Gilt Market
Frequently Asked Questions
Please find below a number of 'Frequently Asked Questions' and answers. If you have a query about your individual gilt holdings, or payments of dividends please contact the gilt Registrar, Computershare on 0370 703 0143 (a national rate number). Alternatively, should you have any further queries please contact the DMO switchboard on 020 7862 6500.
Personal debt advice
Individual gilt holdings
Tax rules for gilts (including ISAs)
Gilt market information and data
Index-linked gilt dividend fixings
Treasury bills
Scam, 'Phishing' and Fraudulent Activity
Contact details
Debt advice
I am in debt. Can you provide advice?
The UK Debt Management Office is responsible for the Government’s debt and does not provide personal debt advice. For advice on personal debt please contact either the National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 the StepChange Debt Charity on 0800 138 1111 or the Debt Advice Foundation on 0800 043 4050.
Individual gilt holdings
Who are Computershare?
Computershare Investor Services PLC is a private company responsible for maintaining the register of gilt holdings and the administration of the DMO’s Gilt Purchase and Sale Service.
I’ve lost my gilt certificates, what do I do?
please contact Computershare - details below
How do I inform you of a relative’s death?
please contact Computershare - details below
I’ve been granted probate, what do I do next?
please contact Computershare - details below
How can I find out whether I am entitled to any unclaimed gilt payments?
If you believe that you may be entitled to an unclaimed payment (e.g. in respect of a holding a redeemed undated stock), you should contact the gilt registrar Computershare Investor Services PLC (contact details available on their website) providing what information you have relating to the holding in question.
How can I transfer my holding into a relative’s name?
In all of the above cases please contact Computershare, the gilt registrar, responsible for individual holdings on 0370 703 0143 or see FAQ on the Computershare website.
Alternatively, you can contact Computershare by post at the address below:
British Government Stocks (Gilts)
Computershare Investor Services PLC
The Pavilions
Bristol
BS99 6ZW
What is my gilt worth?
Multiply the nominal amount (the figure on the certificate) by the latest available dirty price. Prices are produced and administered by FTSE-Tradeweb and are available without charge to the wider public for non-commercial use from 12.00 noon on the day following initial publication and can be accessed via Tradeweb’s Insite website.
Nominal x (dirty price/100) = current market value
How do I buy gilts?
Gilts can be purchased from the secondary market through a stockbroker, bank or via the DMO’s Purchase and Sale service.
If you wish to use the DMO’s Purchase and Sale service, must be a member of the Approved Group of investors. Further information about the Approved Group can be found here.
It is no longer possible to purchase gilts from the Bank of England, National Savings & Investments or through the Post Office.
Where can I find out more about the Gilt Purchase and Sale Service?
See the section on this website on Retail Purchase and Sale Service.
I am a member of the public, what should I read to learn more about gilts?
See the section on the website on 'About Gilts'
What is a prospectus? And where would I find copies of them?
A prospectus provides details of the terms under which a gilt is issued. They are usually published one week in advance of an auction, alongside the gilt auction announcement. They are available on this website in the Publications section.
Summary of taxation rules for gilts
What follows aims only to be a general introduction to the main taxation rules applying to gilts at the time of writing (November 2016) and the DMO accepts no liability for its content. The exact treatment applied in any particular case depends on the particular circumstances of each taxpayer. If in doubt, investors should seek professional advice.
UK individuals
- UK individual investors are taxable on interest receivable on gilts (including the interest uplift on index-linked gilts). Interest is normally payable gross, but investors may opt for net payment on application to the Gilts Registrar, Computershare Investor Services PLC (CIS).
- UK individual investors may be taxable on accrued interest on transfers of gilts.
- Individuals are not liable to capital gains tax on the disposal of gilts.
- Gains and losses accruing to UK individual investors on gilt strips are taxable on an annual basis.
UK corporates
- Interest and gains on gilts are generally taxable as income.
Overseas investors
- Overseas investors are in most cases exempt from any UK tax on gilts.
ISAs
- It is possible to hold gilts (conventional, index-linked or strips) in an ISA, in which case income and capital gains from investments held in ISAs are exempt from income tax and capital gains tax and should not be shown on tax returns. Should you wish to hold gilts in an ISA they will need to be purchased through an approved ISA manager.
Stamp duty
- No stamp duty or stamp duty reserve tax is payable on purchases or sales of gilts.
For further details on the taxation of gilts please see the main features of the taxation rules for gilts.
Gilt market information and data
When and how do you make gilt auction announcements?
See our events calendar for details of future announcements.
What is the ex-dividend period? Why does it exist?
Interest payments are payable to the person who is the registered holder of the gilt 7 business days before the coupon payment date.
