When is the Bed and ISA deadline? Cut-off dates for major investment platforms
Bed and ISA deadlines vary from provider to provider. As the tax year end looms, we list the key dates across 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 annual ISA allowance resets.
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).
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Investors may want to use up some or all of their full £20,000 annual ISA allowance before the end of the tax year on 5 April, and could do this by completing a Bed and ISA.
However, this process can take time – up to 10 working days in some cases. Therefore, the deadline to complete a transaction for the tax year is usually several days before the tax year ends. The exact deadline depends on the provider.
Alice Haine, personal finance analyst at online investment service Bestinvest by Evelyn Partners, said: “Investors that hold assets in a trading account, or even have share certificates sitting in a drawer at home, must act fast to make the most of their tax-free allowances – particularly if they want to take advantage of a Bed and ISA transaction.”
‘Bed & ISA’ cut-off dates
Platform | “Bed & ISA” deadline |
|---|---|
Hargreaves Lansdown | 2pm, 2 April (ISA) 2pm, 31 March (SIPP) |
AJ Bell | 28 March |
Interactive Investor | 27 March |
Fidelity International | 9pm, 27 March |
Charles Stanley | 30 March |
Vanguard | No specific deadline but Bed and ISAs take two to three working days so you should start the process no later than 30 March |
Bestinvest | 5pm, 27 March |
Can’t see your platform listed? MoneyWeek will update this table when more platforms publish their “Bed and ISA” deadlines.
Does a Bed and ISA transaction incur capital gains tax?
A Bed and 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 allowance. 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 the gains are below £3,000 per year.
Just remember that carrying out a Bed and ISA transaction eats into your annual £20,000 ISA allowance.
Is Bed and 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 per year), 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 are increasing from the 2026/27 tax year, as announced in the 2025 Autumn Budget.
The basic rate is increasing to 10.75% and the higher rate to 35.75%, while the additional rate will remain at 39.35%.
