What are ISAs?

£20,000 is the maximum amount you can contribute to your ISAs each tax year. This allowance is shared between all of your ISA accounts. If you have a Stocks ISA and a Cash ISA, you can’t contribute more than £20,000 to them combined. However, there are no restrictions on how you split the £20,000 allowance. You can put it all in one account or split it across multiple accounts with different providers.

Your 212 ISAs will be flexible. This means you can withdraw any amount and deposit it back without impacting your allowance as long as you do it within the same tax year. The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April.

For example, if you deposit £20,000 on the 6th of April 2024, you can withdraw it on the same day and deposit it back anytime you want until the 5th of April 2025.

Any UK resident over 18 can have an ISA account.

There are five types of ISAs:

• Cash ISA
• Stocks and shares ISA
• Innovative finance ISA
• Lifetime ISA
• Junior ISA

You can transfer your ISAs in and out of Trading 212 without any restrictions or fees, although your other broker may charge you a fee.

To learn more about ISA transfers, visit our ISA & Portfolio transfers section.

You can have multiple ISAs with multiple brokers. The only thing you need to make sure is that you don’t breach your £20,000 annual allowance if you have ISAs with multiple brokers.

If you think you may have contributed more than the annual allowance, please contact HMRC for more information.

💰Cash ISA

You will only be able to hold cash in a Cash ISA. Investments and any other non-cash financial instruments are prohibited.

📈Stocks ISA

In your 212 Stocks ISA you can hold:

• Stocks
• ETFs
• Cash
• Certain instruments resulting from corporate actions (Learn more here)

The UK’s HMRC defines which investments are eligible. Most stocks and ETFs are eligible but their status can change if they get delisted from a certain exchange. A common example is a down listing from a US stock exchange, like NASDAQ or NYSE, to OTC Markets. Unlike NASDAQ and NYSE, OTC Markets is not a recognised exchange by HMRC, so most investments would be ineligible.

If you hold shares that no longer qualify for your Stocks ISA account, you’ll be notified of this change via email and in-app notification. You’ll usually be able to hold or sell your shares up to a specific deadline, after which they’ll be automatically sold. The proceeds from these sales can remain in your Stocks ISA.

If you open an ISA in the UK and later relocate abroad, you are generally not allowed to add more funds to it unless you are a Crown employee working overseas or their spouse or civil partner. Notify your ISA provider when you no longer reside in the UK.

You can keep your ISA account and benefit from tax relief on the existing funds and investments, but you cannot make further contributions.

If you come back and become a UK resident once more, you can resume contributing to your ISA.

The UK ISA is a newly announced ISA type, which will have its own £5,000 annual allowance in addition to the existing £20,000 annual ISA allowance. Read more 👉 here or reach out to HMRC's Helpline.