When is the “Bed & ISA” deadline? Cut-off dates for major investment platforms

With the end of the 2025/26 tax year in sight, some investors could benefit from making a “Bed and ISA” transfer before the end of the financial year.

While the name is strange, the transaction can be incredibly useful. “Bed and ISA” refers to the process of moving your investments out of a General Investment Account (GIA) and into an Individual Savings Account (ISA).

If your investments end the tax year in a stocks and shares ISA, you will be shielded from any potential extra capital gains tax (CGT) fees.

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The process works by putting investments held in your GIA on the open market before immediately repurchasing them, but this time within your stocks and shares ISA.

However, as the “Bed and ISA” process involves some extra steps, the deadline to do it before the end of the tax year is usually several days before the last day of the fiscal year (5 April).

As we approach this deadline, it could be a good idea to sort out your “Bed and ISA” transaction before you run out of time. This is especially important as, while most platforms manage the transaction on your behalf, some may need you to manage it yourself.

We list the cut-off dates across several major UK investment platforms.

‘Bed & ISA’ cut-off dates

Can’t see your platform listed? MoneyWeek will update this table when more platforms publish their “Bed and ISA” deadlines.

Does “Bed & ISA” incur capital gains tax?

A “Bed & ISA” transaction involves transferring existing assets from a regular account into an ISA wrapper, where any future capital growth or income will be sheltered from the taxman.

As you can’t move the assets directly, the process involves selling the original investments before buying them back.

When you sell the assets, you may have to pay CGT if you have already exceeded your £3,000 annual CGT. However, once inside the ISA wrapper, the investments will be protected from tax in the future.

You could even avoid CGT entirely by selling your assets gradually and realising gains in instalments, provided you keep them below £3,000.

Just remember that carrying out a “Bed & ISA” transaction eats into your annual £20,000 ISA allowance.

Is “Bed & ISA” worth it?

As well as protecting you from CGT, moving your investments inside an ISA means you won’t have to pay any tax on your dividend income.

This could prove valuable given the high rate at which dividends are taxed if you are a higher or additional-rate taxpayer. Once you exceed your annual dividend allowance (£500), dividends are taxed at 8.75% for basic-rate taxpayers, 33.75% for higher-rate taxpayers and 39.35% for additional-rate taxpayers.

Protecting your investments by putting them into an ISA will become increasingly important as dividend tax rates will increase from the 2027/28 tax year, as announced in the 2025 Autumn Budget.