Transferring Stocks and Shares ISA into a Lifetime ISA

alexandros107

Hi everyone,

This might be a silly question but i'm relatively new to the world of ISAs...
I'm planning to buy my first house with my partner in the near future and i'm looking into benefiting from a Lifetime ISA. It will be my first Lifetime ISA that i'd be opening but i do have a Stocks and Shares ISA that i have previously opened. 

Previous Year - Maxed out my £20K ISA contribution by opening my first Stocks and Shares ISA.
Current Year - Maxed out my £20K ISA contribution by funding my Stocks and Shares ISA.

My question is - 
Am i allowed to open a Lifetime ISA in the current year if i've already maxed out my ISA contribution for the year in a Stocks and Shares ISA? In other words, can i transfer £4K from my current year total ISA allowance from a S&S ISA into a LISA?

Thanks for the help.

xnoxxnox

You can open LISA account.

If your current year Stock & Share ISA is flexible, you can withdraw 4k from it, and contribute 4k to LISA. (E.g. Vanguard)

If your current year Stock&Share ISA is inflexible (e.g. HL), you cannot transfer part of it into LISA, as current year subscriptions must be transferred in full and 20k is more than 4k LISA limit.

You can do previous years Stock&Share ISA partial transfer and transfer 4k of prior year money into LISA, and it will collect bonus 1k.

Alexland

If you are buying "in the near future" be aware you will need to wait 12 months after the initial LISA contribution (or when the ISA transfer happens) before your solicitor can make a penalty free withdrawal towards your first time property purchase.

Also in addition to checking if your S&S ISA is flexible for current tax year contributions it's also worth checking if they allow partial transfers-out for previous tax year contributions.

Finally if you are using S&S ISAs to hold your property deposit be aware that investment is only suitable for periods of at least 5 years to minimise the chance you withdraw less than you had contributed.