I paid 20k into UK ISA, then moved abroad. Unfortunately I’m not coming back before the tax year ends so I’ll be considered non UK tax resident for the entire year. Thus, whatever I paid in April will be ineligible.
Ok, no worries, contacted T212 to tell them about that.
Well… apparently T212 is absolutely unaware of ISA regulations and tell me to just sell some funds and withdraw them, which is of course against HMRC and ISA regulation.
I mean, there’s a lot of things for T212 like voiding the ISA, accounting for the growth, providing me with all the documents and so on. And they’re just “meh, just sell funds and move them to GIA”.
Is T212 in breach of ISA rules?
Some circumstances result in all subscriptions to an ISA made in that year, including any income or growth relating to those subscriptions (other than the exceptions), needing to be removed and any Lifetime ISA bonus received for that year returned to HMRC.
declares in the tax year that they are non-resident — the subscriptions cannot be reinstated after the tax year end even if the investor later establishes they were a resident
The money can stay there. You just can’t add more money after moving abroad (you can’t anyway after reaching the limit). I asked the same question to HMRC when I planned to move abroad early in the year and they told me any funds added to an ISA before leaving can remain.
If you want confirmation yourself for the email chain you can email savings.audit@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk assuming the email didn’t change
To quote HMRC: “You can continue to pay in to your ISA until you leave the United Kingdom. Your ISA can remain open and continue to make tax free gains, but you cannot add any new funds, when you are a non UK resident.”
"Any funds you subscribed to an ISA before you leave the United Kingdom can stay in the ISA if you wish. You just cannot add to it once you leave the UK.
I know, but this advice is not complete, they just mean the subscriptions from the tax years that you were UK tax resident. (It says, you can’t add funds while not UK tax resident)
My email was literally the same situation as you. “I’m leaving UK next month but I paid into ISA already and will not be a tax resident for this year”
You can email them yourself for your own peace of mind
Wait! So you’re saying, that you paid into an ISA, say for the tax year 2023-2024, say on 15 of April 2023. Then you left the UK say in May.
And according to the Statutory Residence Test you were NOT a UK tax resident for the entire 2023-2024 year? (no split year treatment or anything like that, just an actual non UK tax resident).
Any chance you have the full original email (what you send them and what they replied, without any identification info ofc)
June but yes. You can email them and have your own proof in case anything has changed in the last few years. When I emailed they only took a couple weeks to reply