Eligibility to open an ISA Account
In order to open an ISA account you must be over the age of 16 for a Cash ISA and 18 for a Stock and Shares ISA. In addition you must be a UK resident at the time the account is opened and have a national insurance number.
Moving Abroad
If you have opened an ISA account, but then move to another country, your ISA account remains valid and can still remain open. The ISA will continue to receive its tax benefits, i.e., interest will be free of taxation and income received in stocks and shares ISA’s will continue to be paid gross.
If your stocks and shares ISA is managed by a discretionary fund manager, then the manager can continue managing your account, selling and buying assets as they see fit under the agreed mandate.
The key point to bare in mind is that once you are no longer a UK resident for tax purposes, you cannot make any further subscriptions. It remains open and valid, but it cannot receive subscriptions in the tax year that you are not UK resident.
Some Things You Can Still Do With Your ISA
As I mention above, the assets already held in the ISA account after moving abroad, remain within the tax wrapper and are not subject to UK taxation.
Also, if the account is a Flexible ISA, then you can withdraw funds and replace them in the same tax year, even though you are not a UK resident. This is because a replacement subscription is not consider a subscription by HMRC and, in fact, you do not even need to have a valid ISA application form in order to replace withdrawals back into a Flexible ISA.
Finally, if your spouse has died and held an ISA account, then you will still receive and be able to use your APS (Additional permitted subscription) allowance. This means the value of your spouse’s ISA at date of death or date of transfer to the surviving spouse’s ISA (which ever is the higher value) can be paid into your ISA, even though you are not a UK resident. This is because, once again, HMRC do not consider this a subscription. You also will not need a valid ISA application form to make use of your APS allowance.