ASOS have dropped quite significantly in the past week for no particular reason and I view this as the perfect opportunity to invest as I can see them bouncing right back up to the 5.50p mark in the next 2-3 weeks. STRONG BUY!!

SEADOG... I am a mortgage consultant that works for an accountancy practice... We specialise in tax, especially IHT planning. I have something that might help you.. Post me a private message with your number on it and I will tell you how we try and avoid it for our high net worth clients. Look at the following example:

If you have an estate worth 1m.. you know that 263k is the IHT nil rate band so therefore 737k is your net taxable estate.

So 737k x 40% is 294,800 - This is the amount that will be paid to the government following your death (assuming you have a 1m estate and things stay the same).

The way to avoid this is:

Say if you have a house worth 400k, we would raise an interest only mortgage.. well for as much as we can given your income. Say in this case 250k. (There are few lenders that do asset based lending, but Halifax allow most mortgages upto 75% Loan To Value on a self certification basis, plus c and g allow investment income to be taken into account i have found). I typically get a rate of around 5% fixed for my clients.

If we could raise 250k, we then put it into trust - an offshore bond, with cautious to balanced risk. The 250k takes 7 years to fully get out of your estate. In order to pay the interest only mortgage, you take 5% tax free per annum from the offshore bond. This covers the interest only on the mortgage... it is pretty much self funding. In terms of the investment performance, you would hope the fund managers long term could get you a return of 5%. Even if they don't and get say 4%.. it is still worthwhile as you are potentially saving 250k in IHT over the longer term!!

The mortgage is designed to be paid off on the second death from the proceeds of the estate or the property to be sold.

I have recently come across a Close Brothers Property Scheme... where it takes 2 YEARS for money to get out of your estate. Basically you invest money into a private limited company... you qualify for Business Property Relief.. which means money will be out of your estate after 2 years.

I hope not to have bored you seadog, but it has worked so far for many of our clients. Plus it is the only way (besides adverse lending) i have found to make money on mortgages for a firm... because the loan amounts are large!!

IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED I HAVE A BELTING CGT ONE THAT WORKS!!!

legend still in asc do not intend to sell.see my previous post re when growth slows down? cheers woodie

Legend290782:
Many thanks for your advice. I should have said that my son in law is an Independent Financial Consultant and we are working together with Charcol to mitigate the IHT problem, but many thanks.

No probs, I am just doing my financial planning exams myself now!! I thought I had done all the exams I needed to do in my life at uni, I was clearly mistaken!! Did my mortgage exams last year. After these, it will be the taxation and trusts. After that I may even do the ACCA to be an (dare i say it)accountant!!

Woodie, I only wish I had put more into toa (but are pretty much all in with BNH)... they have looked and traded very well from 8.5p!!

Interesting posts. Legend, can you confirm SEADOG's point that shares in AIM companies move out of the IHT liability area? I was aware of the CGT implications but don't have a personal problem there - in a problem behind me, I lost funds on a business venture but have a good accountant who is charging the losses against CGT. Whilst not personally relevant, I also believe the CGD gains are not subject to CGT. Mind, you never know what Gordon will be up to next.

Woodie: I agree your BNH investment. I also think there is huge potential in SEO, MPH and CYH: all pretty well one-way bets. Have a look at the BBs. I am doing an exercise this weekend on CYH: a change in accountantcy policy has rocked the shares. I will reporting a reasoned view of what the share price would have been if they had started the conservative policy from day 1 and, also, attempting to interpret the figures to gain a projection of when they will return to profit. I plan then to try to flush confirmation out of the company or advisors. I will give a quiick summary of the results here because I suspect it will prove that they are way undervalued, mainly because of uncertainty and the failure of the company to do this evaluation.

Eric

I will check, but I would only have thought it would have been only worth it if you intend to keep the equities for some time as otherwise, if you cash them in then they are back in your estate.

As for the CGT thing, it is something I have found how to avoid it if you have gains over the annual exemption (04-05 8200)...

I suspect that is the problem in looking to AIM stocks in relation to IHT. Take ASC for example: OK, they go on going-up. Will they be in AIM in five years time even if you hold them: take-over must be probably in that time; graduation to the FTSE? change in tax regulations as it is seen that many AIM companies should hardly be classes as start-ups. The arguments for AIM companies lie elsewhere - see today's Times where small-cap and AIM companies are continuing to out-perform the more sluggish members of the FTSE. Always excepting Tesco and HSBC. Most of the others are proving unmanageable.

