Can I deposit money into last years S&S ISA?

drunknmunky

Hi all,

As the title suggests, if I opened an S&S ISA in 2009/2010 and didn't use it up, can I still add more into it now, or is that once that particular tax year ends, I can no longer add to that years ISA?

Thanks in advance.

Lokolo

You can do that yes. As long as you haven't deposited any money this tax year into a S&S ISA.

blueberrypie

You can add to it, but whatever you add counts as the current year's allowance - so the usual rules apply: one S&S ISA per tax year, maximum deposits within one tax year, etc.

bigfreddiel

drunknmunky wrote: »

Hi all,

As the title suggests, if I opened an S&S ISA in 2009/2010 and didn't use it up, can I still add more into it now, or is that once that particular tax year ends, I can no longer add to that years ISA?

Thanks in advance.

all the previous answers are wrong - you cannot add anything to a 2009/10 ISA.

You have a few days left to add to your 2010/2011 ISA and come 6th April you can add to your 2011/12 ISA - so there you have it.

fj

dtsazza

To clarify where the confusion comes from:

You can add funds to an ISA account that was opened in a previous year. You aren't required to create a separate account to hold each year's contributions.

HOWEVER, once the year has passed the previous year's contribution allowance is gone, with no way to get it back. Therefore, you can't add more than £10,200 this year, regardless of what you did in previous years.

So depending on exactly what you meant by "adding to last year's ISA", the correct answer could well be either "yes" or "no". Hopefully the above covers both issues.

Lokolo

bigfreddiel wrote: »

all the previous answers are wrong - you cannot add anything to a 2009/10 ISA.

You have a few days left to add to your 2010/2011 ISA and come 6th April you can add to your 2011/12 ISA - so there you have it.

fj

If you really want to be pedantic, the part in bold is completely wrong.

bigfreddiel

Lokolo wrote: »

If you really want to be pedantic, the part in bold is completely wrong.

actually the part in bold is completely correct - now let me see which year are we in - oh yes its 2011 - now I do believe the ISA period 2009/10 ended almost 12 months ago when it as 2010 - unless of course you live in the past!

fj

Lokolo

bigfreddiel wrote: »

actually the part in bold is completely correct - now let me see which year are we in - oh yes its 2011 - now I do believe the ISA period 2009/10 ended almost 12 months ago when it as 2010 - unless of course you live in the past!

fj

But you can add to previous year ISAs, making them active for this year.

Mikeyorks

bigfreddiel wrote: »

actually the part in bold is completely correct -

It's totally incorrect.

There's no such thing as an '09/10 ISA'. You have a current year ISA and previous year ISA(s). Once past the end of the current tax year they just merge into being previous year ISAs.

If they still accept funds - as Lokolo correctly says - you can add money to a previous year ISA and thereby make it your current year ISA.

jimjames

Lokolo wrote: »

You can do that yes. As long as you haven't deposited any money this tax year into a S&S ISA.

Its not strictly true as pointed out by bigfreddiel. Making sweeping statements without clarifying them will only cause confusion. You cannot add more money to top up an unused ISA allowance from a previous tax year!

drunknmunky wrote: »

if I opened an S&S ISA in 2009/2010 and didn't use it up, can I still add more into it now, or is that once that particular tax year ends, I can no longer add to that years ISA?

The OP appears to be asking if he can use his 2009/10 allowance after the end of the tax year by putting money into the account which you cannot do. At the end of a tax year the ISA allowance for that year is lost if you have not used it.

You have a £10,200 allowance for 2010/11 tax year and can invest with an ISA provider. For example if you only invest £7200 by 5 April 2011 then the £3000 additional allowance is lost and cannot be used.

As of 6 April 2011 you can then either open another ISA with a different company or add more money to the ISA already opened for the 2010/11 tax but using your 2011/12 allowance. This is an new ISA for the 2011/12 tax year and has a new allowance of £10680 (increased by inflation) which is completely separate to the ISA allowance for the previous year even if the ISA is held with the same company.

As mentioned by Mikeyorks, some companies merge ISA together for previous tax years. Others keep them separate and show each years investments separately on the annual statement in the form of ISA 2005/6, ISA 2006/7 etc. I think it helps people to understand the ISA rules detailing it in this manner.

Lokolo

jimjames wrote: »

Its not strictly true as pointed out by bigfreddiel. Making sweeping statements without clarifying them will only cause confusion. You cannot add more money to top up an unused ISA allowance from a previous tax year!

I didn't read the question like this, hence my stand.

If the OP was confused it was later clarified by dtasazza so I didn't feel as though I needed to point it out.

For freddiel to then say my statement was completely wrong, it wasn't. You can use a previous ISA for this year and deposit money into it if you haven't had an ISA this year. I have never mentioned that you can use your previous year allowance for topping up old ISAs. In hindsight I would have if I read the question differently, however, as said before, dzatazza explained the situation so I don't feel as though I need to repeat what he has said.