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Class of retail investment arrangement

An individual savings account (ISA; '/aɪ//s//ə/) is a class of retail investment arrangement available to residents of the United Kingdom. First introduced in 1999, the accounts have favourable tax status. Payments into the account are made from after tax income, then the account is exempt from income tax and capital gains tax on the investment returns, and no tax is payable on money withdrawn from the scheme. Cash and a broad range of investments can be held within the arrangement, and there is no restriction on when or how much money can be withdrawn. Since 2017, there have been four types of account: cash ISA, stocks & shares ISA, innovative finance ISA (IFISA) and lifetime ISA (LISA). Each taxpayer has an annual investment limit (£20,000 since 2020–21) which can be split among the four types as desired. Additionally, children under 18 may hold a junior ISA, with a different annual limit. An additional type of ISA, called the British ISA, was announced by the UK government in the March 2024 Spring Budget. It will have its own separate annual limit of £5,000 (in addition to the current £20,000 limit) to be used only for investment in UK companies. Until the lifetime ISA was introduced in 2017, ISAs were not a specific retirement investment, but any type can be a useful tool for retirement planning alongside pensions. On 6 March 2024, Jeremy Hunt announced a British ISA in which investors would be allowed to invest a further £5000 in UK equities and bonds.

ISAs were introduced on 6 April 1999, replacing the earlier personal equity plans (PEPs; very similar to a Stocks and Shares ISA) and tax exempt special savings accounts (TESSAs; very similar to a Cash ISA). Other tax advantaged savings that predate ISAs include many offered by National Savings and Investments, a state owned institution which has in the past offered a range of other tax free accounts, in addition to its own ISAs. Junior ISAs, introduced in 2011, replaced the Child Trust Fund. With a few exceptions, such as from an employee share ownership plan, all investor contributions must be in cash, not kind. Adult ISAs are available to UK residents aged over 16, provided that they have a National Insurance number, but individuals between 16 and 18 are only permitted to use the adult cash component or can use a Junior ISA. There are four broad types of adult ISA: cash, stocks and shares, innovative finance (including peer to peer lending) and lifetime.

PEPs became stocks and shares ISAs, with an exemption that allowed them to continue to hold investments that could not be held in a stocks and shares ISA, provided that the investment met the pre 2001 PEP rules. For some time there were Mini ISAs, Maxi ISAs and TESSA only ISAs. A Mini ISA could hold cash OR stocks, potentially many if operated by a fund house or platform, while a Maxi ISA could hold cash AND stocks. Any UK resident individual aged 18 or over could invest in one 'maxi' ISA per year, with both components provided by a single financial institution. Alternatively, a person could invest in two 'mini' ISAs, one for each component. The two mini ISAs could be with two different providers if the investor wished. The TESSA only ISA was a type of cash ISA funded from a TESSA, another predecessor of the ISA. New TESSAs could not be created after 5 April 1999, so the required five year term of all TESSAs ended by 5 April 2004. TOISAs were created to allow the original capital (excluding interest) invested in a TESSA (up to £9,000) to be reinvested in a tax free form.

In April 1999, the Government introduced a voluntary CAT standard for ISAs (standing for "Charges, Access, and Terms") to make them easier for inexperienced customers to understand and with the intention that lower costs would attract more investors. The standard does not guarantee the investment performance or that investors would buy or be sold the right type of investment. Many equity funds also meet the CAT standards, but the restriction on costs generally means that these funds are index funds, which require little management and simply follow a given index, such as the FTSE 100 Index. CAT standards were discontinued by the Treasury on 6 April 2005 following the introduction of the stakeholder product suite, although existing CAT standard ISAs continued on the same terms and conditions.

In the March 2007 Budget the limits for the 2008/9 tax year were increased. From tax year 2008/2009 the distinction between a Mini and Maxi ISA was abolished. An insurance component was available in both Maxi and Mini ISAs until the 2005/06 tax year. Collective investment funds that once qualified for this component were reclassified as qualifying for either the Cash or Stocks & Shares component.

An account which enjoys tax free status, usually deposit accounts with £85,000 Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection (but client money with £50,000 protection or unprotected money is also permitted; the providers are required to make the protection clear).

