All rumours and speculation? Deliberate leaks, throwing ideas into the stir fry to see if they make a chow mein, sticking them onto the turntable and seeing who dances? Who knows. ISA allowances, the amount you can pay in (£20,000 and £9,000 for Junior ISAs) were frozen until 2030 in the October Budget. She is apparently looking closely at either abolishing Cash ISAs or restricting them to £4,000 a year, to encourage investment into stocks and shares; or just get more tax on the £billions ‘lanquishing’ in banks and building societies. And I heard an investment pundit on the radio bemoaning that our government is giving tax breaks to investors, most of whose ISA monies are actually invested in ‘foreign’ markets. What will she do and when will she do it – in other words, from this tax year, the next or 5pm on Budget day? And is there anything we can do about it? Probably not, apart from use it or lose it, as always, in this tax year.
“Cash ISA allowance could be cut this month”
Our mantra has long been ’straightforward advice that you can understand’. That can mean trying to simplify the many complex products and options with which the world of finance tries to befuddle its target audience.
