Transfer Stocks & Shares ISA to Help to Buy ISA?

hennerz · 25 July 2016 at 3:50PM

Hello all,

I have committed my full ISA allowance for 2016/17 into a stocks and shares ISA on an investment platform.

Is it possible to transfer £1,200 of this into a HTB ISA and then £200 each month thereafter until the next tax year, when I will just put (ISA allowance - 12*200) into my S&S ISA?

The ISA is with Fidelity (via Cavendish) currently fwiw.

Thanks.

masonic · 25 July 2016 at 6:47PM

You can do this if your S&S ISA provider allows partial transfers - quite a few don't, and I imagine even some of those that do would object to receiving a £200 transfer request each month.

If not, you would have to transfer the lot to a cash ISA, then partially transfer the excess back to S&S. Edit: this is not possible - see below.

jimjames · 25 July 2016 at 7:48PM

Just noticed the bit that says it's this years allowance. You therefore can't do it as drip feeding, you can only transfer the whole allowance in one go as current year ISA cannot be split. Might be better to wait till April and start a new one.

masonic · 25 July 2016 at 8:01PM

jimjames wrote: »

Just noticed the bit that says it's this years allowance. You therefore can't do it as drip feeding, you can only transfer the whole allowance in one go as current year ISA cannot be split. Might be better to wait till April and start a new one.

I don't think this is true of S&S ISA to cash ISA or cash ISA to S&S ISA since after the transfer you are treated as not having subscribed the money to the other type of ISA.

Correction: current year subscriptions must still be transferred in full according to 11.12a of the guidance notes, so jimjames is correct.

jimjames · 25 July 2016 at 8:05PM

masonic wrote: »

I don't think this is true of S&S ISA to cash ISA or cash ISA to S&S ISA since after the transfer you are treated as not having subscribed the money to the other type of ISA.

I see what you mean, but the initial transfer has to be complete so you couldn't move part of current years money from the S&S ISA as far as I'm aware.
https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/transferring-your-isa
If you want to transfer money you’ve invested in an ISA this current year, you must transfer all of it.

masonic · 25 July 2016 at 8:06PM

jimjames wrote: »

I see what you mean, but the initial transfer has to be complete so you couldn't move part from the S&S ISA as far as I'm aware.

Yes agreed. Your post crossed with my correction.

hennerz · 25 July 2016 at 8:40PM

Thanks.

I just wanted to get as much as I could into the Help To Buy ISA, so that I could transfer it across to the Lifetime ISA come April '17.

It's only 2600*0.25 that I will miss out on.

hennerz · 27 July 2016 at 9:46AM

jimjames wrote: »

Just noticed the bit that says it's this years allowance. You therefore can't do it as drip feeding, you can only transfer the whole allowance in one go as current year ISA cannot be split. Might be better to wait till April and start a new one.

I just had a thought...

To fund a Help To Buy ISA, could I move some of last year's ISA allowance into this account?

I have spoken with iWeb and they allow partial transfers of ISA accounts. (Fidelity replied via secure message saying they do not fwiw).

According to Halifax I can do this:

Can I transfer into a Help to Buy: ISA?
Yes you can.
If you are transferring from another Help to Buy: ISA, the full funds in that ISA must be transferred into us. Remember you are only allowed to have one Help to Buy: ISA.

If you are transferring from another ISA, the transfer request must be made within 21 days of opening your Help to Buy: ISA account, and can only be used to fund part or all of your initial deposit up to £1,000. Your current year’s subscriptions must be transferred in full as you are only allowed to fund one cash ISA per tax year.

Do I have to move all the money in my ISA?
No, unless you are transferring current tax year ISA savings. Apart from this it’s up to you – you can transfer as much as you like from previous tax years. You could, for example, transfer your savings from the year before to the new cash ISA and leave your current tax year savings where they are.

Does the bolded part mean that I can only fund the initial £1k with a transfer of old ISA money? The £200 each month must be added from this year's allowance (which I have used up).

I know Halifax require the £200 payments to be sent via Standing Order so I cannot transfer these in with them from an old ISA, but might anyone else allow it? Or is it deemed to be against the rules?

masonic · 27 July 2016 at 6:06PM

Halifax is very restrictive - both in not allowing you to pay in a lump sum of £1,200 during the first month and requiring monthly payments to be by standing order. These are not restrictions imposed by HMRC.

I believe other providers do allow the monthly deposits to be made by transfer from another ISA, which would necessarily be past years allowance.

MARTYM8` · 27 July 2016 at 6:56PM

Do you have any prior year cash isas.

Nationwide - and potentially others - will allow you to fund your initial lump sum and monthly payments via ISA transfers albeit its a lot easier if you have an NW cash isa.

Given Halifax now only pay 0.5% more than NW it may be worth it so you can start the HTB isa this year and build up your balance quicker for the bonus when you decide to buy.

Westie983 · 14 August 2016 at 2:37AM

yes you could use a previous tax allowance to fund your opening deposit but the remaining £200 a month ongoing will be new money subscriptions and you don't have any available left as you have put all of your allowance into the S&S.

You would only be able to find the H2B with maximum of 1k, and the rate has dropped on this account so I wouldn't think it would be worth the transfer form being completed.

Transfer Stocks & Shares ISA to Help to Buy ISA?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free