14th April 2017
Finally, The Innovative Finance ISA is here and Crowd2Fund is one of the only platforms to receive ISA manager approval by HMRC. The Innovative Finance ISA is launching on the 6th of April 2016. Under this new scheme, investors earnings from crowdlending and P2P investments will be exempt from tax, for investments up to the value of £15,240 for this current financial year.
The recent ISA guidance was published by HMRC for the Innovative Finance ISA last week. Under the new guidance, investors will only be allowed to hold one Innovative Finance ISA at a time each year, with one ISA manager. Good news is that investors and savers will get the option to choose multiple peer-to-peer loans from a range of borrowers and products and put into one tax free IF ISA.
Following HMRC consulting with P2P lenders, HMRC amended the draft legislation to allow loan repayments collected by lending platforms and passed to the ISA manager to be eligible for ISA status. For example: this means that as you receive repayments from a loan during the financial year, the earnings from repayments or re-invested repayments will still be eligible for IF ISA Tax relief.
Another regulatory amendment clarifies that peer-to-peer loans held outside of the ISA wrapper cannot be sold and repurchased inside an Innovative Finance ISA. The exception lies where the loans are sold and are made available for purchase at the same price by any lender in the open market. So if you already have an investment you can’t move it into your IF ISA.
Under the new regulation, each individual can to invest up to £15,240 in an ISA in the 2016-17 tax year. You can split this up however you like; for example, you could invest the whole £15,240 into an Innovative Finance ISA, or you could put £10,000 in a cash ISA and £5,240 into an Innovative Finance ISA, or any other combination you can think of (including stocks and shares ISAs).
These products are not savings products, so you don’t benefit for FSCS cover. Capital is at risk, but with that risk comes substantially better returns.
For more updates about the Innovative Finance ISA, look here: https://www.crowd2fund.com/marketing/innovative-finance-isa-or-ifisa
