ISA FAQs

There are three types of ISA:

• cash ISAs
• stocks and shares ISAs
• innovative finance ISAs

We currently offer stocks and shares ISAs and innovative finance ISAs.

You can put money into one of each kind of ISA each tax year. This is known as the “One ISA of each type of Tax Year” Rule.

Flexible ISAs allow you to replace either in whole or part cash that has already been withdrawn without further use of your annual subscription limit.

Rules that surround Flexible ISAs are as follows:

• Withdrawals of current year subscriptions can be replaced in any current year type of ISA as long as it does not breach the ‘One ISA each type of Tax Year’ rule.
• Withdrawals will take into account current year subscriptions first followed by previous years’ funds
• Replacements however work the opposite way taking into account previous years’ funds first and current years secondly
• Replacements can either be made in cash or shares transferred via Save as your Earn Scheme (SAYE)

An example of a Flexible ISA withdrawals and replacements is shown below:

• Mr Andrews subscribes £10,000 to a flexible cash ISA on 6 April.
• On 12th May he withdraws £2,000
• His ‘net’ current year subscriptions at this point are £8,000 and he can use the balance of his annual subscription limit of £12,000 (£20,000 less £8,000) as he chooses between his Cash ISA and any stocks and shares, or innovative finance ISA he subscribes to in the current tax year.

Please note that we do not offer flexible ISAs at this time.

Whilst your money is being held in a deposit account which we set up for you, it is covered by the FSCS’s UK deposit recovery scheme up to the maximum limit, currently £85,000. When your money is invested on a particular platform/s it may also be covered by the FSCS. Further information can be found on the FSCS website by visiting: http://www.fscs.org.uk

Yes. You have a legal right to cancel your ISA within 14 days of you receiving our welcome pack. Please notify us in this instance.

A cash ISA allows you to subscribe cash into a tax efficient vehicle where funds can be readily available to you.

To open a cash ISA you have to meet the following criteria;

• 16 or over for a cash ISA
• resident in the UK
• a Crown servant (eg diplomatic or overseas civil service) or their spouse or civil partner if you don’t live in the UK

Your ISA will be formally opened from later of;

• The date a valid application form has been completed and accepted
• The date on which the subscription has been made

You can check the opening or ‘commencement’ date of your ISA in your welcome pack.

A Stocks and Shares Individual Savings Account or ISA is a savings vehicle through which you can invest in a number of UK and international investments, tax efficiently. Any profit you make on your investments is tax-exempt. A Stocks and Shares ISA gives you the opportunity to choose which investments you hold, within the regulations.

You have the choice as to how to select and manage your investments held in Stocks and Shares ISA;

• You can do it yourself and self select the funds with the ISA manager
• You may use an adviser who will identify suitable investments for you that meet your objectives and risk profile

Below is a list of the qualifying investments allowed in a Stocks and Shares ISA.

• Shares
• Securities issued by companies
• Government securities
• Core Capital Deferred Shares (CCDS)
• Securities issued be certain multilateral organisations
• Units or shares in a UK UCITS
• Units or shares in a qualifying non-UCITS retail scheme
• Shares and securities in qualifying investment trusts
• Units or shares in a recognised UCITS
• Shares emerging from a Schedule 3 SAYE option scheme or a Schedule 2 Share Incentive Plan
• Depositary interests
• Cash
• Units in a collective investment schemes specified as stakeholder products
• Policies of life insurance that satisfy the requirements
• Policies of life insurance issued before 5 April 2004 that had previously qualified for the separate insurance component
• Investments held in a PEP at 5 April 2008 that were qualifying investments under regulation 6(2)(m) of the Personal Equity Plan Regulations 1989

You can not invest in unquoted shares and anything not noted in the list above which was based on HMRC guidance. Please check www.hmrc.gov.uk for the most current list. The particular investment platform or provider you choose may have a different list to the above.

Your ISA will be formally opened from the later of;

• The date a valid application form has been completed and accepted
• The date on which the subscription has been made

You can check the opening or ‘commencement’ date of your ISA in your welcome pack.

Yes – you can set up a direct debit to come out of your account on the 1st of every month at a frequency of your choice. We can then make one-off or regular payments to the platform/s of your choice.

We will keep the cash in a segregated client account while we await your instruction for investment. The account will be segregated from all other ISA clients and any account relating to Hartley as a business.

Introduced on 6th April 2016 an Innovative ISA allows you to lend direct to borrowers which allows you enjoy better rates. When lending through an Innovative ISA any interest you receive will be tax-free.

The qualifying investments that you may purchase, make or hold in an Innovative Finance ISA, are:

• peer-to-peer loans
• cash

Peer to Peer lending is sometimes known as P2P lending, it allows borrowing and lending between individuals or peers without using banks or building societies.

