Transferring HTB-ISA into L-ISA. Bonusses!

leongonline

Hey Guys,

First time forum user here...

I was wondering if anyone could help me by shedding some light on a post I read on this site...

"Transfer a Help to Buy ISA into a LISA by 6 April 2018 and you get the bonus on ALL of it. If you transfer your Help to Buy ISA into a LISA, you'll get the bonus on that, as well as your LISA savings. The bonus will be added a few weeks after the end of the 2017/18 tax year (so around the start of May 2018). Money transferred in after that doesn’t get the extra bonus."

The actual post can be found about half way down the page here:
moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-ISA

Basically, I'm just curious what they mean by still getting your Bonus from the HTB-ISA. Is this the 25pc government contribution? Meaning that you would have 25pc of whatever was in your HTB-ISA added to your L-ISA, even before buying a house? I'm assuming not, but from how the post is written I'm not sure what else they might mean.

If anyone has any ideas or experience I'd be really grateful to hear your thoughts.

Thanks so much guys

eskbanker

leongonline wrote: »

Basically, I'm just curious what they mean by still getting your Bonus from the HTB-ISA. Is this the 25pc government contribution? Meaning that you would have 25pc of whatever was in your HTB-ISA added to your L-ISA, even before buying a house? I'm assuming not, but from how the post is written I'm not sure what else they might mean.

Yes, anything paid into a LISA, including a transfer from an HTB during 2017/18, receives the 25% government bonus. Unlike the HTB scheme the bonus payment isn't aligned with taking the money out but with putting it in (albeit delayed this year), but once in the LISA you'd have to reimburse the bonus (and a bit more) if you used the money for something other than a first-time property purchase.