This article is part of Morningstar’s Guide to Financial Planning, your handbook for making the most of your tax-free investing opportunities, reducing your annual – and lifetime – tax bill while keeping HMRC onside.
Not taking advantage of ISA allowances equates to an annual tax waste of £1.3 billion a year according to the TaxAction 2015 report. The majority of this waste is cash ISAs, as savers fail to top up their annual tax-efficient allowance. As of July you can shield up to £15,000 in a cash ISA account, but you only have until the clock strikes midnight on the night of April 5 to take advantage of this allowance. One minute after – and into April 6 – and you lose the 2014/15 tax year’s ISA allowance.
Karen Barrett, chief executive of unbiased.co.uk who conducted the TaxAction report said that a total of £4.9 billion is set to be wasted in overall tax inefficiencies this year, £200 million more than last year, with ISA waste making up a large share of this.
Cash is an important part of any investment portfolio. It provides liquidity, meaning that you are able to take advantage of a pressing investment opportunity at a moment’s notice, or – more realistically – you are ready to pay for a broken boiler. Cash also provide diversification, a hedge against volatile equity and bond markets.
The asset has taken a considerable hit over the last six years however – ever since the Bank of England lowered base interest rate to 0.5%. Last week marked the sixth anniversary of base rate being cut to its lowest ever level.
And things do not look likely to improve any time soon. Back in July 2009, after just three months of low rates, market forecasters predicted that base rate would rise back up to 4.5% by January 2013, according to data from the Bank of England. By January 2014, market forecasters were more bearish, but they predicted that rates would be back up to just shy of 3% by July 2018. Now however, the forecast looks bleak – the consensus view is rates will rise, but only to a paltry 1% and not until 2019.
Susan Hannums from independent savings advice site Savingschampion.co.uk said that there was some encouraging news for savers, as the recent FCA Cash Market Study has recognised that there are issues within the market and hopefully some of its proposals will make steps to encourage more competition.
“There is £12 billion sitting in cash ISAs paying less than 0.5% so savers need to use all the weapons in their armoury in order to earn the best interest rates available,” Hannums said. “From high interest paying current accounts paying up to 5%, to a mix of longer term fixed rates and the best easy access accounts, in order to have at least some cash earning the highest rates now, while retaining some funds in accessible accounts, should rates rise in the near future.”