what would happen to investments if ISA's dissapeared? (UK)

[mohawkbrah]

so i've been thinking. say 30 years from now the current Gov wants to get rid of ISA's. Does that mean current investments in ISA's would be switched over to a general account and then be taxed up the wazoo?

[nobodyspecial]

Or seized by the revolutionary council, or impounded by the lizard people, or made irrelevant by the singularity.

It would depend why the dissapeared

[seattlecyclone]

Yep, a number of things would be possible in theory. In practice, anything that would cause lots of middle-class savers to owe a couple hundred thousand of your currency units in taxes all in one year probably has next to no chance of passing Parliament.

[Doubleh]

Sure, anything could happen in theory, but you can only plan as best you can on the basis of the rules as they stand. It's worth bearing in mind though that when isa's themselves were introduced in 1997 they replaced the previous system of Peps and tessas (see wiki link https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax-exempt_special_savings_accoun)

The takeaway here is that even when the rules were changed to get rid of these oid accounts there were provisions to grandfather in existing accounts, or allow you to roll then into the new isa's on good terms. This is probably a pretty good indication of what would happen if isa's are eventually withdrawn.

Bear in mind also that those who have the most vested interest in isa's are those who have been investing in them the longest. By definition these are also the older people who turn out to vote in large numbers and so are generally given a pretty comfortable ride by politicians