My ISA allowance is considerably larger than yows!

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82155378#Comment_82155378

Most won't do that because they've retrospectively botched ISA flexibility into pre-existing systems.

For a brief period it was necessary to have two numbers, when they briefly prevented people replacing flexibly withdrawn current year subscriptions into a different ISA. That required flexibly withdrawn current year subscriptions to be treated differently than unused current year subscriptions. A small cohort of providers who launched their ISAs during those couple of years did have separate totals.

Now the rules have normalised, there is a benefit to simplifying to a single counter in that it forces the strict accounting required by the ISA rules: Current year subscriptions must be flexibly withdrawn first and replaced last. With separate counters providers can (wrongly) try to hang on to money previously held by themselves and/or allocate new contributions as current year subscriptions until the current year allowance is fully utilised, before allocating to flexibly withdrawn money. Trading212 is an example of a provider that erroneously did this until a few formal complaints were pursued.

With a single counter, it is crystal clear that whenever your remaining allowance is £20k or greater, you do not hold any current year subscriptions with the provider; when greater than £20k you have flexibly withdrawn prior year subscriptions that need to go back to that provider before they allocate a penny to your current year allowance; and when £20k or less you have not flexibly withdrawn any prior year subscriptions.

dcs34

I mean, since it's a flexible ISA, you have £100k of ISA allowances that can be utilised this tax year. I'm not quite sure how else Vanguard could show that in short simple sentences/layout. Maybe they could add a line underneath like:

You have £100,000.00 remaining of your 2026/27 ISA allowance.

(Including £80,000.00 remaining of prior years' ISA allowances carried forward from deposits withdrawn this year from flexible ISAs. These must be replaced this tax year or each prior years' allowances will be lost).

The supposed issue seems no worse than, for example, Moneybox telling me I have £20k of my 2026/27 ISA allowance left, when the reality is I don't because I've already put £4k into a Tembo LISA and £16k into a S&S ISA. Should I raise a complaint with Moneybox for their incorrect/misleading statement?

No, because it's entirely beyond the reasonable limit of their capability to know what payments I've made elsewhere (nor would I necessarily want them to be tracking all my financial transactions like that). Could they "improve" the likely accuracy of their statement so it says "you might have £20k of your 26/27 ISA allowance left, we can't be quite sure, as it depends on the following factors…." (hopefully it is clear this is a stupid example to make the point!).

You as the ISA subscriber are responsible for managing your ISA allowance and making sure you don't exceed them each year. This includes tracking withdrawals from flexible ISAs and understanding how this will affect the amount you can deposit in ISAs each tax year.

UncleK

I have paid £20k every year into the Vanguard ISA account since the 2019/20 tax and immediately invested that into Vanguard funds. As I said, I recently sold £100k worth of funds. There's no way I have £100k worth of ISA allowance left! This has got to be a Vanguard boo-boo and I was posting it as such.

molerat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82156092#Comment_82156092

So how much do you think you are allowed put into that particular flexible ISA this year ?

UncleK

I think I did say but for clarity, I have put in £20k already - early in the tax year

jimjames

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82156118#Comment_82156118

But you can still put £100k in, hence your remaining allowance is £100k. (That's assuming your £100k of sales has actually been withdrawn and isn't still inside the ISA wrapper)

molerat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82156118#Comment_82156118

That was not the question. As at today how much money do you think you can put into that particular flexible ISA before the end of the tax year without exceeding the limits ? There are 2 possible answers, £0 or £100K, and it has been explained here what the correct answer is. Each institution only tells you what you re allowed to put into their own products.

UncleK

As I was trying to explain, this institution (Vanguard) has the full SP on me. I have putting £20k into their ISA since 2019/20 and including this tax year. I have zero ISA allowance left and they know it!

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82156129#Comment_82156129

"I have zero ISA allowance left and they know it!"

That's not correct, suggest a bit of reading is required about flexible ISAs.

Your full £20k allowance is left to use anywhere, and you have a further £80k allowance for use this tax year at Vanguard.

If you now pay £100k into Vanguard (or £80k into Vanguard and £20k elsewhere) then you'll have zero allowance.

UncleK

Maybe we are talking at cross purposes and I have completely missed a point folks are making?

Are Vanguard saying I can put CASH back into my ISA and get interest from it (but not buy stocks and shares with it)?