W
hen my wife sadly died last year, I inherited her stocks and shares Isa. Her investments were sold for about £60,000. As her surviving spouse, I can inherit her tax-free Isa allowance equal to the value of her Isa when she died. This is on top of my own annual Isa allowance of £20,000.
My wife’s Isa was held with the investment platform Fidelity, so I thought that the simplest thing would be to open a stocks and shares Isa with the same company to make use of this tax-free entitlement. Rather than sending the whole £60,000 in one go, I asked Fidelity if I could pay into the new Isa in stages and it said I could.
The Isa was set up earlier this year and I filled in some paperwork so that Fidelity could apply my wife’s allowance to my Isa. I made a first payment of £6,000, mainly to see if everything worked. But when I sent a second payment of £20,000 the website said I had exceeded my allowance for the year. I tried to make a third payment of £15,000 but it would not accept it. It was clear that my wife’s allowance had not been applied to the account and so I couldn’t make any more deposits.
I called Fidelity, which said I would need to submit another form to apply for an inherited Isa, but this eight-page document is identical to the one I had already filled in. I am also concerned that HM Revenue & Customs will think I am making multiple applications for the same inherited Isa.
