The Dashboard has a new Tax Year widget. For one UK tax year, this one or last, it shows the dividends paid to you, the gains on what you sold and your savings interest, each against its allowance, and estimates the tax on what's above them. It's an estimate from what's in the app, not tax advice or a tax return, and it shows its working: which payments, which sales and how each sale was matched.
For that to mean anything the app has to know what's sheltered, so every holding now has an account: General account, ISA or Pension (SIPP). Choose it in the holding's edit window on the Portfolio page. If some of a holding's shares are in an ISA and some aren't, or you moved them in with Bed and ISA, choose Split by lot and give each buy and sale its own account. Anything not set yet is counted as taxable, and the widget says how many holdings that is.
Dividends
The app dates each dividend by its ex-dividend date, so the widget places it at an estimated payment date (about 30 days later for London listings, 15 for US ones) and counts it in the tax year that falls in. This year's figure can include the dividends still forecast before 5 April. The share of a payment earned by ISA or pension shares is left out.
Capital gains
Sales from a general account are matched to purchases the way HMRC does it: shares bought the same day first, then shares bought in the 30 days after, then the average cost of everything else. That's why the result can differ from Realised Gains, which covers all time with one average cost. The widget lists each sale and how it was matched.
Savings interest
This tax year's figure is a year at today's balances and the rates on your hand-entered cash accounts. Mark a cash account as a cash ISA on the Portfolio page and it's left out. For last year, or to use your bank's own figure, type it into the widget's settings.
Your rates
Pick basic, higher or additional rate for a quick estimate. Or enter your other income for the year, such as salary, pension or rent, and the widget works out which band each pound of dividends, interest and gains lands in, including when they straddle two. Both are saved to your account per tax year.
Imports
The CSV importer asks which account a file's trades are held in, so an ISA export comes in marked as an ISA. Broker sync reads each account's type from your broker: when it says ISA, SIPP or general account, that account's holdings come in marked that way, and a stock you hold in two accounts comes in split by lot. When the broker doesn't say, or says two different things, the account is left not set rather than guessed, for you to choose on the Portfolio page.
What it leaves out
Tax withheld abroad, reinvested income in accumulation units, offshore funds' reportable income, losses from earlier years, pension contributions and Gift Aid. The rates and allowances are GOV.UK's for each year, and the widget shows the date they were last checked: a Budget can change them.
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