Accidental ISA payment while abroad

casak · 25 November 2019 at 12:01PM

I'm registered as tax resident abroad from April 2019, however made three accidental ISA payments in April/May/June - before I realised I hadn't cancelled my standing order.

Any advice on what I should do about this? I'm now aware that I shouldn't be making any ISA payments while not resident in the UK, and have cancelled the standing order, but worried about the implication of these three payments in the future.

Is anyone able to clarify the rules on transferring a stocks and shares ISA within the UK while not resident? The advice on gov website (ISAs and moving abroad) is that it should be possible but I've seen conflicting information online, and after calling Halifax to try and transfer my ISA to them was told that I'd need to be a UK resident. Would love to transfer my ISA to a different provider if possible.

Thanks for any advice, really appreciated!

eskbanker · 25 November 2019 at 12:18PM

Does your reference to April 2019 signify that your loss of UK tax residency is aligned with the tax year? As per https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/if-you-move-abroad, "you cannot put money into it after the tax year that you move" so the answer varies dependent on when in April you changed residency.

Assuming you moved before this tax year, the subscriptions made are invalid and should be voided by the ISA manager, as per https://www.gov.uk/guidance/close-void-or-repair-an-isa-if-youre-an-isa-manager#repair-void:

If you find out that the investor has subscribed to an ISA while not satisfying the residence condition, or when under age, you must void the invalid subscriptions.

When did you notify your ISA manager that you'd moved abroad, as they shouldn't continue to accept subscriptions after that?

In terms of transferring to another provider, the scheme rules may permit this in theory but realistically you have to find a provider who's prepared to accept applications from outside the UK, which is an entirely different matter! I don't know which allow this, but suspect it's not many....

casak · 25 November 2019 at 12:33PM

Thanks so much for your reply! I'll contact my ISA provider and let them know I'm no longer a UK resident and ask them to void the payments, very helpful.

And looks like I might be continuing with the same provider - my conversation with Halifax I suspect would be the first of many similar conversations if I were to pursue a transfer,.

Again, thank you very much for your fast and informative reply.

Accidental ISA payment while abroad

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