Flexible ISA - previous years' money

Qyburn

I thought I understood the Flexible ISA rules, but seeing this comment from Virgin about previous years, now I'm not sure. Are they saying that if your balance includes previous years transfered in, that portion is excluded from flexibility?

"As this is a flexible ISA, you can take money out from your account and put it back in (most of the time) without it counting towards your annual ISA allowance. Remember, any money you put back in must be in the same tax year it was taken out. You can only replace previous years’ money back into the same ISA with your original ISA provider. If you close or transfer your ISA, you will lose the ability to replace it."

masonic

They are saying you cannot flexibly withdraw previous years' money from ISA A and pay it back into ISA B. This is also true of current year money since the start of this tax year (you used to be able to replace it in any valid ISA for the tax year, such as from a cash ISA to a S&S ISA or LISA).

Archerychick

Correct. Funds must be placed back into the ISA the funds were flexibly withdrawn from. 

Qyburn

Thanks, that's what I thought was the rule. It's their mention of "original ISA provider" that makes it sound different, and their distinction between current and previous years. If by "original" they actually mean "the account you made the withdrawal from" then that applies to current or past years' subscriptions but at least makes sense.

I wonder if, in a cack handed way, they're trying to say that you can't withdraw, then transfer, then replace that withdrawal into the account you've transferred into. Although that would apply to current year as well.

masonic

Qyburn said:

Thanks, that's what I thought was the rule. It's their mention of "original ISA provider" that makes it sound different, and their distinction between current and previous years. If by "original" they actually mean "the account you made the withdrawal from" then that applies to current or past years' subscriptions but at least makes sense.

I wonder if, in a cack handed way, they're trying to say that you can't withdraw, then transfer, then replace that withdrawal into the account you've transferred into. Although that would apply to current year as well.

That's exactly it, and prior to the start of this tax year, that didn't apply to the current year. One of many providers who should be updating their wording to reflect this year's changes to the rules.