In the 2016 Budget it was announced that a lifetime ISA (LISA) would be introduced from 6 April 2017 as a more flexible way to save for both home purchase and retirement. Only those aged 18 to 40 can open an account, and at the end of the tax year (or when used for purchase) a 25% bonus on contributions of up to £4,000 a year will be paid. The £4,000 is part of the overall ISA annual allowance, not in addition to it. On reaching age 50, no more money can be added to the account and eligibility for the 25% bonus ceases, but the account will still earn interest or investment returns. The accounts have the same inheritance tax treatment as other ISAs. Permitted investments are as for cash or S&S ISAs, and as for them any number of accounts is allowed, but only one account can hold current year money. After the account has been open for at least 12 months, the money can be used for a first home purchased with a mortgage and priced up to £450,000; the money is paid to the conveyancer and can be returned to the ISA if the sale does not complete. There are restrictions in place to avoid abuse of the scheme, for instance those who purchase a home with a LISA are barred from renting the property out. Money can also be withdrawn after reaching age 60. A person who is diagnosed with a medical condition giving a life expectancy of under one year can withdraw the full amount including bonus without penalty at any age, using the definition in the similar pension law. Any other withdrawal, including transfers to another type of ISA, incurs a 25% charge. This reduction ensured that savers making withdrawals received the full amount they had deposited. £1.5 billion was held in LISA savings in 2022, and the 2022 cost of living crisis fuelled in part by rising inflation led to calls to introduce a temporary penalty free period to allow access to these savings.

Junior ISAs were introduced on 1 November 2011 with an initial subscription limit of £3,600, which was increased to £9,000 by the time of the 2020 21 tax year. At age 18 the JISA converts to an adult ISA. It is expected that the £5,000 annual subscription will be in addition to the current £20,000 ISA allowance. The aim of the British ISA is to encourage investment in UK companies, so a number of bespoke rules may be created which will differentiate it from current ISAs, including on transfers and holding cash. The government launched a consultation on how a British ISA will work, lasting until June 2024. It is not expected to be available until 2025.

The Flexible ISA Features are optional add on feature introduced from 6 April 2016 for any adult ISA type that allow withdrawing cash and redepositing it in the same tax year. Providers are not required to implement the flexibility features and do not have to implement them all if they allow some. A person can withdraw an unlimited amount of money from an account and return up to that amount within the same tax year without it counting against the annual subscription limit. A person with £100,000 of past year money could withdraw say £90,000 on 15 April and redeposit it as desired within the tax year. If a transfer is done the firm receiving the transfer is told only the amount of current year allowance available to be used, if any. If current year money is withdrawn, that money can be used to subscribe to a different type of ISA in the current year without having to replace it into the flexible ISA it was withdrawn from. This is particularly useful if both current and past year money were withdrawn from the same account. Otherwise all past year money would have to be replaced before any current year money would count as being replaced, due to the rules that current year money is the first withdrawn and last replaced. Past year money does have to be replaced before being transferred in the usual ISA transfer way, it must not be directly placed into the new account or it would count as a new current year subscription instead of a replacement.

Interest on cash held in an ISA, including stocks and shares ISAs, is not subject to income tax. Dividends are not subject to additional tax, interest on bonds is not taxed, and capital gains are not taxed (nor may capital losses be used to offset other gains). There is no need to report interest or other income, capital gains, or trades to HMRC as it is not taxable income. This is a considerable paperwork reduction for active traders or those who may otherwise be required to report their trades because they have total sales value exceeding four times the annual CGT allowance, which outside a tax wrapper would require that all trades be reported even if there is no capital gains tax to pay. Since the income is not taxable it did not count for age related personal income tax allowance reduction when that extra allowance existed.

Cash or investments held in ISAs are ordinarily subject to Inheritance Tax when the account holder dies, if their estate is valued above the IHT nil rate band. Since August 2013 it became possible to hold AIM listed shares in a stocks and shares ISA, some of which qualify for business relief; in this way a stocks and shares ISA portfolio consisting of these securities can be gifted without being subject to Inheritance Tax, provided the qualifying securities have been held for at least two years upon death. For deaths of ISA investors on or after 3 December 2014, the surviving spouse or civil partner can apply for an increased ISA allowance in the form of an Additional Permitted Subscription. This allowance is separate from the normal annual allowance, and is based on the value of the deceased's ISA; it is available whether or not the surviving spouse or civil partner inherited the ISA assets.