Welcome to our Individual Savings Account Guide, ISA Guide 2010. An Individual Savings Account (ISA) is not an investment itself. It is a wrapper surrounding your fund choice(s) that makes them more tax-efficient. When you make an investment in an ISA you pay no income or capital gains tax (CGT) on the returns you receive, no matter how much your investment grows or how much you take out over the years. You don’t even have to mention your ISA on your tax return.

An ISA is an ideal way to make the most of your tax-efficient savings limit and save for the future. The value of tax savings and eligibility to invest in an ISA will depend on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future.

ISA GUIDE 2010

Closing date for ISA transfers: 15 January 2010

Extract from HMRC Rules:

Investors can transfer their ISAs from one manager to another whenever they want. They may transfer

• their current year ISA subscriptions (and any related income) and/or
• all or part of their previous years ISA subscriptions (and any related income).

If the ISA contains current year subscriptions only the entire ISA account must be transferred.

Subscriptions to a stocks and shares ISA can only be transferred to another stocks and shares ISA. However, subscriptions to a cash ISA can be transferred to another cash ISA, or to a stocks and shares ISA.

Where current year subscriptions are being transferred from a cash ISA to a stocks and shares ISA, the current year subscriptions are treated for all ISA purposes as if they had been made to the stocks and shares ISA. This means that the investor is regarded as never having subscribed to the cash ISA. Within the overall subscription limit, therefore the investor may subscribe to a cash ISA later in the current year (with the same or a different manager) without breaching the one-ISA-of-each-type-a-tax-year rule.

• £5,100 for those aged 50 and over
• £3,600 for those under 50.

Cash ISAs generally pay a higher interest rate than normal savings accounts, and the interest earned is free of income tax.

You can invest in two separate ISAs in any one tax year: a cash ISA and an investment ISA. This can be with the same or different providers.

• another cash ISA (if the new provider agrees to the transfer); or
• an investment ISA.

Individual savings accounts (ISAs) were introduced in April 1999. They replaced PEPs and TESSA and are effectively a tax wrapper within which you can hold a range of different investments. The big advantage of ISAs is that returns are tax-free – gains on investments held outside an ISA are liable to income tax or capital gains tax.

How much can I invest?

In an ISA Account, savers under the age of 50 can invest up to £7,200 in a single tax year – the over-50s can invest up to £10,200. This was announced in the 2009 Budget and took effect on October 6th 2009. This higher limit will apply to all savers from April 6th 2010. The tax year runs from April 6th to April 5th and it is important to use as much of your annual allowance as you can within that time as it cannot be carried over into the next financial year.

You can open one cash ISA and one stocks and shares ISA each tax year. Up to £3,600 can be invested in a cash ISA. (£5,100 for the over-50s since October 6th 2009). The remainder of your allowance can be invested in a stocks and shares ISA. Alternatively, you can just open a single stocks and shares ISA and invest the full amount in that.