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Sell low, buy high?

The state of the Stock Market has led many people to take their money and look for a better place to keep it. Of course, the problem with doing this is that it crystallises your losses - you might be missing out on the 'bounce'. Or you might be avoiding falling off the precipice. You can't tell.

If your Stock Market investments are in PEPs and ISAs, cashing them in would have the sad result that you would crystallise losses that are exempt from CGT (so you get no relief, just as you pay no tax on gains in a PEP or ISA). You would then be reinvesting in something else that would be potentially chargeable to CGT, if you make gains. Once you take money out of a PEP or ISA, you can't put it back in again - at least, not more than the normal annual contribution limit of £7,000 into ISAs (and nothing, now, into PEPs).

If you want to get out of the Stock Market and put your money into cash deposits, it may be possible to move your funds within the PEP or ISA, rather than taking them out. That way, you could go back into equities later, still enjoying the CGT exemption. Whether you can do this depends on the manager and the amounts involved, but it's worth considering rather than just taking the money and running.