SAYE Options

trickydicky4321

Hi, I’m in need of some financial advice please. In the next few weeks I have a SAYE policy maturing. The current value is over £25,000. I’d like to keep the shares and know I can transfer the shares to a stock & shares ISA, as long as I do an In Specie transfer.  I know I can transfer 20k to avoid CGT. However, the companies that allow In Specie transfers from SAYE have quite hefty management fees. I know Trading 212 don’t have fees & allow ISA transfers from other companies, however I can’t transfer direct from the SAYE. Therefore my question is - can I move my shares from SAYE into a stock ISA, then immediately transfer to another ISA & still avoid CGT?

Thanks. 

El_Torro

Yes, you can bounce around as many different ISAs as you like, as long as the provider you are transferring into allows the in specie transfer.

You can even sell the shares once they are in an ISA and not pay Capital Gains Tax on the sale. I know you said you want to keep the shares as they are.

artyboy

Depends what the OP means by 'hefty' fees but I used II for my transfer and it all went very smoothly.

DRS1

Presumably you haven't used up any of your ISA allowance for this tax year?

There does seem to be some way of getting more than £20k of shares from an SAYE Scheme to an ISA by using a flexible ISA see this page from Equiniti

SAYE, CGT And EQi’s Flexible ISA - Equiniti

Of course it does mean selling some of the shares in the ISA and withdrawing the cash. Maybe the gain in the £5k worth of shares which would otherwise be outside the ISA is not worth the hassle.

Eco_Miser

I believe you can do two in specie transfers, one each side of 5th April, potentially shielding £40k from CGT, if the maturity date is right.

InvesterJones

If the value is around 25K then there might not be much, if any, CGT to pay on the 5K remaining after the 20k ISA transfer. As long as the growth was less than 150% then your profit is under the 3k tax free allowance.

As for hefty fees, Scottish Widows Share Dealing have no holding fees, only £5 transaction.

artyboy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867710#Comment_81867710

That was my thinking too. I know there have been previous threads where flexible S&S ISAs have been mentioned - transfer in £20k of stock, sell, withdraw, repeat - within 90 days.

Apparently possible/legal (which I thought was a huge, albeit niche, CGT loophole!), but for £25k I wouldn't personally get hung up on it.