Is Your ISA About To Get Nicer?

In a time when interest rates on savings are low and stock markets can be difficult to predict the tax relief of an ISA is an attractive and sensible way to ensure your money works as hard as it can for you. We are at the time of the year when banks, investment managers and financial advisers will be telling us to use our ISA allowances before the tax year ticks over and the opportunity is lost. But after an announcement in its Autumn Statement last year the Government has released draft legislation which may offer increased advantages to ISAs for those who are married.

During the lifetime of an individual, income and gains generated on assets held within an ISA are free of tax, and for those who have used their ISA allowances diligently over the years this means quite significant tax savings. But the ISA "wrapper" is lost upon death, and with it the tax advantages. The proposal under the new regulations is that where the first death in a married couple or civil