£75bn invested across 13 million ISAs in 19/20 tax year

A total £75bn was invested into 13 million ISAs during the 2019/20 tax year, representing an average investment of £5,740, new HMRC figures have revealed.

This is the fourth year running that ISA subscriptions have increased.

Figures also showed that total subscriptions increased by £7.1bn from 2018/19 figures, with a £4.6bn increase in cash ISAs and a £1.6bn increase for stocks and shares subscriptions.

The total market value of ISA holdings has increased 6% to £620bn, while HMRC also revealed that cash ISAs account for 51% of market value with stocks and shares accounting to the remaining 49%.

Furthermore, 18% of subscribers saved at the maximum in 2018/19, but HMRC revealed that this climbed to 40% of those with income of £100,000 to £149,999, and to 61% of those with income of £150,000 or more. The highest proportion of savers, equivalent to 44%, saved between £1 and £2,499.

Commenting on HMRC’s figures, Canada Life tax and wealth specialist, Neil Jones, said: “The statistics show that the popularity of ISAs continues to bounce back after the fall in 2016/17 which shows that investors still recognise the benefits available and seek to make use of them.”

Jones also described cash ISAs accounting for 75% of subscriptions as “surprising”, given the current low interest rates and the expectation that they will remain low.

He added: “Even though headline CPI is also low, the impact of inflation – especially a short-term spike caused by increased spending post-lockdown – could be damaging to cash investors.

“They could see the value of the investment fall in real terms and this could be more pertinent to the retired community who generally have higher inflation due to the constituent assets in the government’s inflation figures.”

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