Euro based P2P Lending for UK Tax Payers

As a UK tax-payer, so far I’ve stuck to UK based alternative finance platforms. I’m open to the idea of trying out a couple of continental European platforms: more diversification, some new customer cashback offers and potentially higher returns (12%+).

However, I have two big questions to answer before I go any further:

1. Tax. What implications would investing in EU platforms have on my UK tax? Are they properly equipped to provide statements for my annual tax return? Could I lose out on certain tax benefits? Would a non-UK income, with currency conversions etc lead to additional paperwork? I will try to answer these questions in this blog post.
2. Currency Conversion. What are the transaction costs to convert from £ GBP to € EUR? If transaction costs are significant that would eat up a significant proportion of the returns. I will look at this in more detail in a later post, tax considerations permitting!

I spoke to HMRC and then got in touch with some of the larger EU platforms (Bondora, Mintos, Twino, Viventor, EstateGuru and Lendix) as a sample to find out how geared up they are for UK taxpayers. Read more “Euro based P2P Lending for UK Tax Payers” →

Landbay Deep Dive

Click the image below to open up the interactive report. There are more details on how I made the report underneath the image too. Read more “Landbay Deep Dive” →

Reconciling Your FundingSecure Account History

FundingSecure has become one of my favourite peer-to-peer lending platforms over the past few months. At first I was put off by the complicated secondary market, but over time I realised that there are also plenty of good opportunities. I’ve been buying loan parts on both the primary and secondary markets based on each individual opportunity, but lacked any overall strategy or understanding of my overall position. So, over the weekend I spent some time getting to the bottom of my account history, it was not straight forward. Read more “Reconciling Your FundingSecure Account History” →

Building a Peer-to-Peer Analytics Dashboard: Part 1

The Problem

I really enjoy writing reviews of peer-to-peer lending platforms and the excuse to dig a little deeper than I otherwise would do. However, as I write more for this blog I feel what is lacking is an easy and objective way to compare the different sites. For each platform I’d like to start with a common ‘report card’ or ‘cheat sheet’, with things like: Read more “Building a Peer-to-Peer Analytics Dashboard: Part 1” →

Property CrowdFunding

UK Property Crowdfunding: The Ultimate Guide

Property Crowdfunding or ‘crowd-to-let’ platforms allow investors to buy shares in a property from just £10. Investors benefit from capital growth and rental income without the hassle of buy-to-let management and with the ability to diversity a lump sum across many properties. Investments can be in both commercial and residential property and can use leverage (mortgages) to increase potential price increases. These companies tend to set up a single ‘SPV’ (Special Purpose Vehicle) as a UK Limited Liability company for every new property asset. The number of property crowdfunding websites has absolutely exploded over the last year. Depending on how public opinion and government regulation responds, we can expect property crowdfunding to revolutionise the UK property market over the next decade. Read more “Property CrowdFunding” →

Do Property Partner Dividends Affect Prices?

Property Partner pays out dividends on net rental income for properties on the 5th of each month. How does this effect prices and the volume traded on the secondary market? If you’re looking to increase your investments, should you buy in the days leading up to the 5th or directly afterwards? The answer lies in the two contrasting forces: Read more “Do Property Partner Dividends Affect Prices?” →