A “Bed & ISA” transfer can help you shield more of your income and capital gains from the taxman by moving your investments inside an individual savings account (ISA) – a tax-free wrapper. It’s a strange name but a useful transaction.
As moving your investments inside an ISA involves selling them on the open market before repurchasing them, the “Bed & ISA” deadline is usually several days before the end of the tax year.
Time is running out if you want to take advantage of this tax-saving move before the end of the fiscal year on 5 April. We share a round-up of the cut-off dates across several major UK investment platforms.
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‘Bed & ISA’ cut-off dates
|
Platform |
“Bed & ISA” deadline |
|
Hargreaves Lansdown |
4 April (2pm) |
|
AJ Bell |
28 March (5pm) |
|
Bestinvest |
1 April |
|
Interactive Investor |
31 March (4.30pm) |
|
Vanguard |
Five business days before end of tax year (28 March) |
|
Fidelity Investments |
31 March (9pm) |
|
Charles Stanley |
1 April |
|
Barclays Smart Investor |
Funds: 3 April (9am) Other: 4 April (3.30pm) |
Note: In some instances, investment platforms can manage the buying and selling process on your behalf but, in others, you may need to manage it yourself. It is worth looking into your platform’s approach sooner rather than later so you understand what is involved in plenty of time before the end of the tax year.
What is “Bed & ISA”?
As introduced previously, a “Bed & ISA” transaction involves transferring existing assets from a regular account into an ISA wrapper, where any future capital growth or income will be sheltered from the taxman.
As you can’t move the assets directly, the process involves selling the original investments before buying them back. A provider can manage this on your behalf.
When you sell the assets, you may have to pay capital gains tax if you have already exceeded your £3,000 annual capital gains allowance. However, once inside the ISA wrapper, the investments will be protected from tax in the future.
You could even avoid capital gains tax entirely by selling your assets gradually and realising gains in instalments, provided you keep them below £3,000.
Just remember that carrying out a “Bed & ISA” transaction uses up some of your annual £20,000 ISA allowance.
“The name is highly confusing, because it doesn’t actually mean anything,” said Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown. She explains that it is the legacy of a strategy investors used to be able to use called “Bed & Breakfast”.
“This allowed you to sell your shares one day and bank gains just below the capital gains tax threshold for the year, and then buy them back the following day. It effectively reset your capital gain to zero, saving you capital gains tax,” Coles added.
“This was outlawed in 1998, but there’s an exception if you sell and buy back within an ISA.”
Is “Bed & ISA” worth it?
Analysis from investment platform Vanguard found that an investor with £200,000 in assets could potentially save £15,000 over the course of a decade by using “Bed & ISA” transactions. We delve into the analysis in closer detail in: “How ‘Bed & ISA’ could save you £15,000 over a decade”.
As well as protecting you from capital gains tax, moving your investments inside an ISA means you won’t have to pay any tax on your dividend income. This could prove valuable given the high rate at which dividends are taxed if you are a higher or additional-rate taxpayer. Once you exceed your annual dividend allowance (£500), dividends are taxed at 8.75% for basic-rate taxpayers, 33.75% for higher-rate taxpayers and 39.35% for additional-rate taxpayers.
Furthermore, successive governments have increased the tax burden for investors in recent years, meaning now could be a good time to take advantage of a “Bed & ISA” transfer to protect yourself from higher tax rates and lower allowances.
The current government hiked the basic and higher rates of capital gains tax to 18% and 24% during the Autumn Budget, up from 10% and 20% previously. Meanwhile, the previous Conservative government slashed the dividend allowance from £2,000 to £500 between 2022 and 2024, and the capital gains allowance from £12,300 to £3,000.
“The rush to ‘Bed & ISA’ came earlier than usual [in 2024/25], spurred on by anticipated changes to the CGT regime in the Autumn Budget,” said Myron Jobson, senior personal finance analyst at investment platform Interactive Investor. “But the reality is that any time is a good time to shelter investments within the tax-efficient ISA wrapper.”
“With the capital gains and dividend tax allowances less generous than they were in recent history, making full use of the ISA’s shield against capital gains and dividend taxes should be a priority for investors looking to maximise returns over the long haul,” he added.
