Help to Buy ISA and Stocks and shares ISA

roberto

Hello,

I have maxed out my stocks and shares isa allowance for the year. Am I still able to save into a help to buy isa?

Many thanks in advance.

Robert

masonic

Only from next April.

colsten

Your total ISA allowance for the year is £15,240. If you have used all of it, you cannot deposit any more into any ISA this year.

You could, however, request an ISA transfer for up to £1,200 from your S&S ISA to a new HTB ISA. You'd have to make the cash available in the S&S ISA, and find an HTB ISA provider who comprehends S&S to cash ISA transfers. Might be easier to just wait with the opening of your HTB ISA (make sure you actually qualify for one).

masonic

colsten wrote: »

You'd have to make the cash available in the S&S ISA, and find an HTB ISA provider who comprehends S&S to cash ISA transfers.

Not to mention hoping your S&S ISA provider comprehends S&S to cash ISA transfers and allows partial transfers. But I suppose if the OP happens to have any old cash ISAs lying around, that might be the better option for transfer?

jimjames

colsten wrote: »

Your total ISA allowance for the year is £15,240. If you have used all of it, you cannot deposit any more into any ISA this year.

You could, however, request an ISA transfer for up to £1,200 from your S&S ISA to a new HTB ISA. You'd have to make the cash available in the S&S ISA, and find an HTB ISA provider who comprehends S&S to cash ISA transfers. Might be easier to just wait with the opening of your HTB ISA (make sure you actually qualify for one).

Would that work? I thought all current year subscriptions had to transfer completely and no partial transfers were permitted? If HTB is a current year product I'm assuming that you can't transfer previous years into it.

colsten

jimjames wrote: »

Would that work? I thought all current year subscriptions had to transfer completely and no partial transfers were permitted? If HTB is a current year product I'm assuming that you can't transfer previous years into it.

Good point about needing to keep current year's deposit together. I had forgotten that detail

It would only work if your current year's deposits were less than £1,200.01 or if you have not made any deposits this year at all (and if your providers do partial transfers - - the reputable ones do).

Partial transfers of prior year deposits are definitely allowed.

Bottom line, as I said, it might be easier to just wait for the new tax year.

Aside from that - - - how many prospective FTBs have got S&S ISAs? We can probably count them on just one of our hands............

roberto

Thanks for the replies one and all,

I'd like to think of myself as knowledgeable when it comes to savings and investments, so my first assumption would be that (as you stated Colsten) £15240 is the maximum that can be squirrelled away tax-free each year across all forms of ISA savings.

However, I'm wondering whether this is in affect a loop-hole. I'm aware that the maximum you can hold in a cash ISA/S&S ISA or any split of the two is £15240 for this current tax year. However, by the nature that you can't hold a cash ISA and a HTB ISA for the same tax year, does it place the HTB ISA in a slightly different category. I haven't seen any mention of the HTB ISA being subject to the 'normal' £15240 max when combined with a S&S ISA. Could this be because (as you pointed out Colsten) not very many FTBs will have a S&S ISAs, let alone one at the limit.

So can I ask whether your responses are based on 'common-sense' understanding of the ISA allowance based on previous arrangements (i.e. the same as I initially assumed), or based on a detailed understanding of the legalese?

I realise I'm in a fairly privileged position compared to a lot of FTBs and as such fairly low down the priorities list when it comes to financial assistance, but I thought it's worth asking the question.

Thanks

Robert

jimjames

There's no loophole. The total for ISAs is £15240 and you can split that across cash, Htb or S&S variants.

You can hold Htb and cash ISAs in the same year with certain providers but I don't know why you'd want to.