Your ISA will be formally opened from the later of:

• The date a valid application form has been completed and accepted
• The date on which the subscription has been made

You can check the opening or ‘commencement’ date of your ISA in your welcome pack.

We will keep the cash in a segregated client account while we await your instruction for investment. The account will be segregated from all other ISA clients and any account relating to Hartley as a business.

Unlike cash ISAs and stocks and shares ISAs, innovative ISAs are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

HMRC have termed adding money to your ISA as ‘subscriptions’

In the 2018/2019 tax year the maximum you can subscribe into an ISA is £20,000. This amount is the total across all ISAs that you may own.

For example

If you have subscribed to an existing ISA not held with us then this will also count towards the subscription limit.

You can subscribe anytime with in the tax year which runs from 6th April to 5th April the following year.

You can subscribe to a stocks and shares or innovative ISA from the age of 18.

The full subscription limit would be available after your 18th birthday reduced by any amount that may have been paid into an (external) cash ISA beforehand.

For example:

Individual subscribes £5,000 into an external cash ISA on 6th April aged 17.
On the 1st September they turn 18 and wishes to subscribe to a Stocks & Shares ISA. The subscription limit would be £20,000 minus the £5,000 already subscribed to the Cash ISA leaving £15,000 allowed into the Stocks & Shares ISA.

There are three ways you can subscribe to an ISA;

• In cash
• Using a share exchange facility where shares are sold to raise cash
• Transferring in shares received from an approved employee share scheme

Cash Subscription
Cash subscriptions can be paid into an ISA by lump sum, regular or irregular payment. Cash subscriptions are usually made by the individual holding the ISA however third party subscriptions and from the investor’s employer. Any employer subscriptions must be paid following the payment of any PAYE and national insurance.

Share Exchange Facilities
It is not permitted to transfer existing shares that you personally own direct into an ISA. An ISA Manager may offer a share exchange scheme which arranges for your shares to be sold and the proceeds of that sale to be paid into an ISA.

Approved Employee Share Schemes
It is not permitted to transfer existing schemes that you personally own direct into an ISA unless they are in a approved employee shares scheme such as Save as your Earn (SAYE) or share incentive plan.

If you exceed the overall subscription limit then the ISA will become invalid during the tax year by reason of oversubscription and the ISA will need to be repaired.

You can withdraw funds at any time by alerting us. We can arrange a one-off payment or regular payments to be made into a bank account in your name.

No. However if disinvestments are made to cover a withdrawal then trading charges may apply.

Yes. You can transfer your existing ISA to your another ISA. This has to be done by completing a transfer form and asking your existing ISA provider to make the transfer. You cannot simply close down an old ISA and open a new ISA.

If you transfer current tax year subscriptions into an ISA then these count towards to the subscription limit for that tax year. However if you transfer in previous years subscriptions then you still able to pay the full allowance for this tax year.

For a cash ISA the ISA Manager has a maximum of 15 days working days to complete the transfer from end to end upon receipt of a fully completed transfer application.

The 15 days is split as below;

• New ISA Manager has 5 WORKING DAYS to forward the instruction to the old ISA Manager
• The old ISA Manager then has 5 WORKING DAYS to send the funds to the new ISA manager along with a transfer history form
• The new ISA Manager has 3 WORKING DAYS to apply the new funds to the new ISA
• The other 2 WORKING DAYS are to allow time for postage via 1st class post.

In relation to the transfer of a stocks and shares ISA there is industry produced guidance on the best practice on transfer Stocks and Shares ISA and this should take approximately two to three weeks to complete.

Once we are advised of your death, we will take steps to close your ISA. Previously when an individual dies the ISA stops being tax-exempt from the date of death. However with effect from 6th April 2018 the rules changed which means that your ISA will now end once probate has been granted and we receive instruction from your executor or administrator of your estate.

If we do not have confirmation from executor or administrator of your estate within 3 years of the date of death, as scheme administrators we are required by HMRC to close the ISA after 3 years and 1 days after date of death. Until we are notified any gains from your investments from the date of death and payment will not be subject to any capital gains tax. However the assets held will form part of your estate and are potentially liable to inheritance tax.

The APS is an allowance passed to your spouse when you die. This allowance is in addition to their own subscription limit.

