Anyone who’s a UK resident and at least 18 years old can open a General Account with us. All we need is your:

• name, address and mobile phone number
• date of birth
• debit card details (if you’re making a lump sum payment)
• bank account details (if you’re making a regular payment by Direct Debit)
• National Insurance number

Unlike a Stocks and Shares ISA or Personal Pension, any gains you make on an investment in a General Account are subject to Capital Gains Tax when you sell it.

The Capital Gains Tax allowance is currently £6,000 per tax year, meaning you do not have to pay any tax on gains less than that amount. 

This is going down to £3,000 from 6 April 2024. Once you go over your allowance, you’ll pay 10% or 20% tax depending on whether you’re a basic rate or higher rate taxpayer. You’ll pay this through completing your Self Assessment tax return. 

If you have losses from previous tax years, you can often carry those over to offset against future gains. If you receive dividends from your investments these will be subject to Income Tax. The dividend allowance is currently £1,000 so you do not have to pay tax on any dividend income less than that amount. 

The advantage is that there's no upper limit on the amount you can invest. And, for accounts with a value above £250,000, there's no annual account fee - effectively capping the fee at £375.

Yes, if you invest in a General Account with us, you'll receive an annual tax statement and a summary of the distributions on your investments. You can use this to help you complete your tax return.

Additionally, the GBP share classes of our Ireland-domiciled funds and all of our ETFs have "UK Reporting Fund Status", which means they publish their UK Excess Reportable Income data six months after the year end. You may need to include this information in your tax return. Learn more about tax reporting