it takes a little longer then estimated to get it. Be careful with some of these negotiating companies since there are several illegitimate ones out there.

To find a legitimate debt consolidation company, ask your banker for some suggestions. You can also ask them about companies that you should stay away from. If you are searching online you should make sure that your debt consolidation company has a long history with a good reputation that you can trust. By taking these simple steps you are avoiding being taken advantage of, and that your debt will go away as fast as possible. - 23204

About the Author:

Layla Vanderbilt is the content coordinator for a leading website that offers for bad debt consolidation advice and guidance.

Learning Forex The Right Way

By John Templeton

If you want to learn forex the right way, you are going to have a make a decision as to how you want to properly analyze the market. You need to choose between technical analysis and fundamental analysis.

You can find some traders who are equally strong in both categories but in actuality, most tend to favor one form of analysis over the other.

The sad thing is that there are also a bunch of traders out there who have never taken the time to really learn either of the methods. I know this sounds rather irrational, but many traders prefer to use their own instincts instead of learning how to properly analyze the markets.

This may sound funny to you, but there are a lot of traders who have no understanding of some of basic fundamentals, like news events. For instance, many traders have absolutely no idea as to the importance of Non Farm Payroll Numbers or Foreclosure numbers. It's rather unfortunate.

There are a ton of traders who still don't know if a rise or fall in interest rates is good or bad for the value of their currency.

This really wouldnt be that bad if traders really took the time to learn about analyzing the market from a technical perspective. But, as you may have guessed, most dont do that either. To many traders, technical analysis means shoving a bunch of indicators on your charts and hoping that these indicators are giving them the correct information they need.

The honest truth is that the vast majority of indicators will not ever provide any kind of proper technical analysis. The big reason for this is because they are inherently lagging. If you want to know what has already happened, then they are pretty good. But if you want to know what will happen, it doesnt provide much help.

If you are truly serious in learning more about technical analysis, then do yourself a favor and get rid of your indicators, and educate yourself on price action. - 23204

About the Author:

To learn how to trade forex, make sure to check out this website on becoming a forex scalper.

Choose the Right Forex Dealer (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

Almost 90% of the investors enter currency markets as short term speculators. Most of the investors look for quick capital gains in forex. Many start forex day trading as a speculative venture. If you have made the positive decision to start forex trading, your first step should be choosing the right forex broker. This is very important. The right choice of a forex broker will greatly influence your success as a forex trader.

Forex trading is hot right now. It is being called the Recession Proof Business of 21st Century. The market is overcrowded with companies and banks offering online forex brokerage services. Internet has opened the forex markets to individual retail traders and small investors. It will not be easy for you to make the right choice of a forex broker. You need a certain set of criteria. These criteria will mostly depend on your preferences, interests and means as an individual trader and will depend on your trading tactics and strategies.

You may ask, what is the best way to choose the right broker? You should compose a list of questions to ask the forex broker before making a final decision. The following are some of the suggested questions that you should ask. You should ask these questions before making a final decision.

What is the amount of the interday and overnight margin and corresponding leverage? Many good online forex brokers offer margin between 2-5%. They provide leverage ranging from 20:1 to 50:1. Higher margin requirement means lower investment efficiency.

However, beware of lower margin. It means that most of the time the forex broker will be against you as a trader and will do everything possible to prevent you from winning. You will face many trading problems with such a broker. It will become difficult for you to work under such conditions.

What is the minimum contract size offered? Now days, the standard contract size is a $100,000 lot. This contract size is quite affordable. This contract size also allows small individual investors to participate in currency speculation. It allows for reasonably effective money management with limited capital.

What are the requirements of minimum deposit demanded by the broker? It is common that many new traders dont have sufficient funds to open an account. The investment and financial means of trader differ. I think $10,000 is the required minimum amount corresponding to the forex market conditions. In my opinion, the optimal minimum amount is $10,000 with 2% margin requirement.

What are the terms and conditions of setting and executing stop and limit orders? The ideal condition should be the execution of the stop and limit orders at the fixed price. This should be regardless of the speed or direction of the market conditions. Good forex dealers provide this type of execution. Most brokers reserve the right to fulfill an order with slippage under unsteady market conditions. Conditions mostly defined by the broker themselves.

The value of slippage depends on the current state of the market and can fluctuate from a few pips to tens of pips. The slippage creates favorable conditions for the abuse of the trader by the broker. Although it is practically impossible to arbitrate the price received from the broker during the transaction. - 23204

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading and swing trading stocks and currencies. Learn Forex Nitty Gritty. Develop your own Forex Trading System.

Using Automated Forex to Make Money is Easier than you Think

By Chuck Kessler

It is really easy to make money in the currency trading markets. The only problem is if you don't know what you are doing it is real easy to lose money too. With the invention of automated forex software, however, times have changed and you can make money in the currency markets even if you don't know a thing about them. I am going to tell you how to use these software programs to make money, and you don't need a large upfront investment.

You will first need to get your hands on some automated forex trading software. You can find these all over the internet, some are even free. You then install the software on your computer and let it run in the background. The key here is that you computer needs to be on, no trades will be executed while your computer is turned off.

You don't want to turn that computer off. If the software is in the middle of a trade you might get stuck with a bad invesment. You also want to set your risk tolerance to the level which you can stand. Everyone has a natural tolerance for risk. The less risky your setting the less money you will make in the short term. Just like any other investment the lower the risk the lower the return.

A more aggressive approach can make more money in the short term, but you can lose all of your money too. Again more risk is more return. The problem is if you are making high risk trades that same risk is on the negative too, and you could lose the money. The nice thing is the software can always be set to your level of comfort.

Automated forex software uses historical data, signals, and trends to make decisions on what currency to trade. The currencies are changing every day because of the economy, and when the market is like that there is money to be made if you know what you are doing. Lucky for you you can employ a robot who is unemotional to make the decisions for you.

Go out and get some free currency robot software, set it up and see if you can make some money. It is so exciting to have your computer running and doing trades making you money while you sleep. There is no better feeling in the world than getting paid to sleep! - 23204

About the Author:

If this all sounds too complicated for you, visit my website for further information on automated forex. I give you additional tips, and can even tell you softwares that are proven to work!