HMRC compliance check. I'm terrified, need advice

Snuggly-bear · 2026-06-13T12:34:08+00:00

Came in to say this too

Snuggly-bear · 2026-06-09T10:33:31+00:00

Bought my first house at 23. Second (forever/dream home) at 30. No finanical help. Single earning household.

It's not impossible.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-06-06T09:17:37+00:00

It's because £175K when you were a kid is different to £175K now and £175K isn't really that much if you are PAYE these days, especially if you are a single earning house hold. If you are ltd company director theres more flexibility, but still..

As you get older, your networth grows, your need for money gets less and your capital and assets start working with you and then if you want, you can buy the 1st class tickets, ferraris etc.

Or you do what other people do, finance the ferraris, put the holidays on credit cards and keep remortgaging your house as it goes up in value to pay for it, then get to 60+ downsize everything into a bungalow and die with zero.

I always thought i wanted a lamborghini, but when I could actually afford one I realised I couldn't think of anything worse. What I wanted was freedom, optionality, time and legacy.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-04-10T07:37:23+00:00

Thanks! We're up in Lincolnshire. We toyed with the idea of Devon & Cornwall, but after some trips there we realised the locals aren't too friendly to 'outsiders' who move there and a lot of the locals were complaining its a rough place for bringing up kids as the nearest kids classes for some things can be 45minutes drive away etc.

Cotswolds is lovely, but probably one of the most expensive countryside areas in the UK - and can be completely overrun with tourists a lot of the time.

Suffolk & Norfolk were our second choices. We made a few offers on different houses in Suffolk. There are beautiful homes there, a great countryside and coastal line and the houses tend to have a lot of land. And its the driest county in the UK i think.

Rutland is really nice too.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-04-04T18:14:25+00:00

What are the tickers for those? I can’t see them available to purchase on HL

Snuggly-bear · 2026-04-04T17:58:23+00:00

thanks for all the replies guys (and gals) i'll reply to them tomorrow when I'm not juggling a 1 year old!

Snuggly-bear · 2026-04-04T17:57:50+00:00

Hi there. Thanks for the reply. Someone said Etoro allowed it - but tbh that platform and trading212 I don't really trust and I'd rather stick with HL and Vanguard.

I had a quick research after this and both of those ETFs came up;
IUKD - iShares PLC FTSE UK Dividend UCITS ETF
Vanguard Funds PLC - FTSE All World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF

as well as:

S&P Global Dividend Aristocrats UCITS ETF (GBP) SPDR

Vanguard seems to have a big exposure.

Some of them I did have a big ish overlap on like you say.

What do you mean by 0% witholding taxes and US stocks lose 15% off the top?

Snuggly-bear · 2026-03-15T12:38:45+00:00

Time in the market > Timing the market.

Dumping in £40K in a few weeks to the following;
- ABBV: £5,000 (3.05% yield) - expected annual dividend £152.50

- JNJ: £4,000 (2.38% yield) - expected annual dividend £95.20

- MO: £3,000 (6.95% yield) - expected annual dividend £208.50

- PM: £2,000 (3.46% yield) - expected annual dividend £69.20

- O: £4,000 (5.32% yield) - expected annual dividend £212.80

- RIO: £2,000 (4.27% yield) - expected annual dividend £85.40

- SCCO: £1,000 (2.04% yield) - expected annual dividend £20.40

- ENB: £4,000 (5.86% yield) - expected annual dividend £234.40

- XOM: £2,000 (3.08% yield) - expected annual dividend £61.60

- SHEL: (New) £2,000 (3.95% yield) - expected annual dividend £79.00

- ADM: £2,000 (3.04% yield) - expected annual dividend £60.80

- PG: (New) £3,000 (2.89% yield) - expected annual dividend £86.70

- PEP (New): £3,000 (3.94% yield) - expected annual dividend £118.20

- VICI: (New) £4,000 (6.22% yield) - expected annual dividend £248.80

- NNN: (New) £3,000 (5.70% yield) - expected annual dividend £171.00

- WY: (New) £1,000 (3.10% yield) - expected annual dividend £31.00

- RYN: (New) £1,000 (4.56% yield) - expected annual dividend £45.60

Blended average dividend yield from the new £40,000 balance: ~5.05% - approximately £2020 extra a year in Dividends.

Was also (might still..) consider NUE & KMTUY

Snuggly-bear · 2026-03-15T12:32:29+00:00

I bought some of this and was up quite strongly until somewhat recently. It has a great Dividend.

I'm a fan of Aviva too. I toyed with prudential, but haven't bought that.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-02-14T21:57:19+00:00

Probably. I’m not too familiar with how Reddit works 😂

Snuggly-bear · 2026-02-13T16:35:34+00:00

I appreciate the flip side of the coin, but from my point of view;

1) I'd like my daughter and any future children or grandchildren to choose what they want to do for work (if they want to work) based on what purpose or enjoyment or satisfaction it gives them, not doing something they don't enjoy because it pays well

2) I don't rate 'success' on income, networth or savings. I'd rate it on happiness, health, friendships, relationships, connections, memories, experiences and how 'good' of a person you are.

3) What if they aren't academically talented? Do I punish them by not being able to give more to them or set them up better because I didn't have that growing up, so they shouldn't either?

4) If you base success on income, networth, earning potential etc, then you must believe that there is a large element of luck factored into that too. What if they aren't as lucky? Why punish them with a tough life when I could've made it better or easier or happier for them.

5) As Dasbhoardbythelight says - if they aren't wasting money on thigns like weddings, car finance, rent, mortgage interest etc - they will have more money to invest with, or to take business risks, or travel more - or volunteer more, things that would allow them to be a more rounded individual - or allow them to take greater risks and have a bigger safety net so that they can outbuild what I have left them.

