Savings & Investments

ISAs guide

Guide to Individual Savings Accounts

 560 315 Jess Easby
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The little allowance with big potential

Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) are an incredibly effective means of shielding your money from both Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax. Using your tax-free allowances every year should be a standard part of your financial planning.

Each tax year, we are each given an annual Individual Savings Account (ISA) allowance. This can build up quickly, letting you accumulate a substantial tax-efficient gain in the long term.

It is a ‘use it or lose it’ allowance, meaning that if you don’t use all or part of it in one tax year, you cannot take that allowance over to the next year. Utilising your ISA allowance to invest tax-efficiently could lead to significant savings in Capital Gains Tax and even improve your potential returns.

Q: What is an ISA?

A: An ISA is a ‘tax-efficient wrapper’ designed to go around an investment. Types of ISA include a Cash ISA and Stocks & Shares ISA. A Cash ISA is like a normal deposit account, except that you pay no tax on the interest you earn. Stock & Shares ISAs allow you to invest in equities, bonds or commercial property without paying personal tax on your proceeds.

Q: Can I have more than one ISA?

A: You have a total tax-efficient allowance of £20,000 for this tax year. This means that the sum of money you invest across all your ISAs this tax year (Cash or Stocks & Shares) cannot exceed £20,000. However, it’s important to bear in mind that you have the flexibility to split your tax-free allowance across as many ISAs and ISA types as you wish. For example, you may invest £10,000 in a Stocks & Shares ISA and the remaining £10,000 in a Cash ISA. This is a useful option for those who want to use their investment for different purposes and over varying periods of time.

Q: When will I be able to access the money I save in an ISA?

A: Some ISAs do tie your money up for a significant period of time. However, others are pretty flexible. If you’re after flexibility, variable rate Cash ISAs don’t tend to have a minimum commitment. This means you can keep your money in one of these ISAs for as long – or as short a time – as you like. This type of ISA also allows you to take some of the money out of the ISA and put it back in without affecting its tax-efficient status.

On the other hand, fixed-rate Cash ISAs will typically require you to tie your money up for a set amount of time. If you decide to cut the term short, you usually have to pay a penalty. But ISAs that tie your money up for longer do tend to have higher interest rates.

Stocks & Shares ISAs don’t usually have a minimum commitment, which means you can take your money out at any point. That said, your money has to be converted back into cash before it can be withdrawn.

ISAs guideQ: What is a Help to Buy ISA?

A: A Help to Buy ISA is an ISA designed to help first-time buyers save up a deposit for their home. The Government will add 25% to the savings, up to a maximum of £3,000 on savings of £12,000. If you pay into a Help to Buy ISA in the current tax year, you cannot also pay into another Cash ISA.

Q: Could I take advantage of a Lifetime ISA?

A: You must be 18 or over but under 40 to open a Lifetime ISA. You can use a Lifetime ISA to buy your first home or save for later life. You can put in up to £4,000 each year until you’re 50. The Government will add a 25% bonus to your savings, up to a maximum of £1,000 per year.

Q: What is an Innovative Finance ISA?

A: An Innovative Finance ISA allows individuals to use some or all of their annual ISA allowance to lend funds through the Peer to Peer lending market. Peer to Peer lending allows individuals and companies to borrow money directly from lenders. Your capital and interest may be at risk in an Innovative Finance ISA and your investment is not covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Q: Is tax payable on ISA dividend income?

A: No tax is payable on dividend income. You don’t pay tax on any dividends paid inside your ISA. Outside of an ISA, you currently receive a £2,000 dividend income allowance.

Q: Is Capital Gains Tax (CGT) payable on my ISA investment gains?

A: You don’t have to pay any CGT on profits. You make a profit when you sell an investment for more than you purchased it for. If you invest outside an ISA, excluding residential property, any profits made above the annual CGT allowance for individuals (£12,000 in 2019/20 tax year) would be subject to CGT. For basic rate taxpayers, CGT is 10% or more. For higher and additional rate taxpayers, CGT is 20%.

Q: I already have ISAs with several different providers. Can I consolidate them?

A: Yes you can, and you won’t lose the tax- efficient ‘wrapper’ status. Many previously attractive savings accounts cease to have a good rate of interest, and naturally some Stocks & Shares ISAs don’t perform as well as investors would have hoped. Consolidating your ISAs may also substantially reduce your paperwork. We’ll be happy to talk you through the advantages and disadvantages of doing it.

Q: Can I transfer my existing ISA?

A: Yes, you can transfer an existing ISA from one provider to another at any time as long as the product terms and conditions allow it. If you want to transfer money you’ve invested in an ISA during the current tax year, you must transfer all of it. For money you invested in previous years, you can choose to transfer all or part of your savings.

Q: What happens to my ISA if die prematurely?

A: The rules on ISA death benefits allow for an extra ISA allowance to the deceased’s spouse or registered civil partner.

If you’re looking for ways to grow the value of your wealth for the longer term, investing through an appropriate ISA provides the potential to do this and has the added benefit of protecting the gains you make from both Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax.

If you would like to review your situation or discuss the options available, please contact us for further information – we look forward to hearing from you.