It exists as the period of time necessary to allow the registrar, as paying agent, to make arrangements to ensure interest payments are received by the registered holder or their nominated recipient on the due date. This includes the preparation of the payments to be made electronically and the printing and dispatch of the warrants (which are posted in time for them to be received on the due date).
What happens if the interest payment falls on a weekend or bank holiday?
If an interest payment date falls on a weekend or bank holiday payments will normally be made on the next business day.
Where can I find the latest gilt prices?
End-of-day reference prices for gilts are produced and administered by FTSE-Tradeweb. They are available without charge to the wider public for non-commercial use from 12.00 noon on the day following initial publication and can be accessed via Tradeweb's Insite website. Commercial users of the prices should contact ECS@Tradeweb.com or 020 7776 3200 about access.
Historical reference prices produced by the DMO are available from 12 July 1996 to 21 July 2017 at: historical gilt prices and yields.
What are the interest/coupon/cash flows on index-linked gilts?
Coupon and redemption payments for all 3-month lag index-linked gilts and 2% Index-linked Treasury Stock 2035 are fixed by the DMO. The announcements giving details of the coupon and redemption payment fixings for these gilts appear in the gilt market press releases section of this website.
Cash flows on all other index-linked gilts (i.e. all 8-month lag index-linked gilts excluding 2% Index-linked Treasury Stock 2035) are fixed by the Bank of England and the announcements of these are published on the Bank of England's website.
For details of previous coupon and redemption payments see index-linked gilt cash flows.
How are my index-linked gilt payments affected by movements in the level of RPI?
Index-linked gilts, a form of real bond, are indexed to the Retail Price Index ("RPI"). When the RPI rises, the inflation uplift that applies to index-linked cash flows also rises. If the RPI should fall, the inflation uplift would also fall. An index-linked gilt will pay more than £100 at redemption if the RPI increases over the life of the gilt; conversely, it will pay less than £100 should the RPI fall over the life of the gilt. Similarly, if the RPI increases over the life of the gilt each coupon payment will be higher than the previous one; while if the RPI were to decrease, a coupon payment could be lower than the previous one. In this way, the returns to the investor from holding index-linked gilts are maintained in real terms - as measured by the RPI.
Why might the index ratios for three-month lag index-linked gilts be the same for every day of a particular month?
Index Ratios for three-month lag index-linked gilts are defined as the ratio of the reference RPI applicable to that date, divided by the reference RPI applicable to the original issue date of the particular index-linked gilt.
The reference RPI for the first calendar day of any calendar month is the RPI for the calendar month falling three months earlier (e.g. the reference RPI for 1 June is the March RPI, published in April). The reference RPI for any other day in the month is calculated by linear interpolation between this reference RPI for the first calendar day of the month, and the reference RPI applicable to the first calendar day of the month immediately following (e.g. the April RPI, published in May).
In the event that the RPI does not change from one month to the next, then Index ratios calculated using these RPI index values will be the same, because the reference RPI for the first calendar day of the calendar month is the same as the reference RPI applicable to the first calendar day of the month immediately following.
Treasury bills
I am a member of the public. Can I purchase Treasury bills?
Treasury bills are predominantly wholesale instruments with a minimum investment at our weekly tenders of £500,000. In order for a member of the public to purchase Treasury bills they would need to have a client relationship, either directly or through a stockbroker with one of the ‘Treasury Bill Primary Participants’ who are the major banks that usually bid at our weekly tenders. Any such arrangement would be a bilateral commercial agreement between the individual investor and the bank concerned and we cannot comment on the terms or charges that may be involved.
How are Treasury bills taxed?
Although Treasury bills have the same credit risk as gilts – they are sterling denominated unconditional obligations of the UK government – they are not classified as gilts for taxation purposes. Because of this they are covered by the taxation rules which apply to deeply discounted securities. In essence, these specify that if an instrument is issued at a discount of more than 0.5% of its redemption price, (multiplied by the period of a year represented by the maturity of the instrument) they are captured by the deep discount taxation regime. So any profit made by an individual as a result of buying this bill would be charged to income tax as income when realised (i.e. when the bill redeems or is sold on).
Scam, 'Phishing' and Fraudulent Activity
The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) is from time to time made aware of fraudulent e-mails, letters, telephone calls and other correspondence using known identities of the DMO. The DMO is a government agency and does not send correspondence or make telephone calls of this nature. If you receive correspondence of this type and have any reason to doubt its legitimacy, do not respond.
If you receive telephone calls or correspondence that purports to be from the DMO, CRND or the PWLB lending facility, and want to inform the DMO please do so via scamreporting@dmo.gov.uk. You may also wish to contact your telephone supplier.
The DMO does not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage arising from contact with such correspondence.
Contact details
Where can I find contact details for the DMO?
Please see our contact us page for full contact details.