Tax Free Savings | Over Fifties Tax Free Accounts

One of the few perks savers who are tax payers have in the current age of low interest rates is the tax free savings accounts that are available.

The First is very widely known and is the ISA (but there is another see below) and with the annual ISA savings amount linked to the rate of inflation the amount that can be saved in this tax free wrapper increases every year.

For the tax year 2012/2013 the allowance is £11,280 per person.

£5,640 can be subscribed to a Cash ISA. You can only subscribe to one Cash ISA during any tax year. If you subscribe to more than one Cash ISA, your subscriptions to the last one will be invalid and tax exemptions will not apply.

For 2012/2012 a saver could subscribe:

£5,640 to a Cash ISA and £5,640 to a Stocks and Shares ISA
£2,000 to a Cash ISA and £9,280 to a Stocks and Shares ISA
£0 to a Cash ISA and £11,280 to a Stocks and Shares ISA

Withdrawals do not have any effect on the subscription limits and once withdrawn, funds cannot be reinvested in the ISA if the annual subscription limit will be exceeded. For example if £5,640 was paid in during a tax year and subsequently in the same tax year £2,500 was drawn out, no further subscriptions could be made until the following tax year. If the maximum subscriptions have not been made in one tax year, the balance cannot be carried forward into the next one.

Interest Rates for savers on cash ISAs change all the time but the best rates are often advertised in the papers. For those looking for a stocks and shares tax free ISA more onformation on a couple of options can be found below.

Scottish Friendly

With a My Select (ISA) from Scottish Friendly you can start investing now for the future, whatever your dreams may be. Build a tax-free investment starting from as little as £10 per month. What’s more, customers who take out a plan in the next two months (until 1^st April 2013) will be entered into a draw to win an 4^th generation iPad.

Legal & General

Legal & General Investment Management are one of the largest investors in the UK stock market, and one of the largest ISA providers in the UK with over £6 billion invested. (Source: IMA November 2011).

Virgin Money

Virgin Money offer a FTSE Tracker ISA allowing you to invest in the long-term potential of stock market shares. You can pay in lump sums or regular monthly amounts, starting from £1. Virgin customers have already invested over £2.1 billion in this tax free ISA index tracker.

The 2nd tax free break for savers is less well known! as people do not realise that the UK Government lets you invest £25 per month tax-free with a friendly society allowing you to put some money away for a rainy day without paying tax. There are two we have found with one being a 10 year investment for anyone aged between 16 and 64 which is designed to help you take full advantage of your tax-free savings allowance and the other is another allowing you to invest £25 a month if you are a UK residents aged 16 - 55 over 10 years. If you are interested in one of these we have a dedicated page explaining them that you can reach by clicking below.