Are ISA's under threat from Govt austerity measures?

nicknameless

innovate wrote: »

How about you set up a new thread somewhere, and post a link to it here, to discuss the 'indigenous population' of the British Isles?

Probably won't happen as instead of my grammar sapphire would need to correct his or her knowledge and interpretation of recent and ancient British history and how that makes the loaded use of the term 'indigenous' in the context it was employed (pun intended) so utterly nonsensical.

However it's been deleted now so as not to derail the thread. Everything's fine other than my grammar.

Nicknameless (non-indigenous tax payer of a long line of non-indigenous tax payers)

nicknameless

BTW no (attempt to get back on topic )

apt

Like a previous poster I can see the sense in imposing an upper limit on total cash ISA savings. I've used cash ISAs and the Tessa before that to the maximum and now have a six figure sum free of tax. I really don't need any further tax benefit to save. If there is not a total limit on cash ISA holdings they will become yet another example of the savvy rich paying less tax than many on lower incomes.

dunstonh

apt wrote: »

Like a previous poster I can see the sense in imposing an upper limit on total cash ISA savings. I've used cash ISAs and the Tessa before that to the maximum and now have a six figure sum free of tax. I really don't need any further tax benefit to save. If there is not a total limit on cash ISA holdings they will become yet another example of the savvy rich paying less tax than many on lower incomes.

I see there being little sense imposing an upper limit at this time. It would require a whole load of administration introduced and cost to HMRC and would achieve very little. Probably a lot less than it would cost HMRC in administration. There are too few people with large enough amounts to make it worthwhile.

You may think 6 digits in an ISA is a large amount but when you compare it to other tax incentivised options then it is not. VCTs, EIS, offshore bonds (not tax free but used to defer tax and people pour millions in to those), trust based investments (again typically used for higher investment amounts). So, why pick on ISA when there are larger tax efficient options where larger amounts are typically used by a smaller number of people who are typically more wealthy.

pqrdef

Well the amount of money stashed away in ISAs grows every year and won't stabilise for decades. 30 years from now there'll be 65-year-olds who've got 40 years' worth of ISAs.

Somebody at the Treasury is bound to be thinking they can't afford it.

kidmugsy

pqrdef wrote: »

Well the amount of money stashed away in ISAs grows every year and won't stabilise for decades. 30 years from now there'll be 65-year-olds who've got 40 years' worth of ISAs.

Somebody at the Treasury is bound to be thinking they can't afford it.

When those folk realise that their ISA money is going to be exposed to Inheritance Tax at 40% they may spontaneously start to withdraw it anyway. Whether the Treasury has the patience to wait for that, heaven knows.