ISA withdrawals, which financial year's ISA is it taken from?

Annabee

My partner and I each have ISAs, now with 3 years of savings in them, so going back to the tax year 2022/23.  This has never happened to us before!  

Unfortunately we will probably need to withdraw most of the money next year, as we'll be buying a house.  I don't know if this is a silly question, but when you request the withdrawal would they take it from the oldest financial year's allowance first, or the newest?   So say I withdrew £30k, would they take £20K from the 2022/23 allowance, then £10k from the 23/24 one, or how is it done?  It might make a difference if after buying the house we then want to try and build our savings again.

Cheers, if anyone knows.  

HappyHarry

It just comes out of your ISA. Your ISA isn’t broken down by what gets added in each year. 

Why do you think it matters?

slinger2

The general principle is that when you take money out of an ISA you can't ever put it back in. There is an exception for flexi ISAs whereby you can put the current year's money back in in the same tax year. So, if you start saving again into an ISA in 2025/26 (say) you'll have to use your 2025/26 allowance, the old allowances will be lost.

slinger2

slinger2 said:

The general principle is that when you take money out of an ISA you can't ever put it back in. There is an exception for flexi ISAs whereby you can put the current year's money back in in the same tax year. So, if you start saving again into an ISA in 2025/26 (say) you'll have to use your 2025/26 allowance, the old allowances will be lost.

Should read "There is an exception for flexi ISAs whereby you can put money back in in the same tax year." (I think that's right)

surreysaver

HappyHarry said:

It just comes out of your ISA. Your ISA isn’t broken down by what gets added in each year. 

Why do you think it matters?

That's not correct if its a flexible ISA

If it's a flexible ISA, money is taken from the current year's subscriptions first, then previous years.
When you put money back in, as long as it is the same tax year the money is taken out, previous years money is replaced first, followed by this year's money 

HappyHarry

surreysaver said:

HappyHarry said:

It just comes out of your ISA. Your ISA isn’t broken down by what gets added in each year. 

Why do you think it matters?

That's not correct if its a flexible ISA

If it's a flexible ISA, money is taken from the current year's subscriptions first, then previous years.
When you put money back in, as long as it is the same tax year the money is taken out, previous years money is replaced first, followed by this year's money 

I don't see that that makes any practical difference to what the OP is asking, though yes, there is a breakdown between this years subscriptions and previous years total subscriptions.

35har1old

Say you have £63000 in a flexible ISA from previous years you could take out say £40000 and replace within this tax year and add a further £20000.

boingy

Annabee said:

My partner and I each have ISAs, now with 3 years of savings in them, so going back to the tax year 2022/23.  This has never happened to us before!  

Unfortunately we will probably need to withdraw most of the money next year, as we'll be buying a house.  I don't know if this is a silly question, but when you request the withdrawal would they take it from the oldest financial year's allowance first, or the newest?   So say I withdrew £30k, would they take £20K from the 2022/23 allowance, then £10k from the 23/24 one, or how is it done?  It might make a difference if after buying the house we then want to try and build our savings again.

Cheers, if anyone knows.  

It really doesn't matter. Withdraw the money, buy the house and any further savings you accumulate in that same tax year can just go into a normal savings account and then be moved into an ISA in the new tax year, although I'm guessing you won't exactly be awash with spare cash in the first couple of years after a house purchase!