Tell us you cash ISA questions

Malchester

eskbanker said:

mazurka1 said:

A quick double check: In a single tax year, can I both (a) transfer an existing ISA into a new ISA, AND (b) open a completely new ISA somewhere else (using my £20K allowance), or potentially even 2 new ISAs (one cash and one stocks & shares)? Thank you!  

Yes, you can pay new money into one ISA of each type, and transfers of prior year money don't affect this.

Technically incorrect. Some providers enable deposits into 2 or more cash ISAs in the same year if it is a portfolio ISA. I am looking at Aldermore who allow deposits into any number of their ISAs in the same tax year. 

isasmurf

Malchester said:

eskbanker said:

mazurka1 said:

A quick double check: In a single tax year, can I both (a) transfer an existing ISA into a new ISA, AND (b) open a completely new ISA somewhere else (using my £20K allowance), or potentially even 2 new ISAs (one cash and one stocks & shares)? Thank you!  

Yes, you can pay new money into one ISA of each type, and transfers of prior year money don't affect this.

Technically incorrect. Some providers enable deposits into 2 or more cash ISAs in the same year if it is a portfolio ISA. I am looking at Aldermore who allow deposits into any number of their ISAs in the same tax year. 

It is still a single cash ISA. It just contains more than 1 account. An ISA is a tax wrapper where the money within it can be held in 1 or more accounts with the same manager (where that manager is set up to allow it) . The accounts are a means to hold money in the tax wrapper. 

refluxer

Trytobepositive said:

If my husband and I have each reinvested maturing fixed term cash ISAs into new fixed term cash ISAs with the same provider, can we each open new cash ISAs with a different provider this tax year? 

I think the answer is yes but I don’t want to start the process and then find out we have done the wrong thing.

If you haven't paid any 'new money' (money from your £20k 2022-2023 tax year ISA allowance) into a Cash ISA this tax year (since 6th April), then yes - you are free to open a new Cash ISA (with any provider you like) and pay money from your 2022-2023 allowance into it.

polka.dot

Here is a rather complicated query:

I moved my ISA account from Virgin to Paragon recently. Both were flexible ISA accounts

It was a previous years' ISA, to which I added £1500 this tax year, when the account was still with Virgin.

After moving the account to Paragon, I made a withdrawal of £6500.

I have these questions:

1. Am I right in thinking that I am still able to add the full £20,000 to my account in this tax year, given the ISAs are flexible? 

2. If so, can I consider the current balance in my ISA account as solely a previous years' contributions (having withdrawn this year more than I have added)?

3.  Am I allowed therefore to transfer the balance to a fixed ISA account and start a separate account for this year's contributions?

masonic

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Potentially, although the transferred ISA still may be flagged as containing current year subscriptions (though zero net subscriptions). It would be better to replace subscriptions and then do 2 x partial transfers to separate previous and current year money.

GrapplingHook

Most ISA providers with online access include a display of your currently-unused ISA allowance.  But is this only in relation to ISAs held with provider, or is it a global figure from information held by HMRC?  If it only relates to the single provider, there is a risk of not checking all possible sources, and thus accidentally over-subscribing.  I know that HMRC says it can catch over-subscribing on a given NINO, so they must have reports from the providers.

I imagine this could be answered by someone with experience of the admin procedure by which each provider reports to HMRC.  Perhaps they report at the end of the tax year rather than in real time.

[If there's already an answer in this forum I cannot find it - might be good to provide search within a thread.]

eskbanker

GrapplingHook said:

Most ISA providers with online access include a display of your currently-unused ISA allowance.  But is this only in relation to ISAs held with provider, or is it a global figure from information held by HMRC?  If it only relates to the single provider, there is a risk of not checking all possible sources, and thus accidentally over-subscribing.  I know that HMRC says it can catch over-subscribing on a given NINO, so they must have reports from the providers.

I imagine this could be answered by someone with experience of the admin procedure by which each provider reports to HMRC.  Perhaps they report at the end of the tax year rather than in real time.

[If there's already an answer in this forum I cannot find it - might be good to provide search within a thread.]

The information will only be based on the information held by that provider, rather than involving any lookup to centralised HMRC data - as you say, providers only report to HMRC after the end of the tax year, so there's no live running total available anyway.

It's the individual who's responsible for ensuring that they don't breach ISA rules, but HMRC may take action when they find out about it after the event....

Gollum

Please could someone tell me what is the difference between an ISA and an eISA? Thank you

masonic

Gollum said:

Please could someone tell me what is the difference between an ISA and an eISA? Thank you

An ISA is an account that has special tax-free status conferred on it by HMRC. An eISA is a marketing term usually referring to an ISA that can (or must) be operated online.

hairydog

OK, it's less than a fortnight before the end of the tax year, and the BOE put base rate up 0.25% today.

I'd quite like to get a cash ISA this tax year, but it seems to make sense to hang on to see if the interest rates rise.

How long is it safe to leave it?