Multiple stocks and shares ISA same tax year

charlie76022

Hi - I realise the general advise online is you can only have one stocks and shares ISA per tax year, however, I phoned HMRC and then said you can have multiple so lost as you don’t go over £20,000 per year. I have already contributed towards a Hargreaves Lansdown ISA but also want to open a Freetrade ISA without closing my Hargreaves account. Is there any official government rules / documentation that state you can’t open more than one? 

Kind regards, 
Richard 

masonic

Either the person you spoke to at HMRC is wrong or you have misinterpreted what they have said. While you can open as many S&S ISAs as you like, you can only pay new money into one of them each tax year.

From the gov.uk website (https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts ):

"There are 4 types of ISA:

• cash ISAs
• stocks and shares ISAs
• innovative finance ISAs
• Lifetime ISAs

You can put money into one of each kind of ISA each tax year."

If you had not paid any money into your HL S&S ISA since 5th April then you could have opened and funded a Freetrade S&S ISA during this tax year. Since you have paid into your HL S&S ISA, you must wait until the 2021/22 tax year to pay into a S&S ISA with Freetrade.

charlie76022

Hi - that statement from the government’s ISA page only states you can pay into one type of ISA and that’s what I would be doing but with different providers. In all honesty it doesn’t make sense why you wouldn’t be allowed to do this. I get you have a limit and if you go over it then there are tax implications. The person I spoke to could have been mistaken but it was a clear question and clear answer: just don’t go over £20K. It’s maybe better for ISA providers to convince you that your entire allowance needs to be with them. 

dunstonh

Is there any official government rules / documentation that state you can’t open more than one? 

Like masonic says above, there appears to be confusion.  You can have multiple ISA types in the same tax year (e.g.  putting £5000 in a cash ISA, £4000 in a LISA and £11,000 in an S&S ISA).   However, you cannot contribute to multiple ISAs of the same type.  So, you cannot put money into an HL S&S ISA and Freetrade S&S ISA.

masonic

charlie76022 said:

Hi - that statement from the government’s ISA page only states you can pay into one type of ISA and that’s what I would be doing but with different providers. 

No it does not, it states "You can put money into one of each kind of ISA each tax year". That means you can put money into one cash ISA, one S&S ISA, one IF ISA and one LISA, but not two S&S ISAs.

eskbanker

charlie76022 said:

that statement from the government’s ISA page only states you can pay into one type of ISA

[...]

The person I spoke to could have been mistaken but it was a clear question and clear answer

If you misunderstood what "You can put money into one of each kind of ISA each tax year" means then you should consider the possibility that your dialogue with HMRC wasn't as clear as you thought it was....