Lifetime ISAs guide

When transfering any type of ISA from a previous tax year (even if you are changing the type of ISA) any growth (interest, dividends, etc) that has occured within the ISA wrapper is not treated as a new contribution to the ISA.

Contribution limits apply for adding new money from your bank etc into an ISA wrapper. ISA transfers and growth are not contributions.

Basically this year you can put £4k in from you bank etc. This can go directly into the LISA or by transfering a HTB you have contributed to this year and then toping up the LISA to no more than £4k.

Alex

No problem - the 'when to deposit the money' question is a good one for Cash LISAs - but as we have a pair of S&S LISAs (saving for 60 and already making contributions to multiple pensions each month) then the return on the LISA contribution is roughly the same as having it invested elsewhere (except the total Nutmeg fees are 0.27% higher than our Vanguard ISA with a VLS fund) so we will continue to fill them near the start of the year to get the growth (or loss if we are unlucky) on the bonus as early as possible.

Nutmeg recently added a reassuring green tick next to the account valuation saying we will get the maximum £1000 bonus next year which is a nice touch as you could fool yourself to think it's already in there!

Also as Nutmeg is our only ETF based investment you can get a preview of how the days trading has affected the value of our OEIC units (with similar asset allocations) in pension and ISA wrappers before the result is known the next morning.

Hi all,

can a LISA with 4k be converted to an Help-to-buy this year and get a 25% bonus on top? I opened a LISA with Nutmeg online few months ago but I am not happy with it and I am considering to move into an help-to-buy but I am not sure if I can do it. Apparently, if I just close LISA and open an help-to-buy I cannot start with the maximum yearly contribution to get full bonus in April 2018.

Thanks
S

Hi all - I just want to double check I've understood this properly. I've just opened a Skipton cash Lifetime ISA with £1 balance. I'm just about to deposit a lump sum of £3,999, bringing my total balance at the max yearly allowance of £4,000.

1) By end of April 2018, that means an extra government bonus of £1,000 is going to be paid into my balance all at once, bringing it up to £5,000. Is that correct?

2) As soon as new tax year stars in May 2018, I may then make another lump sum of £4,000. Throughout the tax year 2018/2019 I will receive monthly bonuses (around £80ish a month), and by April 2019 I will have received total monthly bonus' that add up to exactly £1,000. Is that correct?

3) So sticking to that, by April 2019 my balance will be £10,000, which will be composed of 2 x £4,000 of my own cash, plus 2 x government bonuses of £1,000. Have I understood all of this correctly?

Given that I'm not looking to buy in the short term but plan to in the next 3 - 5 years, I would be totally mad not to take advantage of the lifetime ISA wouldn't I? I think the above sounds like a no brainer but I'm a bit tentative about fully doing it because of all the negative comment about them...