ISA Transfer

Previous years' ISAs are effectively closed, so you can transfer them to another ISA provider, regardless.

You cannot add more funds to a previous year's ISA. You can only add funds to a current year ISA, which may be with the same fund manager as last year's, and may have the same number, but is still not last year's ISA.

Assume equity ISAs are the same but last year I amalgamated four years cash ISAs into one. Basically confirmed with IF it was ok, then wrote to other banks etc. to warn them and IF did it all

Waq

J> If I want to transfer an ISA from a previous tax year does it matter

AFAIK you cannot transfer a mini ISA into a maxi, or vice versa. Why would you want to, anyway? You can always do the transfer without changing types.

Rob Graham

In message , Terry Harper writes

You are right, but I tend to think it is better not to refer to an ISA as being 'this years' or 'last years' but as 'I contributed £xx into an ISA in 01-02' etc., because the ISA itself is not effected by date, only the contributions into it. So you could have two ISAs which you contribute to in alternate years, year in year out, and at the end you just have 2 ISAs but with maximum contributions for each intervening year.

Similarly, once a tax year is over, the status of the ISA as a MAXI or MINI is irrelevant.

In message , Rob Graham writes

Once a tax year is over, the status of the ISA as a MAXI or MINI is irrelevant so you can transfer between types at will.

Why would I want to?

Well say I'm mainly interested in the stocks/shares allowance. A maxi ISA is the natural choice. However the best deals on cash savings tend to be with the mini cash ISAs.

So say in year 1 in take out a maxi and put £5000 into equity. And before the year's up I put £2000 into cash.

In year 2. I transfer that cash into a better performing mini ISA (but don't add further contributions). I then take out another maxi ISA and pay into that over the year.

I guess what I'm driving at is if this is possible?

You don't say whether this is into a cash mini ISA or a normal savings account. If it is an ISA, then that's not allowed.

If you're putting what is effectively a new £2000 contribution into a cash mini ISA, then you won't be able to open a maxi.

If you're transferring from a previous year's (validly obtained) cash mini ISA then no problem.

The point really is that it's the amount that you pay into an ISA in any year that's restricted (7K maxi, 3K mini), not whether you switch the funds already in an ISA from the ISA provider to another. The switch does not count as a new investment. You could have 10,000 in a cash mini ISA from previous years and move it all to another provider (provided you did it properly) and still have your ISA investment entitlement for the current year to use.

So switching between ISA types would be irrelevant.

Rob Graham

Thanks

Rob

You can't do it. If you have a maxi ISA, you can only put cash into the cash element of that Maxi ISA, if it has one. You cannot open a mini-cash ISA as well. You can only transfer the ISA as a whole, not in part.

It would be maxi ISA with 5k equity and 2k cash

It would be a transfer of the cash component of the previous maxi into the mini ISA.

I seem to be getting conflicting answers from the group. Put it this way then...

Lets say I have an amount cash (e.g. 10k) in various cash components of maxi ISAs from previous years. It's a new tax year and I want to transfer all these funds to the most competitive cash mini ISA. Just a transfer - no new funds are being put in. Let's say the provider in question doesn't offer a stocks and shares mini ISA.

Now let's say these previous maxi ISA also contain equity investments.

From what you're telling me I can't do this transfer. I've got to transfer the whole lot except the new provider doesn't cater for stocks and shares.

In an earlier post John Boyle mentioned: "Once a tax year is over, the status of the ISA as a MAXI or MINI is irrelevant so you can transfer between types at will."

So I could I do this 10k transfer and then open a new maxi ISA?

In principle yes, but:

1) Is it not the case that once you open a mini cash ISA, then even if you don't put new money into it, you're still barred from contributing during the same tax year to a new maxi or a new mini cash? 1a) If that is the case, it may well be for procedural rather than legal reasons, i.e. all the paperwork for opening a new ISA is geared up to be associated with making or anticipating to make contributions during that tax year, and any option to transfer-in is bolted onto the side of that. 2) Is it not the case that any cash held in a maxi ISA is only supposed to be there temporarily for the purpose of waiting for the right moment to reinvest in further equities? You're not *really* supposed to have cash within a maxi ISA at all. You may therefore not easily be able to transfer it out, or even to withdraw it.

Thanks for the pointers everyone. Managed to find some additional stuff on the IR site - looks like I'd be able to do what I expected:

"Investors can transfer ... previous years ISA subscriptions and investments in whole or in part" "The designation of the ISA as a maxi or mini is only important for transfer of current year subscriptions. The component parts of the ISA must, however, retain their identity after transfer, even for previous years' subscriptions. For example ... Previous years' subscriptions to a stocks and shares component of a maxi ISA can be transferred to the stocks and shares component of a maxi or a mini ISA." "Investments and/or cash transferred are not new subscriptions."

In message , Jonathan Lonsdale writes

From an Inland Revenue point of view I believe you can. BUT you may find individual product providers may not permit it (which they are entitled to do)