The annual ISA allowance for 2023/24 is £20,000. This means £20,000 is the upper limit on how much you can put into all types of ISAs, combined.
You might choose to put the full £20,000 into one type, or spread across multiple. That's on you.
Different ISA types, different limits
There are five types of ISA in the UK, and some of them have lower limits.
| Cash ISA: | £20,000 annual limit |
|---|---|
| Stocks and Shares ISA: | £20,000 annual limit |
| Junior ISA: | £9,000 annual limit |
| Lifetime ISA: | £4,000 annual limit |
| Innovative Finance ISA: | £20,000 annual limit |
Example 1: You pay the full £20,000 into a cash ISA. Simple.
Example 2: You pay £10,000 into a cash ISA, £5,000 into a stocks and shares ISA, and decide not to use the remaining £5,000 allowance.
Example 3: You max out your Junior ISA allowance of £9,000, and pay the remaining £11,000 into a stocks and shares ISA.
You get the idea!
Other ISA limits to be aware of
You can only pay in to, and open, one of each type of ISA per year
If you have more than one ISA account of a given type, you'll only be able to pay into one per year.
This means it's important to pick the best ISA to contribute to, with favourable interest rates or fee structures.
On the same theme, you can only open one of each type per year, too.
You and your partner have separate allowances
A married couple, for example, would each benefit from the £20,000 limit. This could see £40,000 per year contributed to ISAs as a household.
Flexible ISAs
Back in the old days, all ISAs were 'inflexible'. This meant that if you withdrew money from an ISA, you couldn't just re-add it without spending more of your annual allowance.
For example, if you paid £20,000 into a non-flexible ISA, and withdrew £5,000, then you won't be able to pay any money back in.
Nope - you'll have to wait until April for the new tax year.
Thankfully, more providers are now offering flexible ISAs. In the above example, you'd be able to top back up to £20,000. This gets around one of the key limitations of ISAs.
If this is important to you, make sure you open a flexible ISA.
Important ISA facts
Your ISA limit refreshes on the 5th of April each year. Those eager to fill up their new allowance should be ready to go at this time. If you've left it late, we recommend choosing a new ISA in March, before your allowance is forever lost!
You can combine separate ISAs into a single ISA to keep things simple.
There is no limit on how much money you can hold in an ISA in total. There are some ISA millionaires in the UK - impressive.
You can transfer money between different types of ISA.
Historical ISA limits
The £20,000 limit has been in place since the 2017/18 tax year. Before this, it was around £15,000.
2014/15 was the first year where cash ISAs and stocks and shares ISAs had the same limit. The year before, the investment ISA limit was £11,520 and the cash ISA just £5,760.
Now let's go way back, to 1999/00 when ISAs made their debut. The cash ISA limit was only £3,000, and stocks and shares was £7,000.
Savers and investors will be hoping that the limit increases again in the near future. Especially with inflation pushing up cost of living, and higher interest rates increasing the need for tax protection. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