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Millennials Get Real With The Numbers

 560 315 Jess Easby
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Making Sacrifices For Home Ownership Over Retirement

Millennials are chasing the home ownership dream at the potential cost of a lower income in retirement, new research[1] shows.

Over a third (35%) of millennials say they prioritise saving for a deposit on a home instead of their retirement. Nearly a fifth (19%) say buying a house is the main reason they don’t save more into their pension, while 10% say student debt stops them saving into a pension. One in 11 (9%) admits that frequently changing jobs affects their ability to make regular pension contributions.

Millennials seem willing to make sacrifices for home ownership, with one in ten (10%) living with parents instead of renting to help save more money for a home. The study found men are almost twice as likely (20%) to be heading home compared to women (11%).

Bank Of Mum And Dad

Despite worries about graduate debt and the squeeze on wages, on average, nearly a third (31%) expect to buy their first property by the age of 30, with men (39%) more confident than women (26%) they’ll achieve their ambition. However, the research shows they won’t all have to save hard – an optimistic 20% expect to receive financial aid from the Bank of Mum and Dad.

Industry data[2] shows millennials are right to be hopeful about home ownership – around 365,600 first-time buyers completed mortgages in the year to July 2018, borrowing a total of £59.9 billion. The average age of the first-time buyer during the year was 30, borrowing an average £145,000 on a gross household income of £42,000.

But pensions are feeling the strain. The research found around 21% say they have not started saving for retirement yet, while 15% say pension saving does not motivate them, and 12% believe pensions are irrelevant to millennials.

Focused On Home Ownership

Retirement can seem daunting for millennials and is, of course, a long way off when you are contending with student debts and high rents. However, it is crucial to start saving for your pension as early on as possible, putting away as much as you can each time.

It is easier if you start doing this as soon as you start working, so you get used to the money going straight into your pension pot. Many will, at least, be saving through the workplace, which is a good start, and contributions should be regularly reviewed to ensure a significant fund can be built up.

Not all millennials, however, are focused on home ownership. According to the survey, approximately 17% of under-35s say buying a house is a not a realistic option at present, while 11% say that saving for a house deposit is not a financial priority. And it is not just millennials, as the research shows that one in seven 35-54-year- olds have given up on the hope of ever owning a home.

Don’t Let Saving Become A Daunting Prospect

Juggling buying a house with saving for retirement is no doubt a challenge, and it is inevitable that something may get dropped, which unfortunately appears to be retirement saving. However, it is important to start saving for your pension as early on as possible. To find out how we can help, please contact us – we look forward to hearing from you.

Source data
[1]Consumer Intelligence conducted an independent online survey for Prudential between 20 and 21 June 2018 among 1,178 UK adults
[2]https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/house-purchase-activity-slows-in-june-but-remortgaging-activityremains-high/
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Minimising Inheritance Tax Liabilities

 560 315 Jess Easby
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Careful Planning Can Reduce Or Even Eliminate The Inheritance Tax Payable

Intergenerational planning helps you put financial measures in place to benefit your children later in life, and possibly even your future grandchildren, so it’s important to start planning early.

You may want to keep an element of control when passing on your assets. You may want your money to be used for a particular reason, such as paying for school or university fees or for a first property deposit. Or you may just want to make sure your money stays within the family.

Without appropriate provision, Inheritance Tax (IHT) could become payable on your taxable estate that you leave behind when you pass away. Your taxable estate is made up of all the assets that you owned, the share of any assets that are jointly owned, and the share of any assets that pass automatically by survivorship. Careful planning can reduce or even eliminate the IHT payable.

IHT is not payable on the first part of the value of your estate – the ‘nil-rate band’. The nil-rate band is currently £325,000. If the total value of your estate does not exceed the nil-rate band, no IHT is payable. Outstanding debts and funeral expenses can be deducted from the value of your estate.

 

baby hand holding a man's handLeave Your Interest In The Family Home

Commencing 6 April 2017, an additional ‘residence nil-rate band’ (RNRB) allowance was introduced if you leave your interest in the family home to direct descendants (such as children, step-children and/or grandchildren). This only applies to your main home but can be available even if that home had been sold after July 2016.

The RNRB is being phased in gradually. For the 2018/19 tax year, the maximum additional allowance is £125,000, increasing your total IHT allowance to £450,000 (£900,000 for a married couple). The maximum allowance will rise by £25,000 each tax year until it reaches £175,000 in 2020. This will give you a potential total IHT allowance of £500,000 or £1 million for a married couple. For estates worth more than £2 million, the tax relief is tapered away.

There are legitimate ways to plan to reduce the amount of IHT you may have to pay. We can advise you on the ways that you may mitigate any exposure, including these:

Make A Will

Dying intestate, or dying without a Will, means that you may not be making the most of the IHT exemption that exists if you wish your estate to pass to your spouse or registered civil partner. For example, if you don’t make a Will, then relatives other than your spouse or registered civil partner may be entitled to a share of your estate, and this might trigger an IHT liability.

