The New Year is here, and we’re all resolving to right the wrongs of overindulgence – food and financial! After treating everyone else, January is the perfect time to get focussed and to do something for you. What better way to start as you mean to go on by making the money you do have work harder for you? At Moyes Investments, we’re ready to guide you through solutions that can enhance and improve your finances. So, let’s look at ISA’s (Induvial Savings Accounts), and how they can help you save more tax-free.

How do they work?

Put simply, an ISA is a savings account that doesn’t incur tax on the money accumulated by what you save. Since their inception, the Government has capped the amount you can save in these accounts every year. When they were introduced in 1999, the cap was a modest £3,000 and but savers in 2017/18 can put up to £20,000 in their ISAs. If you’d committed to saving the maximum amount from the beginning, you would have put in around £101,000 to date tax-free. A healthy amount by anyone’s standards.

What types of ISA’s are there?

For investment firms like ours there are two main options one would be a Cash ISA and the other would be a Stocks and Shares ISA.

What are the benefits of ISAs?

Putting your savings into an ISA is a way to avoid paying income tax on any income in the future and capital gains tax on any growth.

Some savers will be delighted by the new flexible ISA rules that some providers have adopted. Under these rules you can put money in during the tax year and remove it if required, mindful that you need to ensure the right amount of money is in at the end of the tax year because this is the amount that would be allowed to stay in long term for that particular year. This allows you access to some of your money and freedom to make the ISA work for you.

How can I improve my ISA rate?

Don’t assume the ISAs you have now are the ISAs you are stuck with. You have a right to transfer your ISA to a different provider, which is especially important as some old ISA rates are woefully low. At Moyes Investments, we routinely check our customers’ have the right deal and can help you move or consolidate multiple ISAs together. With less than 90 days left to use your 2016/17 ISA limit of £15,240 so it’s important that you take advantage of that before the window closes.

If you’re ready to start 2017 by getting serious about your savings, give us a call on 01638 429975 or contact us at [email protected].