SPLITs Followers' Thoughts for 2005

My main investment thoughts for 2005, (mostly tax avoidance):

Venture capital trusts:

Fantastic tax breaks for tax years 2004/2005 and 2005/2006.
For every £10K I invest, Gordon gives me £4K back.
I've already done £5K (each) in Northern 3, Baronsmead 2 and Eclipse and I'm probably going to do another £5K in Pennine 5 and £10K in Ventus

EIS investments (to shelter capital gains from Splits winding up this year)

I'll probably do a selection of the pub and nursery companies currently on offer, for every £10K I invest, Gordon will give me £2K back, and lend me another £4K.

Thinking ahead to 2006, I suspect I will exploit the new pension rules and put the whole salary (minus the £4K personal allowance) into the pension, this will then make me an ordinary rate tax payer, so no extra tax to pay on divis and only 20% capital gains tax.