Opening and closing ISA's in one tax year 23 January at 3:16PM in ISAs & tax-free savings 4 replies 141 views

Dreamer931

Hello, I was new to the concept of an ISA this year and opened a S&S ISA. I moved my £20k allowance into it, but then realised there was a huge restriction on which stocks I could buy on this particular platform, so I took my money out again and closed the account. I now see I should have done an ISA swap and not directly closed the account, oops, but I have two questions about my situation;
1) is it possible for me to open a cash ISA this year now?
2) have I used up my ISA allowance for this year?

I appreciate any insight anyone has to this.

eskbanker

Was the S&S ISA a flexible one?  If so, then you're in luck, but if not, then you'll need to wait until 6 April to fund another one....

TiVo_Lad

If I remember correctly, the money's got to go back into the same ISA to take advantage of ISA flexibility. If it's been closed then I'm not sure that would meet the criteria?

eskbanker

TiVo_Lad said:

If I remember correctly, the money's got to go back into the same ISA to take advantage of ISA flexibility.

No, the managers' guidance section about flexible ISAs clarifies:

Withdrawals of current year subscriptions, can effectively be replaced in any current year ISA, but cannot breach the ‘one ISA of each type per tax year’ rule.

so current year money withdrawn from a flexible S&S ISA, even if subsequently closed, can be deposited into a cash ISA.

Dreamer931

So the key is whether it was a flexible S&S ISA. I will have to find out.

Thank you so much for helping to clarify this for me!! Really appreciate it!