Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) have been around since 1999, providing a tax-efficient wrapper for savings and investments. However, in the recent Budget, the Chancellor, George Osborne, promised to increase the simplicity and flexibility of ISAs. As of 1 July 2014, there is now a single ISA which has been named the new ISA, or ‘NISA’, which provides a bigger tax break than ever before and more flexibility about how it can be used.<\/p>\n
All ISAs have now become NISAs, including any ISAs opened from 6 April 2014\u00a0to 30 June 2014.<\/p>\n
How do NISAs differ from ISAs?<\/strong><\/p>\n Greater flexibility\u00a0\u2013<\/strong> You can invest your whole allowance in stocks and shares or cash, or any mixture of the two. Improved tax efficiency\u00a0\u2013<\/strong> You can now earn tax-efficient interest on cash held in a NISA. Previously, with the exception of a Cash ISA, any cash held within the stocks and shares element of an ISA was subject to a 20% charge on the interest earned.<\/p>\n Generous tax break <\/strong> Moving your existing investments <\/strong> NISA subscription limit <\/strong> Increased flexibility<\/strong> You can now allocate:<\/strong><\/p>\n the full \u00a315,000 in a Stocks & Shares ISA<\/p>\n the full \u00a315,000 in a Cash ISA<\/p>\n any combination of amounts between a Stocks & Shares ISA and a Cash ISA up to the new limit<\/p>\n INFORMATION IS BASED ON OUR CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF TAXATION LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS. ANY LEVELS AND BASES OF, AND RELIEFS FROM, TAXATION ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.<\/strong><\/p>\n THE VALUE OF INVESTMENTS AND INCOME FROM THEM MAY GO DOWN. YOU MAY NOT GET BACK THE ORIGINAL AMOUNT INVESTED.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Providing you with increased simplicity and greater flexibility Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) have been around since 1999, providing a tax-efficient wrapper for savings and investments. However, in the recent Budget, the Chancellor, George Osborne, promised to increase the simplicity and flexibility of ISAs. As of 1 July 2014, there is now a single ISA which… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFreedom to transfer\u00a0\u2013 You can transfer existing ISAs from stocks and shares into cash, or the other way around.<\/p>\n
\nThe ISA allowance has now been increased from \u00a311,880 to \u00a315,000 for the 2014\/15 tax year. For any couple, that means they can put aside \u00a330,000 for this tax year, which is a generous tax break. This means you can now save another \u00a33,120 into either cash or stocks and shares in the current tax year. The amount that can be paid into a Junior ISA for the 2014\/15 tax year has also increased from \u00a33,840 to \u00a34,000. Do bear in mind that whilst the NISA does allow a generous amount to be sheltered from tax during your life, the total amount forms part of your estate on death and so could be subject to 40% tax.<\/p>\n
\nYou also now have the full flexibility of moving your existing investments in a Stocks & Shares ISA to a Cash ISA, or vice versa. You should not withdraw sums from your Stocks & Shares account yourself in order to deposit it into a Cash NISA, or the other way around. If you do, any amount that you pay in may count as a fresh payment against your overall limit of \u00a315,000.<\/p>\n
\nIt is worth noting that if you have paid into a Cash or Stocks & Shares ISA since 6 April 2014, you will not be able to open a further NISA of the same type before 6 April 2015. You may however make additional payments \u2013 up to the \u00a315,000 NISA subscription limit \u2013 into your existing account(s).<\/p>\n
\nAs of 1 July 2014, there is now increased flexibility in the way that you can use your ISA allowance.<\/p>\n