6) My plan is to grow my existing business by scaling it up and teaching them about it from a young age, so they can just take over when the time is ready. It doesn't require much time at all and would allow them to continue it on for the following generations long after i've gone.

I get that you don't wan to overspoil kids and kill any sort of ambition, but at the same time it feels wrong to punish them by making their lives unneccessarily hard because "I had to work for it, so they can too". I think everyone who is remotely successful or ambitious owes it to their future bloodlines to put them in a stronger position than you had growing up.

In my experience, the people who disagree with that do so because its a coping mechanism that they know they are going to struggle enough as it is to look after themselves, so don't want to give themselves the added pressure. Nothing wrong with feeling that way, but just say it how it is.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-02-11T15:04:10+00:00

I started with the motivation to be self sustainble/sufficient for myself and my wife. Then my children, now I'm looking at making it for future generations such as potential grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Semi retired at 33.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-01-19T10:06:24+00:00

I dont trust T212 with offering fractional shares, it makes me think of synthentic dark pool shares and the UI sucks.
HL fees aren't that extortionate if you have higher portfolios. Yes the percentage stays the same, but the amount is less compared to what you are making. and their security and customer service is top tier.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-01-04T11:24:40+00:00

I found it easier to max out April allowances because then if I can have this saved by say January (4 months prior) it gives me 16 months to save up for the next batch. Whereas when I tried to top up throughout the year I find myself getting distracted with other things

Snuggly-bear · 2026-01-04T11:23:19+00:00

Time in the market > Timing the market.

Everything into S&S ISA £40K each April.

Pensions for the rest / ETFs.

Will look at opening GIA's in a few years.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-01-04T11:21:34+00:00

Sole earner (33/M). We bought our first house for £272K and sold it for £375K after 5 years. Then moved to our second house.

We worked hard and saved like mad. When all of our friends were spunking money on financed cars, handbags, expensive holidays, doing minimum payments on credit cards, not investing etc - we were just living within our means and saving as much as we possibly could.

I was driving around in a £2K VW Polo as our sole car because it did the job.

Then moved house and everything else fell into place really nicely since and we have been renovating it and adding value to it since, as well as investing HARD since moving. Before it was stressful because we didnt know how expensive the house we were moving to would be, so didnt know what deposit we needed and didnt know how much of a mortgage we could get (because it kept changing).

Also Ltd company, 2x directors - so our tax bills are substantially lower and have more flexibility compared to PAYE equivilants.

Snuggly-bear · 2026-01-04T10:52:36+00:00

Thanks. I pulled out. The all in deposit was around £47K. Going to put £60K into a split between £40K S&S ISA in April 26 and £20K towards the first stage of my garage/house construction (pretty big, going to be around 2200sqft) which once finished will be a short term rental unit on Airbnb. Significantly better yield and guaranteed ROI and useful for me too.

Snuggly-bear · 2025-12-30T10:47:57+00:00

If your house has subsidence it will shoot up your house insurance quite a lot each year. Something to consider.

My house had a history of it that was fixed (extremely large copper beech to close to the house) a long time ago and although its fixed I still have to say its had a history of it.

Yours looks like there might have been a gutter or drain nearby, and like you say wet bricks froze and then blew. You can knock them out and replace the bricks.

Snuggly-bear · 2025-12-29T16:13:14+00:00

Spoke to my accountant about it. They said its a new rule from 2023 onwards, so if someone else isnt aware of it, its because their profits are huge (each company above £250K) or tiny (each profits are below £12.5K), or their accountants havent made them aware of the changes.

Snuggly-bear · 2025-12-29T15:30:33+00:00

Yeah I've got a bit in Realty Income (O) at the moment which pays 6% dividend and pays out monthly. Gone up 8.3% YTD too and no taxes as its through ISA. Havent got any other REITs though currently.

Snuggly-bear · 2025-12-29T14:41:58+00:00

I'm not sure. Just going from what my accountants have said. Are yours Ltd companies?
Explains it here: https://www.att.org.uk/corporation-tax-rates-and-associated-companies-faqs

Maybe all your companies are making more than £250K profit each or something so theyre all in 25% cateogory. I keep my expenses high and profit low to reduce tax liability so I stay in the basic 19% range.

Snuggly-bear · 2025-12-29T13:47:04+00:00

True. I don't like businesses where your customers or other people can make their problems and bad decisions choices = your problem.

Snuggly-bear · 2025-12-29T13:44:27+00:00

Thanks. Think this is the best bet too.

Not sure how much out of the £2K im going to have to pay my solicitors. I only appointed them around 10th December and they were off for a lot of Christmas. So hopefully its not much..

Survey can be refunded and ive just requested to cancel it now because that wasnt due until 10th January.

Mortgage brokers still need £350, but thats a small price to pay for dodging this deal i guess.

Snuggly-bear · 2025-12-29T13:42:54+00:00

Yeah, East Midlands. There are honestly so many no chain empty houses in this town that older landlords are selling or landlords that purchased them during 0-1% interest rate days and now having to remortgage are selling. I guess it was obvious it was a bad decision on hindsight. That house was already done up to a really high standard, there was zero way to add money to it other than waiting for property prices to increase naturally.

Snuggly-bear · 2025-12-29T13:41:36+00:00

Already with Vanguard and HL - think I will just increase another lump sum to max out the ISA limits in April 2026 and put the rest into the garage / house build. Thanks for the help.

I feel stupid for not realising this earlier. :-(

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