ISA guides tagged “Individual Savings Account”

Who can open each type of ISA, what a provider asks for, how a transfer in differs from a new payment, and where gov.uk pages stay silent.

What an Innovative Finance ISA is, how it differs from cash and stocks and shares ISAs, and what gov.uk and the FSCS page say about tax, risk and transfers.

NS&I says Premium Bonds do not earn interest and that an annual prize fund rate funds a monthly prize draw. gov.uk says you do not pay tax on interest on cash in an ISA. This guide sets out what each source says, with sources.

According to gov.uk, if you complete a tax return you do not need to declare ISA interest, income or capital gains on it. Money held outside an ISA is treated differently.

A flexible ISA is one whose terms let you take cash out and put it back in the same tax year without using up more of that year's allowance. Whether an ISA is flexible is set by the provider's terms, so it is worth asking.

The ISA tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, and the £20,000 allowance is set for each tax year. gov.uk describes no carry forward of an unused amount.

At 16 a child can take over as the registered contact of a Junior ISA, but gov.uk says money cannot be taken out until 18, apart from the terminal illness and death cases. At 18 the account turns into an adult ISA automatically.

According to gov.uk, an ISA you already hold can stay open if you become non-UK resident and keeps its UK tax relief, but you cannot pay into it unless you are a Crown employee overseas or their spouse or civil partner.

A parent or guardian with parental responsibility can open a Junior ISA for a UK-resident child under 16, a child aged 16 or over can open their own, and anyone can pay in up to the yearly limit. The money belongs to the child. This guide sets out who can do what.

The four adult ISA types (Cash, Stocks and Shares, Lifetime, Innovative Finance) and the Junior ISA: what each can hold and how withdrawals work.