Changes to the ISA savings rules
In today’s Budget, Chancellor George Osborne unveiled a number of changes in the ISA system to help encourage savings.
Last year it was announced that from the new tax year commencing 6 April, the annual ISA limit was increasing to £11,880 with up to £5940 of this being able to be put into Cash ISAs.
Whilst this is still happening next month, from 1 July the Cash and Stocks & Shares ISA allowances will be merged into a single ISA vehicle, with an annual tax-free limit of £15,000. This will remove the differentiation between Stocks and Shares and Cash ISAs and effectively allow transfers back and forth between cash deposits and stocks & share based investments as needs change.
At the same time the range of investments that can be put in to ISAs will also be expanded. ISA eligibility will be extended to include peer-to-peer loans and all restrictions around the maturity dates of securities held within ISAs will be removed. The government is also exploring extending the ISA regime to include debt securities offered by crowdfunding platforms, we will await the outcome of this with interest.
We will provide clients with more information as it becomes available. For more information on this or any other matter of personal finance, please contact your adviser.