ISA deadline day 5th April 2026

Hicky103

Hi,

I have an old ISA but I didn't use any of my April 25-April 2026 ISA allowance so I opened a new cash ISA on the 5th April 2026 and have requested to transfer my old ISA into a the new ISA to take advantage of my 20K allowance before it expired at midnight on 5th April 2026. The transfer was requested on the 5th April 2026 but the transfer of money from old to new ISA wont complete for a few days. Does this mean that when the transfer is complete it comes out of my April 2025-April 2026 allowance (as i initiated the transfer on the 5th April 2026). Or does it come out of my new April 2026-April 20276 allowance because the ISA transfer is completed in this new ISA tax year.

Isthisforreal99

Transferring an old ISA doesn't count as using your 25/26 ISA allowance or any years allowance, except the year you actually paid into tbe old ISA. It's only 'new' money that counts.

luci

Transferring an ISA doesn't affect your ISA allowance. You can transfer at any time. Your £20,000 allowance is completely seperate.

dcs34

The £20k ISA limit applies to "new money" being paid into an ISA for the first time.

Moving existing ISA money between ISA accounts doesn't count against this allowance (provided this is actioned as a formal ISA transfer; withdrawing and depositing the money will count as adding "new money").

If you didn't pay any new money into an ISA between 6th April 2025 and 5th April 2026 then you didn't use any of your 2025/26 allowance. Money in your existing old ISA would have counted against the limit in the year you deposited that money; the transfer to a new ISA doesn't change that (assuming that when you say you requested a transfer this was a proper ISA transfer and not a withdrawal/re-depositing).