Help to Buy ISA - tax efficient transfer options
chrish_1283
Posts: 2 Newbie
Hi,
I opened a Help to Buy ISA when they were released, and I've been paying £200 a month into it every month up until now, and I've got nearly £5500 it it now. As I've given up trying to buy a house in the UK the account no longer suits me, I'd rather have a standard cash ISA with the £20k limit.
Is it possible to transfer it to a normal cash ISA, without withdrawing the cash and losing the tax advantages? I asked in the Halifax, where I hold the ISA, I was told that my only option was to stop paying into it at the end of this tax year and then open a cash ISA next financial year (with the Help to Buy ISA remaining open but nothing going into it). I've spent some time reading the ~360 page ISA rules from HMRC, but didn't find anything very helpful.
(I'm a higher rate tax payer and I've already exhausted all of the decent rate current accounts and regular savers, so ISA is the way forward. I don't think a Lifetime ISA will suit me.).
Many thanks.
I opened a Help to Buy ISA when they were released, and I've been paying £200 a month into it every month up until now, and I've got nearly £5500 it it now. As I've given up trying to buy a house in the UK the account no longer suits me, I'd rather have a standard cash ISA with the £20k limit.
Is it possible to transfer it to a normal cash ISA, without withdrawing the cash and losing the tax advantages? I asked in the Halifax, where I hold the ISA, I was told that my only option was to stop paying into it at the end of this tax year and then open a cash ISA next financial year (with the Help to Buy ISA remaining open but nothing going into it). I've spent some time reading the ~360 page ISA rules from HMRC, but didn't find anything very helpful.
(I'm a higher rate tax payer and I've already exhausted all of the decent rate current accounts and regular savers, so ISA is the way forward. I don't think a Lifetime ISA will suit me.).
Many thanks.
0
Comments
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The Halifax H2B ISA pays 3.5%. No other ISA currently available today pays anywhere near that and I doubt that will change in the near future. Personally I'd hang onto it for the interest rate alone. It's easy access after all.
That being said, I've found this:
https://www.helptobuyisaadmin.org.uk/sites/default/files/scheme-rules.pdf and see section 6.7 sub-section B. This suggests to me you just do a normal transfer as you would any other ISA but obviously you'd forego the H2B bonus.0 -
I agree keep the money in the HTB wrapper to get the best tax free wrapper cash rates. You never know you might get a chance to use it to buy a house in future if your circumstances change.
Alternatively you could look to move it to a LISA to get the government bonuses towards a house (again if your circumstances change however the Skipton cash rate is low) or to withdraw at 60 (in which case something like a Nutmeg stocks and shares investment for the long term).0
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