ISAs - Accounts help and advice

The government has introduced some standards for ISAs to help investors choose their investments. CAT stands for Cost, Access and Terms. There is no requirement for every ISA to meet the standards. Meeting the standards is not an indication that a particular investment will be good or bad, but simply that it has a certain level of charges and access, and a low minimum investment.

The stocks and shares component of the CAT standards has been devised more with managed funds and tracker funds rather than self select ISAs in mind. Therefore our ISA does not currently carry the CAT Mark. We believe, however, that our ISA will provide you with fair charges, easy access and fair terms.

CAT Standards are:

• NOT a Government endorsement of a product
• NOT a guarantee
• NOT an indication of a superior product - a CAT Standard product may do better or worse than a non-CAT Standard product
• NOT necessarily an indication of good investment performance - many of the best performing and most popular funds may not be to CAT Standard.
• NOT a specific recommendation that a product is right for you
• NOT a substitute for advice from a qualified adviser

Only individual persons are eligible provided they are 18 years of age or older and a UK resident (excluding the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) for tax purposes. You cannot hold an ISA jointly with, or on behalf of, anyone else.

For example, you cannot open an ISA with your spouse.

If you are uncertain as to whether you are entitled to open an ISA, you should consult HMRC.

The HMRC does not allow the direct transfer of existing holdings into an ISA account unless they are being transferred from another ISA account you hold.

Where shares are held outside an ISA the shares can be kept in the ISA Wrapper by:

Selling the shares, then:

Transferring the monies from the general cash account to the ISA Cash Account.

The shares can then be bought back in the ISA.

Please note that HB Markets standard charges apply for processing the above and that you will be liable to pay stamp duty/SDRT on the shares bought back in the ISA account. 

Whilst your ISA is being transferred to us there can be a rise in the market which would not be reflected in your transfer value as this is taken at the date transferred and may take sometime to clear with us so that you can resume trading.

Before requesting an ISA transfer, you should be aware of the following:

• Your existing ISA Manager may charge you for the transfer in terms of a Plan Closure charge and transferring Stock out to HB.
• You may need to liquidate holdings in your existing ISA account before it can be transferred to HB due to stock eligibility (see 'What are Eligible-Investments?' below). The transfer process may take varying lengths of time to complete depending on the stocks held and any pending transactions.

HMRC have set guidelines on which investments can be held in an ISA account.

For the stocks and shares component, these are generally shares, which are officially listed on a recognised stock exchange such as the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Request an ISA Transfer Form from your HB Markets broker or download one here.

Existing customers can open the ISA by accepting the declaration and authorisation of the ISA. New customers have to complete the application form.

Once the ISA has been opened, you can choose to Subscribe or Transfer an existing ISA to HB Markets by downloading, printing and completing the relevant form here.

This allows us to contact your current plan manager in order to initiate the transfer.

Return the transfer form signed and dated to HB Markets with a cheque totalling the annual administration fee £50.

HMRC rules only allow individuals to have one Stocks & Shares ISA in any one-tax year. Therefore, if you subscribe to a Stocks & Shares ISA, you cannot have another Stocks & Shares ISA in the same tax year.

During the application process, you will be asked to declare that you will only have one Stocks & Shares ISA per tax year.

The responsibility lies with you.

You may have a Cash ISA (with a different ISA provider) per tax year, but your total subscription to all types of ISA must not exceed the overall ISA limit per tax year.

HB Markets however only offers a Self Select Stocks & Shares ISA and not a Cash ISA.

HB Markets commission for trading in an ISA account are exactly the same as in our standard advisory account.

Please see Charges for the full information. The Annual Management Charge (AMC) is £50 paid on the commencement of the ISA and on subsequent yearly anniversaries. Currently the annual management fee will be waived for the first year of the ISA.

The AMC does not change even if you have more than one tax year's ISAs with HB Markets. (i.e. ISA from tax year 10/11 transferred in and an ISA with HB in 11/12)

An ISA can be cancelled, or in HMRC terms made 'void', if there has been a breach of the ISA regulations. An example would be if an investor has subscribed to more than one Stocks and Shares ISA in the same tax year. In this case, the second ISA would be made void.

If the ISA is made 'void' or if you decide to cancel there may be shortfall in the amount of initial subscription returned if you have already invested your money.

The Annual Management charge is non refundable.

From 6 April 2004 ISA managers could no longer claim back 10% tax deducted at the source of the dividend payment. 

This means that you will receive dividends in the ISA wrapper just as any one else who owns the shares. However an ISA is still exempt from Capital Gains tax on any growth in the value of the shares themselves.

Another advantage is that income from Dividends in an ISA has the added advantage for higher rate taxpayers of only 10% deduction instead of 32.5%

Income from ISA does not need to be reported in your annual tax returns. This will mean less time and trouble for those people completing their returns.

In a Stocks and Shares ISA, interest received on cash will be subject to a 20% tax. ISA accounts still attract stamp duty on purchases.

It is important to remember that tax rates and legislation may be subject to change.

HB Markets offers a Self Select Stocks & Shares ISA.

The maximum that you can invest in the 2011/2012 Tax Year is £10,680. 

Please note that you can only invest in one Stocks & Shares ISA in each tax year.

The process is, to a large extent, dependent upon your current plan manager, whom we will contact as soon as we have received the transfer instruction from you. 

We will make best endeavours to ensure that the transfer is completed within 30 days, which is considered industry best practice.

Please note that transfer times can fluctuate depending on the time of year and the plan manager involved.

After you have opened your ISA account and sent in your subscription or transfer form with you annual fee.

Once the cheque has cleared you may start trading with the available funds, or when your holdings have transferred across to HB Markets from the other ISA Manager.

The Current subscription limit for the 2011/2012 Tax Year is £10,680. 

Subscription limits may be subject to review at any time by the Treasury.