ISA opening and subscription rules

Hi, I just wanted to clarify my understanding on the treatment of transfers within the ISA subscription rules. All sources appear to say you cannot open AND pay new subscriptions into two different ISAs of the same kind within the same tax year. Is it correct that you can still apply for and open more than one ISA account of the same kind, as long as you do not pay new subscriptions into more than one? I am in a scenario where I have opened a Stocks and Shares ISA in the current tax year and have contributed the current year's allowance, but I am keen to change providers. Would I be allowed to open another Stocks and Shares ISA with a new provider and transfer across? It would mean that I have applied for and opened two Stocks and Shares ISAs within the same tax year, but only paid new subscriptions into one of them, and transferred into the other. Many thanks

Hi,

No, you cannot open another one this tax year as you have fully contributed  payments. You can see guidance here:

Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)

Thank you.

Is there not a distinction between opening (i.e. applying for an empty unfunded account) and subscribing to (i.e. funding) an ISA account? If your guidance is correct, then the extension of that is that you are unable to transfer existing funds from one ISA provider to another within the tax year if you have already contributed in the current tax year. Surely that cannot be correct? The link you shared states that: "You can transfer your Individual Savings Account (ISA) from one provider to another at any time." which appears to contradict the guidance here. Please could you confirm and clarify? Thank you!

Hello, I have this doubt as well and I agree that the information on the link provided is not clear enough for our case.

Hi SSISA B,

Your scenario is more about switching accounts and whilst this is still a new account, it is all done by the ISA provider and this is allowed. To open another account and leave empty, you cannot do that.

Thank you.