In April 2016, HM Treasury gave the green light to the peer-to-peer lending industry to offer investors more choice alongside existing Cash and Stocks & Shares ISAs. As a FCA fully authorised firm, Relendex is able to offer investors the Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) providing tax-free investment returns.

ISA – Individual Savings Account

Contrary to the name, the IFISA is not a savings account. At the recent AltFi Seminar: Understanding the Innovative Finance ISA, it was emphasised that ISAs have a pretty clean reputation to date and peer-to-peer lending platforms who offer an IFISA must maintain it.

It is important to distinguish that IFISAs offered through peer-to-peer lending platforms are not covered by FSCS protection, unlike Cash ISAs. They also carry higher risk due to the nature of the investment.

Few main features of the IFISA:

• You can subscribe up to £20,000 (2017/18) each new tax year across all your ISAs (IFISA, Cash ISA, Stocks & Shares ISA, Lifetime ISA)
• Only one IFISA with newly subscribed money each year
• No limit to transfer ins from existing ISAs
• All your interest is tax-free

This tax-free wrapper is a step forwards for the alternative finance industry into the mainstream as more people look for new homes for their cash away in a low rates, high inflation economy.

Learn more about the IFISA from HMRC

If you want to register for a Relendex IFISA - sign up here!