Virgin ISA declaration

Downthedrain

I want to transfer my maturing ISA into Virgin's latest issue upon maturity. I'm prompted to do an ISA declaration and agree to the term "I have not subscribed and will not subscribe to another Cash ISA in the same tax year that I subscribe to this Cash ISA". I already have another cash ISA with a different provider this year for £20,000.  I telephoned Virgin and explained this was a maturing ISA and will not have any further funding other than the interest it earned, and the term should not apply as I am entitled to open another Cash ISA in the same year. The person I spoke to agreed, but said unless I make the declaration the account will mature into a low-interest holding account and be flagged that I haven't made a declaration.

This seems to be wrong. Any thoughts?

Doctor_Who

I'm prompted to do an ISA declaration and agree to the term "I have not subscribed and will not subscribe to another Cash ISA in the same tax year that I subscribe to this Cash ISA". 

Technically you won't be subscribing to the new cash ISA with Virgin, you will just be doing an ISA transfer from a previous year's subscription. The wording in a lot of ISA declarations/summary boxes etc leaves a lot to be desired, but as long as you only subscribe (add new money) to one cash ISA per tax year you can open as many others as you like for the purposes of doing ISA transfers from previous tax years.

eskbanker

Given that 'subscribe' means 'pay new money in', then you can agree with that declaration honestly, as you won't be "subscribing to this cash ISA", so it doesn't apply.

35har1old

eskbanker said:

Given that 'subscribe' means 'pay new money in', then you can agree with that declaration honestly, as you won't be "subscribing to this cash ISA", so it doesn't apply.

What happens if you have already contributed  to a fixed rate ISA say £5000 in this tax year and want to add more money after you have transferred. You would have subscribe to 2 ISA this year

eskbanker

35har1old said:

eskbanker said:

Given that 'subscribe' means 'pay new money in', then you can agree with that declaration honestly, as you won't be "subscribing to this cash ISA", so it doesn't apply.

What happens if you have already contributed  to a fixed rate ISA say £5000 in this tax year and want to add more money after you have transferred. You would have subscribe to 2 ISA this year

The bottom line is that you can't subscribe to two ISAs of the same type in a tax year, so if you're suggesting doing so then this would be in breach of the rules.  However, OP isn't suggesting doing so, and therefore isn't affected by your hypothetical scenario....

Doctor_Who

35har1old said:

eskbanker said:

Given that 'subscribe' means 'pay new money in', then you can agree with that declaration honestly, as you won't be "subscribing to this cash ISA", so it doesn't apply.

What happens if you have already contributed  to a fixed rate ISA say £5000 in this tax year and want to add more money after you have transferred. You would have subscribe to 2 ISA this year

This is taken from the Gov.uk link below. It appears that the first ISA's subscription is transferred to the second ISA. Therefore, you would not be 'subscribing to two cash ISAs in the same tax year'.

Where current year subscriptions are transferred they must be transferred in whole (including any related income), and are treated for all ISA purposes as if they had been made to the receiving ISA manager.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transfer-an-isa-if-youre-an-isa-manager