Make Lifetime Gifts

Gifts made more than seven years before the donor dies, to an individual or to a bare trust, are free of IHT. So, it might be appropriate to pass on some of your wealth while you are still alive. This will reduce the value of your estate when it is assessed for IHT purposes, and there is no limit on the sums you can pass on.

You can gift as much as you wish, and this is known as a ‘Potentially Exempt Transfer’ (PET). If you live for seven years after making such a gift, then it will be exempt from IHT, but should you be unfortunate enough to die within seven years, then it will still be counted as part of your estate if it is above the annual gift allowance. However, the longer you survive after making the gift (subject to surviving at least three years), the lower the IHT charge.

You need to be careful if you are giving away your home to your children with conditions attached to it, or if you give it away but continue to benefit from it. This is known as a ‘Gift with Reservation of Benefit’.

Leave A Proportion To Charity

Being generous to your favourite charity can reduce your tax bill. If you leave at least 10% of your estate to a charity or number of charities, then your IHT liability on the taxable portion of the estate is reduced to 36% rather than 40%.

Set Up A Trust

As part of your Inheritance Tax planning, you may want to consider putting assets in trust – either during your lifetime or under the terms of your Will. Putting assets in trust – rather than making a direct gift to a beneficiary – can be a more flexible way of achieving your objectives.

Family trusts can be useful as a way of reducing IHT, making provision for your children and spouse, and potentially protecting family businesses. Trusts enable the donor to control who benefits (the beneficiaries) and under what circumstances, sometimes long after the donor’s death.

Compare this with making a direct gift (for example, to a child), which offers no control to the donor once given. When you set up a trust, it is a legal arrangement, and you will need to appoint ‘trustees’ who are responsible for holding and managing the assets. Trustees have a responsibility to manage the trust on behalf of and in the best interest of the beneficiaries, in accordance with the trust terms. The terms will be set out in a legal document called ‘the trust deed’.

Passing On Our Assets To Our Loved Ones

Being wealthy can have its benefits, and its challenges too. When we die, we like to imagine that we can pass on our assets to our loved ones so that they can benefit from them. In order for them to benefit fully from our assets, it is important to consider the impact of Inheritance Tax. If you would like further guidance on Inheritance Tax Planning then please contact us.

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.

 

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Tax Relief and Pensions

 560 315 Jess Easby
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Annual and lifetime limits

When it comes to managing money, one of the things some people find most difficult to understand is the tax relief they receive on payments into their pension. Tax relief means some of your money that would have gone to the Government as tax goes into your pension instead. You can put as much as you want into your pension, but there are annual and lifetime limits on how much tax relief you get on your pension contributions.

Tax relief on your annual pension contributions

If you’re a UK taxpayer, in the tax year 2018/19 the standard rule is that you’ll receive tax relief on pension contributions of up to 100% of your earnings or a £40,000 annual allowance, whichever is lower. Any contributions you make over this limit will be subject to Income Tax at the highest rate you pay. However, you can carry forward unused allowances from the previous three years, as long as you were a member of a pension scheme during those years.

But, there is an exception to this standard rule. If you have a defined contribution pension and you start to draw money from it, the annual allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 income where adjusted income exceeds £150,000.

The Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA)

In the tax year 2018/19, if you start to take money from your defined contribution pension, this can trigger a lower annual allowance of £4,000. This is known as the ‘Money Purchase Annual Allowance’ (MPAA).

That means you’ll only receive tax relief on pension contributions of up to 100% of your earnings or £4,000, whichever is the lower.

Whether the lower £4,000 annual allowance applies depends on how you access your pension pot, and there are some complicated rules around this.

The main situations when you’ll trigger the MPAA are:

  • If you start to take ad-hoc lump sums from your pension pot
  • If you put your pension pot money into an income drawdown fund and start to take income

The MPAA will not be triggered if you take:

  • A tax-free cash lump sum and buy an annuity (an insurance product that gives you a guaranteed income for life)
  • A tax-free cash lump sum and put your pension pot into an income drawdown product but don’t take any income from it

You can’t carry over any unused MPAA to another tax year. The lower annual allowance of £4,000 only applies to contributions to defined contribution pensions and not defined benefit pension schemes.

Tax relief if you’re a non-taxpayer

If you’re not earning enough to pay Income Tax, you’ll still qualify to have tax relief added to your contributions up to a certain amount.

The maximum you can pay is £2,880 a year or 100% of your earnings – subject to your annual allowance.

Tax relief is added to your contribution, so if you pay £2,880, a total of £3,600 a year will be paid into your pension scheme, even if you earn less than this.

How much can you build up in your pension?

A pension lifetime allowance puts a top limit on the value of pension benefits that you can receive without having to pay a tax charge.

The pension lifetime allowance is £1,030,000 for the tax year 2018/19. Any amount above this is subject to a tax charge of 25% if paid as pension, or 55% if paid as a lump sum.

Workplace pensions, automatic enrolment and tax relief

Since October 2012, a system has been gradually phased in requiring employers to automatically enrol all eligible workers into a workplace pension.

It requires a minimum total contribution, made up of the employer’s contribution, the worker’s contribution and the tax relief.

For more information please visit our pension page  or book a chat with our expert team now.

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