Can I open and pay into both cash Lifetime ISA and Stocks and Shares LISA in the same year?

Question

I have a stocks and shares LISA but as I might want to use the funds in not too distant future I would like to lower the risk of losing a significant portion of the money by also putting some money into regular cash LISA. Can I open and pay into both of these in the same tax year?

You can hold cash or stocks and shares in your Lifetime ISA, or have a combination of both.

The government website only says hold a combination of both and not pay into and other sites usually said you are only allowed to pay into one LISA.

Answer 1

No, you can only have one of each type of ISA per year.

Every tax year you can put money into one of each kind of ISA. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April.

The 4 types of ISA being

There are 4 types of Individual Savings Accounts (ISA):

• cash ISA
• stocks and shares ISA
• innovative finance ISA
• Lifetime ISA

But you could invest more of your allowance in another type of ISA e.g. a standard cash ISA.

You can put money into one of each kind of ISA each tax year.

As long as you stay within your total ISA allowance, so if you buy a LISA the total amount you can save in other types of ISA would be reduced.

You can save up to £20,000 in one type of account or split the allowance across some or all of the other types.

Answer 2

Simply sell a portion (or all) of your S&S LISA holdings. The cash generated from the sale will still be held in your S&S LISA, albeit with no interest.

Or, if you want to keep your holdings, just top-up your S&S LISA with cash as usual and simply don't invest it.