MSE News: New Isa year under way – act now for tax-free savings

Former_MSE_Helen

"Savers looking to put cash into a new Isa should do so quickly, as some of the best buys have already been pulled..."

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New Isa year under way – act now for tax-free savings



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innovate

although you can only open one each tax year to deposit new money in.

This is probably not meant to say what it says. As has been discussed on the forums countless times, and as supported by the HMRC website, you can open as many ISAs as you like each year.

You can also deposit into more than one cash ISA a year provided you have previously transferred (using the formal transfer process) your entire cash ISA deposit for the year.

Sad to see official MSE articles that help to confuse the issue.

DragonQ

I think the simplest way to put it is "all of your current year's subscriptions (deposits) must together be in one place".

Pincher

Alternatively,

Why not invest in the Italian Savings Account.
Italian Bonds are yielding around 4.8%.

Now that the Russians are pulling their money out of Cyprus,
it's time to create the Irish Savings Account. "We'll do a lovely job looking arfter your money, to be sure. to be sure."

innovate

Pincher wrote: »

Alternatively,

Why not invest in the Italian Savings Account.
Italian Bonds are yielding around 4.8%.

Now that the Russians are pulling their money out of Cyprus,
it's time to create the Irish Savings Account. "We'll do a lovely job looking arfter your money, to be sure. to be sure."

Are you well?

Consumerist

innovate wrote: »

. . . You can also deposit into more than one cash ISA a year provided you have previously transferred (using the formal transfer process) your entire cash ISA deposit for the year. . .

You can deposit into only one ISA in any tax year but that ISA may be transferred between different ISA accounts.

I think it's just a question of terminology; there being a distinction between the ISA and the account which holds it at any given time.

david78

To be fair to the MSE team, it does say "deposit new money" and I think the meaning is clear enough. To say, "deposit money from outside a Cash ISA (not a Cash ISA transfer)" would be more precice but a bit verbose.

innovate

Consumerist wrote: »

You can deposit into only one ISA in any tax year but that ISA may be transferred between different ISA accounts.

david78 wrote: »

To be fair to the MSE team, it does say "deposit new money" and I think the meaning is clear enough. To say, "deposit money from outside a Cash ISA (not a Cash ISA transfer)" would be more precice but a bit verbose.

david78, I think you have not understood the [cash] ISA rules. Not surprising, given even MSE articles are not clear on the rules.

The MSE article says you can "only open one to deposit new money in". As I said, they probably don't mean what they say but if taken at face value, this is just a plain wrong statement.

Fact is that you can open any number of ISAs in a tax year to deposit new money into.

For starters, you can open two totally separate ones anyway - - - a cash and an S&S ISA. But that's just a by-the-by, since the main MSE site basically ignores S&S ISAs because they are investments and MSE doesn't cover investments. But just alone on that point, the statement in the MSE article is wrong.

Secondly, and more relevant to cash ISAs, which MSE is really talking about only: you can open just about as many ISAs a year as there are providers, and deposit into as many cash ISAs a year as you like - - - - provided that you have previously transferred (using the formal transfer process) your entire cash ISA deposit for the year into the ISA into which you want to next make a new deposit.

If MSE mean that you have a single cash ISA a year which you can move around ISA providers by means of an official transfer, they should say so.

david78

I know you can open as many Cash ISAs as you like each year. There are even situations where you can add new money to different Cash ISA accounts in the same year (where the ISA manager "pools" the accounts).

Also you can open and fully fund a Cash ISA, transfer it to Stocks and Shares ISA, and then open and fully fund another Cash ISA (with another provider if you like), all in the same year.

If you transfer a Cash ISA account for a current year (all of it must go) and there is unused allowance, you can pay into the new account up to the allowance limit. But it isn't technically a different Cash ISA, just a different account.

innovate

david78 wrote: »

IThere are even situations where you can add new money to different Cash ISA accounts in the same year (where the ISA manager "pools" the accounts).

EDIT: Ah, you edited your original response whilst I was posting my response to your original response. My following still responds to your original response.

You are right that you can add new money into different cash ISAs in the same year where the ISA manager pools the accounts (like Nationwide do).

However, you do not need an ISA manager who pools the accounts in order to put new money into different cash ISAs in the same tax year.

You can get any new ISA manager to transfer your entire (emphasis on entire) existing current year ISA, and then continue to put new money into the ISA with that new ISA manager. (There are even further possibilities to deal with exceptional situations but this thread is not the place to begin to go into them.)

It's a very simple concept to understand but made incredibly confusing by people and MSE articles claiming, may be inadvertently, that it isn't possible.

david78

innovate wrote: »

However, you do not need an ISA manager who pools the accounts in order to put new money into different cash ISAs in the same tax year.

You can get any new ISA manager to transfer your entire (emphasis on entire) existing current year ISA, and then continue to put new money into the ISA with that new ISA manager. (There are even further possibilities to deal with exceptional situations but this thread is not the place to begin to go into them.)

I agree with you