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MSE NEWS: Junior Isa limit to be £3,600

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This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:
"New regulations have today been laid down in Parliament for the accounts that begin in November ..."
"New regulations have today been laid down in Parliament for the accounts that begin in November ..."
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My 16 year old son is looking for somewhere to put some money and had settled on the santander ISA at 2.8% above bank rate for a year, (so 3.3% interset).
Is that the best option for him or is he even allowed to? If he is then what is the point of a junior ISA
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Lets hope they allow the CTFs to be transfered to Junior Isa's too. Hopefully a far better rate of return!
No he is going in to 6th form and no job
Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.
The limits apply to money PUT IN per tax year and so with investment gains it can go well above the investment limit and it does not matter.
So £3,600 (the limit per year) can rise to £36,000 or £360,000 and it is not affected. It is all shielded in the ISA.
The same applies if your £3,600 is invested in something that falls. So £3,600 can go down to nothing but the limit has been used. Of course that means that you cannot then "top up" again as the £3,600 goes on the money initially put in even if it then turns out to be invested in something worthless.
I am being glib - I know that most families will try to do best by their kids and put a bit aside for their future, but realistically it won't be anything like this much. Still, it does get around the issue of children being taxed when the income on their accounts exceeds £100/year (assuming all their savings are locked up in an ISA).
Anyone know of any good kid savings accounts? Looks like for the time being, I will have to open one of those instead!
1. The money is locked in until 18. Therefore it can't be used to support the child up to that age.
2. The child can do as they wish with the balance and the parents have no control.
I guess you need to weigh up wether it's worth sacrificing the tax free element for some control. In reality, it's only the income tax that's an issue here (parental gifts which yield over 200. in income per year - 100. per parent). The way I look at this is if I decided to invest in growth OEICs which yield little or no income (which is probably what i'd look to invest in within the ISA wrapper anyway), then it's very unlikely the child would exceed the CGT limit, and even then you could realise a gain for a given year if required.