Stocks and shares ISA

An ISA, or Individual Savings Account, is a tax-efficient savings or investment account that allows you to put money into a wide range of investments, from individual stocks and shares to funds, bonds and ETFs. This type of account is also known as a ‘tax wrapper’ and essentially allows you to be exempt from paying income, capital gains and dividend tax when you place up to £20,000 into your ISA account. Learn more about ISA and how they work with our stocks and shares ISA guide.

You can pay into one stocks and shares ISA account in each tax year, so if you opened one already, you wouldn’t be able to open one until the new tax year starts. You can, however, transfer your existing stocks and shares ISA over from a different ISA provider. See our guide for more ISA rules.

Your annual ISA allowance for the 2022/2023 tax year is £20,000. This means you could put up to a total of £20,000 into one or multiple ISA accounts (eg. LISA, cash ISA, stocks and shares ISA), and you would be exempt from paying income, capital gains and dividend tax on any gains you make. Make sure you use your allowance by the end of the tax year on 5 April each year. Any unused allowance won’t be carried over to the following tax year, so you lose it forever if you don’t use it.

To transfer your stocks and shares ISA from another provider to Freetrade, you just need to complete a form, and we will do the rest for you. The transfer process might take four to six weeks, but we will let you know when it’s all completed.

You’ll need to be 18 years of age or over and a UK resident to open an investment ISA. If you’ve already opened a stocks and shares ISA in the current tax year, you won’t be eligible for a new account. You can’t open a stocks and shares ISA for someone else.

You don’t need thousands of pounds to open an ISA account. If you want to open a stocks and shares ISA with Freetrade, you can start from £2.

Yes, you can hold more than one ISA at once, so you can have multiple cash ISAs or stocks and shares ISAs with different providers. However, each tax year you can only open or contribute to one of each type of ISA account. Your yearly allowance will be split across these accounts.
If you wish to transfer your existing ISA to a different provider during the tax year, you will be able to do so; just watch out for any transfer out fees that might apply.

No, you can’t transfer stocks you already hold in a regular brokerage account into an investment ISA. To get the tax benefits that come with an ISA, you have to deposit money into one and then invest it. This means anyone who holds stocks and shares in a regular brokerage account will have to carry out bed and ISA transactions if they want to move them into a stocks and shares ISA.

The simple answer is yes! 
Investment ISA, share dealing ISA and trading ISA are just other names for a stocks and shares ISA.  All four investment accounts offer a tax-efficient home for your investments. Tax rules for ISA accounts can change and their benefits depend on your circumstances.
You can invest in a wide range of instruments, including stocks and shares, ETFs or investment trusts.

There are lots of DIY ISA platforms in the UK. When it comes to finding the best stocks and shares ISA provider, the answer if the one that suits your needs the best. We all have different aims when we invest and we also have different different requirements from an ISA provider. People tend to compare ISA platforms on cost, investment choice, education and whether the SIA provider is app or web-based.