ISA, Junior ISA and Lifetime ISA: the separate annual limits
An ISA wrapper shelters savings and investments from UK income tax and capital gains tax. The annual subscription limit, the Junior ISA limit, and the Lifetime ISA sub-limit are separate limits administered by HMRC.
On this page
- Adult ISA subscription limit
- £20,000 for the 2026/27 tax year.
- Junior ISA subscription limit
- £9,000 for the 2026/27 tax year; the child can have a cash Junior ISA, a stocks-and-shares Junior ISA, or one of each.GOV.UK, Junior ISAs
- Lifetime ISA subscription limit
- £4,000 counts towards the £20,000 annual allowance; a 25% government bonus applies up to £1,000 each year.GOV.UK, Lifetime ISAs
- Tax treatment
- Interest, dividends and capital gains inside an ISA wrapper are not subject to UK income tax or capital gains tax; withdrawals are not taxed at the ISA wrapper.GOV.UK, How ISAs work
The £20,000 limit is your own annual subscription cap
An Individual Savings Account is a UK tax wrapper. For the 2026/27 tax year the annual subscription limit is £20,000. You can split the £20,000 across an adult cash ISA, a stocks-and-shares ISA, an innovative finance ISA and a Lifetime ISA, but the total subscription in a tax year cannot exceed £20,000. GOV.UK, Individual Savings Accounts (opens in a new tab).
The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. GOV.UK, How ISAs work (opens in a new tab).
Your subscription in a tax year is what counts, not the balance at year-end. If you subscribe more than £20,000 in a tax year, HMRC treats the excess as having been subscribed outside the wrapper, with its own correction procedure. A figure read for one tax year is never carried forward.
Junior ISA and Lifetime ISA are separate sub-limits
A Junior ISA is a separate wrapper for under-18s with its own £9,000 limit in the same 2026/27 tax year. Each child can hold a cash Junior ISA and a stocks-and-shares Junior ISA at the same time. Money in a Junior ISA belongs to the child; the child can take control of the account at 16 but cannot withdraw the money until 18. GOV.UK, Junior ISAs (opens in a new tab).
A Junior ISA automatically becomes an adult ISA when the child turns 18. GOV.UK, Managing a Junior ISA (opens in a new tab).
A Lifetime ISA can be opened by someone aged 18 or over but under 40, subject to the residence or Crown-service conditions. GOV.UK, Who can open a Lifetime ISA (opens in a new tab).
A Lifetime ISA can be used to save for a first home or for later life. The annual contribution up to £4,000 counts towards the £20,000 allowance; a 25% government bonus up to £1,000 a year is added to the savings. GOV.UK, Lifetime ISAs (opens in a new tab).
Withdrawals for a qualifying first-home purchase, at age 60 or over, or when terminally ill with less than 12 months to live are exempt from the withdrawal charge. Other withdrawals carry a 25% charge. If the holder dies, the Lifetime ISA ends and there is no withdrawal charge. GOV.UK, Withdrawing money from a Lifetime ISA (opens in a new tab).
Site-computed example: subscribing the full £4,000 Lifetime ISA allowance leaves £16,000 of the adult ISA allowance for other ISA types. This uses the site’s 2026/27 ISA allowance calculator and leaves out eligibility, interest and investment growth. A Junior ISA uses the child's separate allowance.
Tax treatment inside and outside the wrapper is not the same
Interest, income and capital gains inside an ISA wrapper are not subject to UK income tax or capital gains tax. GOV.UK, How ISAs work (opens in a new tab).
For savings interest outside an ISA, the Personal Savings Allowance is £1,000 for basic-rate taxpayers, £500 for higher-rate taxpayers and £0 for additional-rate taxpayers. Tax usually applies to interest above the available allowances. GOV.UK, Personal Savings Allowance (opens in a new tab).
An ISA is a UK-specific wrapping; an account opened outside the UK, or a foreign-currency account inside the UK, has its own tax treatment. A new account that is not yet a subscribed ISA does not yet shelter that money from tax, and a transfer between ISAs that breaks the HMRC procedure may lose the wrapper for the moved amount.
Provider rules and product terms are separate from HMRC rules
An authorised ISA provider applies HMRC rules to its own product terms. HMRC administers the wrapper rules; access conditions, notice periods and bonus structures on the account are the provider's. The value of a savings bonus paid by a provider depends on the account's published conditions, not on the HMRC wrapper rules.
This page is an original explanation based on HMRC and GOV.UK pages under the Open Government Licence v3.0; the wording has been adapted and HMRC does not endorse this website. Nothing here decides whether a particular account qualifies as an ISA or whether a particular Lifetime ISA withdrawal is exempt from the charge. The withdrawal rules are described separately above.