HMRC breaks silence over new ISA rules after banks fail to roll out changes

HMRC has issued an urgent update to anyone with an ISA after banks were told to make changes. High street banks are yet to introduce some of the changes as they did not get HMRC guidance until the day they came into effect.

Major banks did not receive final guidance on the new rules from HM Revenue and Customs until the day they came into effect, April 6. A UK Finance spokesperson said: “ISA providers were only given the final guidance needed to roll out the new optional changes on 6 April.

"Changes like these take time and resource, and therefore different elements of the changes may be offered by providers at different times. For any customers looking to take advantage of the new optional ISA changes, we would recommend contacting your provider to check the options available.”

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None of the 16 major savings providers has implemented all these rules for their Isas. One big bank, Barclays, hasn’t made any of Government’s three major changes, This is Money has reported this week, after the new tax year started.

No major bank allows you to open more than one Isa with them in a single tax year and only Skipton Building Society, Nationwide, Paragon, Aldermore and Zopa offer this flexibility. And a string of major providers do not let you open an Isa if you have already opened one with a rival this tax year.

An HMRC spokesperson said: “We’ve been working closely with industry to implement these changes as soon as possible. For most of the changes, it’s up to ISA providers to decide whether to offer them to customers, such as the ability to make partial transfers.

“The impact on savers will be minimal with some providers having already implemented several of these changes and we expect others will follow shortly.”