Eric

Legend290782 and Eric,

Page 17 of this weeks IC has a question and answer on IHT and CGT , thats where I got the info from, also the weekend FT money guide of October 30 2004. But they must be trading shares, financial and property and not allowed. SD

Legend and Eric

I rather hope that ASOS will be the same as MJW and stay in AIM with a year upon year increase, but if we could forsee the future we would all be trying to avoid Tax. SD

dawsinho provided a very helpful link in post 953 to the hitwise figures for ASC. The Jan 5 figures show hits jumping above 200 per day again!, i.e. over 100% above last year. So accelerating rather than slowing down. Expecting a very bullish statement indeed on 21st. I would top up again but my jar is already full to overflowing!

Eric

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/tvlicensing/cs/1022.htm

check out the above, it would appear that they have a license to broadcast a fashion channel, covering all bases by the looks of it. With success of IDS, seems likely to be a winner.

anyone know anything about this ?

capa

I just rang them from your link capa. After a bit of stammering(on their end), it's being looked into and they will ring me back. I'll report as soon as I know more.

capa, sandrew

Brilliant spot, capa! Well done, sandrew! A licence is the sort of thing you have to do but you wouldn't expect it to be picked up on and put into the public arena. They may be at an early stage with their planning and not ready for the public gaze. But you recall John Marshall's article last month which mentioned the TV potential. I wonder if there will be anything on the 21st. As you say, with IDS success with a much more ordinary offering, this could perhaps replicate their internet success. Ever upwards, ever onwards! Could this be the share of the year for 2005, as well!

By the way, see my post re SEO.

Eric

Hi everyone,

Glad to read your wife up and running Eric.

I think we need a good forward looking statement on the 21st to smooth PE figures for ASOS. There are current concerns that it is a little high, but that could, and I hope, will change. It has been a wonderful share during 2004 and we need to review it's potential for 2005 after the company announcement.

Re: Share challenge, we might as well follow the lumpen newspaper blitz, when all the pundits become Fund Managers overnight, and either endorse our current selections or nominate new ones. After all this exercise has been successful, and maintained interest in the ASOS BB so why not continue!

Again thank you Eric for keeping the share challenge going and I admire you for looking into the Crystal Ball every day and seeing things I can't!!!

Off to make some money now...Bye! John

Hi John

Good to have you back! Mary's hardly running yet, never a forte, skiing is fine but not so good without the skis! Having tests including ultrasound to determine whether gall bladder is the problem.

Agree we should confer after 21st results re future of ASOS Challenge. Interesting how it has turned into a three horse race although there could be a dark horse in there somewhere. Given 50m is current share cap of ASC, seems reasonable to look for 100m by year-end which could mean a fresh challenge even if this one is not over. It might be good to put this challenge on the backburner and start another. We'll see what people think after the 21st.

Would appreciate your view on the SEO charts - my guts are making their feelings known, my heart is warm but the head needs to be engaged first!

Eric

Just had a phonecall back from the finance department at asos. Sorry he caught me in the middle of doing the washing up and I can't remember his name(what an exciting life I lead). He stressed that the teleshopping is an idea they are "actively investigating", but they are "not committed yet". I said I thought it was a great idea and he assured me that the costs for setting up and running such a venture are now significantly cheaper than they were several years ago and that we weren't looking at some sort of void that money would just disappear into. He also noted the benefits of reaching the sector of the market that perhaps weren't sitting with an available computer at their desks all day, but had access to SKY and other such services. He also mentioned people perhaps at the hairdressers or such like watching it. This has made me wonder if what they have in mind is something more along the lines of Fashion TV as opposed to the QVC format I was originally picturing.He did keep stressing that were "not committed" to the idea yet and they were still "activately investigating" this option. A very nice chap to speak to, sounding very enthusiastic, yet coy about giving too much away.
Well spotted capa.

Eric,
Got yr email, forgot what I asked.!!!!

sandra, thanks for that post, confirmed what I guessed.

I imagine that the idea is indeed a fashion channel, sounds like a winner.

capa

Sharon (I know I was calling you sandra myself which is only natural!)

Excellent piece of research - we'll appoint you research director. You obviously need relief from the household chores so you can remember pertinent details, such as who you were speaking to! Reading between the lines I would say they were doing it but not ready to announce. Might double the sp again, might it not?

Funny day today with sporadic selling and then some decent buys at the end of the day including 100K to finish with. Suggests better start in the morning.

Eric

John and team

Thinking about John's suggestion re a second challenge, I for one have found this very instructive: not always profitable but not to blame the portfolio; seen the error of my ways and now a chartist for the TIMING of a purchase!

My ideas for 2nd Challenge. Each participant has 20K which can go into 1,2,3 or 4 shares in units of 5K. ASC has 20K and is team yardstick, not in individual portfolios. Period could be a year but I would suggest 6 months to maintain interest. Existing challenge a bit on backburner but we would keep an eye on it. Progress reports would rank shares by performance but also participants (initial only to protect from the ridicule of outsiders!). We could e-mail participants in last challenge in case they have taken eye of the ASC ball (naughty! naughty!)

What do you think? Other ideas?

Eric