APS was introduced in April 2015 in respect to deaths that occurred on or after 30th December 2014 and the deceased and surviving spouse must have been living together at date of death. In relation to APS the following should be noted;

• can be made with the manager who held the deceased’s ISA or another manager who agrees to accept the subscriptions
• are limited to the value of the deceased’s ISA at their date of death if the investor dies on or before 5th April 2018.
• can be either the value of the deceased’s ISA at their date of death or the point the ISA ceased to be a continuing account of a deceased investor if the investor died on or after 6 April 2018.
• must be made within specific time limits.
• can be made to a cash, stocks and shares, or an innovative finance ISA
• can also be made to a Lifetime ISA if the investor is resident in the UK, but will count towards the Lifetime ISA payment limit but not the annual overall ISA subscription limit.
• if a surviving spouse is 16 or 17, only to an ‘adult’ cash ISA.
• can be made in cash or inherited non-cash ISA assets.
• are available whether or not the surviving spouse inherited the deceased’s ISA assets
• can be made by non-residents
• cannot be made to (or from) a Junior ISA
• count as previous year subscriptions for all other ISA purposes

Where an ISA investor died before 5th April 2018 the APS is limited to to the value of the deceased ISAs at date of death. With effect from 6th April 2018 an APS can be either the value of the deceased estates at date of death or the value of the deceased estates at the point of probate being granted

For example
The value of your ISA is £45,000 at point of probate being granted; this figure is added to your spouses’ subscription limit of £20,000 allowing a total subscription of £65,000 into their own ISA.

APS is not available with all ISA managers and you should check with your ISA manager that they will accept them before proceeding.

ISAs provide preferential tax treatment which means investors:

• Do not have to declare any income or capital gains on a self assessment form.
• Any interest received as a result of the investment is received gross and will not be deducted any income tax
• There is no liability to income tax on dividends or capital gains tax on gains
• When selling investments any losses are not included for capital gains tax purposes

A Junior ISA (JISA) was introduced in October 2010 to provide children with a tax free savings account.

The changes that were resulted with the introduction of JISAs were;

• No new CTFs could be opened
• Existing CTFs still remained opened
• No further Government contributions are made to existing CTFs however subscriptions could still be paid into them
• The subscription limit for CTFs were aligned with JISA limits

Child Trust Funds (CTF) first launched on 6th April 2005. Any child that was born on after 1 September 2002 was eligible for a CTF as long as the following criteria was met:

• Child Benefit was awarded by HMRC
• The child was resident in UK or a child of crown servants overseas
• The child was not subject to immigration controls

On 1st January 2011 HMRC stopped issuing new CTF however any existing CTFs still remained open but the Government contributions ceased.

Yes, with effect from 6th April 2015 you are permitted to transfer a CTF into a JISA. You are only allowed to hold either a CTF or a JISA, having both is not possible.

When a transfer is made from a CTF to a JISA the funds received are treated as the previous tax year’s subscriptions which allow you to pay the full annual subscription into the new JISA.

To complete the transfer the following steps must be followed;

• The registered contact of the CTF must make a transfer application to the JIS A manager; this can either be for a cash JISA or a stocks and shares JISA.
• The full value of the CTF must be transferred and the CTF closed.

There are two types of JISAs; a child can have either;

• A Cash JISA (we do not currently offer cash ISAs)
• Stocks and Shares JISA

Only one of each type of ISA can be subscribed to throughout the childhood of the individual, unlike an adult ISA where a new ISA can be subscribed each tax year.

Innovative ISAs are not available.

For Junior ISAs (JISAs) the maximum subscription limit for 2018/2019 tax year is £4,260.

Subscriptions can be split between both cash JISA and stocks and shares ISA as long as it does not exceed the maximum limit. For example;

As long as the child meets the following conditions then you can apply for a JISA:

• They are under age of 18
• They were born on or after 3 January 2011 or do not already have a Child Trust Fund account
• They are a resident in the UK

A JISA can be opened by someone with parental responsibility of a child who is under 16 years of age. This person will be come a registered contact for the ISA.

Alternatively a child between the ages of 16 and 18 can open a JISA themselves.

The requirements for personal information to open a JISA including the declaration and authority are the same as if an adult ISA was to be opened; the only difference is that the application will specify that the child will be the beneficial owner of the JISA.

A registered contact is an individual with parental responsibility of a child who will agree to the terms and conditions under which the Junior ISA (JISA) will operate and give instructions for the management of the account.

• There can only be one registered contact for any account at any time.
• At age 16 the child can request to take on the management of the JISA and become the registered contact
• The registered contact is the only person who can give instructions to the provider on management of the investments in the JISA
• All correspondence will be addressed to the registered contact.

There is no requirement that the same registered contact remains for the duration of the JISA and the responsibility can be passed to another individual that holds parental responsibility.

The investments are the same as those able to be held in an adult ISA.

Withdrawals from a JISA are restricted; it is only possible to make withdrawals under the following circumstances;

• On the child’s 18th birthday
• On HMRC instructing the ISA Manager to void the account
• Where the child is terminally ill or on the death of the child.

On the 18th birthday of the child the Junior ISA will cease and will become an adult ISA. The investments held in the JISA will remain under the tax free wrapper until the account is closed.

At age 18, the registered contact becomes the former child and can now access their savings and make withdrawals.

To make further subscriptions after the age of 18 they will need to provide their National Insurance number, confirmation that they are a resident and will be required to make the standard declaration and authority.