ISA transfers

mbailey

OK, so in conclusion I think the information below is misleading and wrong:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa

You can have lots of ISAs, but only from different years

The golden rule is you can only open a cash ISA with one provider in a tax year, you can't split it. However you can hold lots of different cash ISAs from different years with different providers.

We are now saying you can have more than 1 cash ISA in a tax year if you close the previous ISA and transfer the whole amount to a new provider, you can still continue to contribute as long as it is within the annual allowance.

So for example the following would be allowed:

1st May 2011 - Open Natwest ISA and deposit £1000
1st Dec 2011 - Transfer Natwest ISA (£1000 + interest) to Santander ISA
1st Jan 2012 - Deposit £1000 into Santander ISA.

Total deposited for 2011/2012 tax year = £2000 (over 2 providers, but only 1 account active at a time.)

Looking on HMRC I found this which also implies this is ok:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/transfer-isa.htm

Lokolo

mbailey wrote: »

We are now saying you can have more than 1 cash ISA in a tax year if you close the previous ISA and transfer the whole amount to a new provider, you can still continue to contribute as long as it is within the annual allowance.

So for example the following would be allowed:

1st May 2011 - Open Natwest ISA and deposit £1000
1st Dec 2011 - Transfer Natwest ISA (£1000 + interest) to Santander ISA
1st Jan 2012 - Deposit £1000 into Santander ISA.

Total deposited for 2011/2012 tax year = £2000 (over 2 providers, but only 1 account active at a time.)

Looking on HMRC I found this which also implies this is ok:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/transfer-isa.htm

Yes that is correct.

andyjwill

I think I understand but can you just check this for me. I have subscribed (full amount) to an S&S Isa this year with Fidelity.

I have a cash ISA opened and funded 3 years ago that I wish to transfer to an S&S ISA. Can I open a new Halifax S&S Isa now and transfer the cash ISA in (It's a Halifax Cash ISA and I would use the transfer forms etc)?

Why do I want a Halifax S&S ISA - to buy individual shares so not interested in funds..

thandeh

Thanks to all who responded to my original email - ISA Transfers. The consensus seems to be that I can do what I wanted to do with my ISAs.

pqrdef

thandeh wrote: »

Thanks to all who responded to my original email - ISA Transfers. The consensus seems to be that I can do what I wanted to do with my ISAs.

We've no idea, on the information given. You can certainly do the transfer.

Whether you can also start a new one, depends. But it's not affected by doing the transfer. It sounds like you want to put new money into it, but you can only do that if you haven't put new money into one of the others in the current tax year.