Guidance

Digital reporting for Lifetime ISAs

Find out the software requirements for reporting Lifetime ISA payments, transfers and withdrawals to HMRC.

Overview

Lifetime ISA (LISA) managers must report details for all LISAs you managed during the return period, including those that have been transferred in, and those that have been closed. You can exclude details of those transferred out in full, made void, or closed within the period described.

You should continue to report cash Individual Savings Account (ISAs), stocks and shares ISAs and innovative finance ISAs to HMRC using the ISA electronic flat text specification or the HMRC spreadsheet even where they’re held for the same investor. You must continue to report details of each ISA separately.

A LISA return that does not conform with HMRC’s digital requirements will be rejected. In which case, a LISA manager may be regarded as either having failed to make a return or as having made an incorrect return.

These ISA forms will include information on LISAs:

  • annual return (ISA14) — the statements of income for both stocks and shares ISA and cash ISA must include LISAs

  • annual return of statistical information (market value) ISA14(Stats) and ISA14a(Stats) — the valuations of both stocks and shares ISA and cash ISA must include LISAs

  • annual return of statistical information (subscriptions) ISA25(Stats) and ISA14a(Stats) — the number of LISAs to which subscriptions have been made in the year and the total amounts subscribed in the year to LISAs must be reported

Every interaction with the LISA service occurs in real time and gives either a successful or unsuccessful response.

These interactions allow ISA managers to report to HMRC, from the opening of a LISA to its closure and every other reportable activity in between.

The management of LISA activities requires frequent and stringent digital reporting to HMRC. These requirements must be met to enable you to manage your LISA accounts correctly.

Linking your account management software to HMRC

You can send reports to HMRC by installing an Application Programme Interface (API) on your account management software which is linked to HMRC’s tax platform.

When HMRC approves your application to offer LISAs to investors, you will then be able to link your account management software with HMRC’s tax platform.

The HMRC LISA service is made up of several API (Application Programme Interface) endpoints that allow ISA managers to directly interact with HMRC using their own software.

Your software will satisfy your own business processes, however it must also be able to interact with all of the endpoints in the way HMRC specifies.

A detailed breakdown of these endpoints is available in the HMRC API specification — which is found on the HMRC developer hub.

The API specification explains how the interactions between HMRC and ISA managers must occur and in what format data must be sent to HMRC.

As part of the developer hub, you must be able to access HMRC’s test environment to be able to test their software’s compatibility with HMRC’s service.

Once your software has been approved to interact with HMRC you can do this by calling a specific endpoint. Instructions on how to do this are on the HMRC developer hub.

The HMRC service uses OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens as authentication.

Unauthorised software will not be able to interact with the LISA service.

HMRC’s Software Developer Support Team (SDST) can help you with your software development queries.

API Endpoints

Each endpoint in our service has a specific name to identify what it is used for. The appropriate endpoint must be used for each specific function otherwise an unsuccessful response will be returned to the ISA manager.

Each service endpoint has a specific function that is carried out:

  • LISA Software authorisation endpoint — used by newly approved LISA managers to request authorisation credentials to authorise their software with HMRC
  • Create a LISA investor — used to check the investors identity against HMRC records
  • Create or Transfer LISA account — used to check investors eligibility and compliance when creating or transferring a LISA account
  • Modify the LISA Date of First Payment — used to update the first payment date on a LISA account
  • Reinstate a LISA accoun — used to change the LISA account status from closed back to open when deemed compliant
  • Close an existing LISA account — used to report the LISA account as closed (after 30 days) or cancelled(closed within 30 days of opening)
  • Request a bonus payment — used to claim a new or correct a previous LISA government bonus from HMRC
  • Report a withdrawal charge — used to report a new or correct a previous LISA withdrawal charge to HMRC
  • Report death or terminal illness — used to report the LISA investors terminal ill health or death to HMRC
  • Request the release of funds to buy a property — used torequest the release of LISA funds towards a property purchase
  • Request a property purchase extension — used to report the extension of the property purchase process initially by 60 and then 30 days
  • Report the outcome of a property purchase — used to report the out come of the property purchase process (purchase success or failure)
  • Send an annual return of information — used to submit the LISA annual return data to HMRC
  • Get Account details — used to view the LISA account details HMRC hold at the time of the request
  • View a Life event — ised to view the specific LISA life event details HMRC hold
  • Get details of a bonus request — used to view the specific LISA bonus claim details HMRC hold
  • Get details of a withdrawal charge — used to view the specific LISA withdrawal charge details HMRC hold
  • Get the payment details for a bonus claim or withdrawal charge — used to view the specific payment or debt details HMRC hold resulting from a bonus claim or withdrawal charge for a specific investor
  • Get a list of payment or debt details in a date range — used to view the bulk payment or debt details HMRC hold resulting from all bonus claims or withdrawal charges for a time period

The section ‘creating a LISA investment record’ details how you must interact with each endpoint and what data must be submitted to HMRC.

Creating a LISA investor record

When you create an investor record on the LISA service HMRC will check the investor’s identity and confirm if a match is found. HMRC will check the investor’s:

  • first name
  • last name
  • date of birth
  • National Insurance number

If a match is found then the LISA service will return a response with an Investor ID number to your software for your records. The unique investor ID number must be retained.

An investor ID can only be created once by HMRC. The same investor ID could be used by several different LISA managers if the investor opens a different LISA each tax year.

If the Investor ID already exists then the LISA service will send a response back to the ISA manager. If an ISA manager loses an investor’s ID, they can simply make this API call again and the service will respond.

How to resolve the unsuccessful creation of a LISA investor record

If the information provided does not match HMRC’s records then we will not allow the creation of the LISA investor record to progress.

The LISA service will not explain why the investor’s details do not match.

To help prevent delays caused by data mis-matching investors must ensure that the personal details they provide to their LISA provider match their details held by HMRC.

If the personal details that HMRC holds are incorrect then the investor must update them first with HMRC.

Investors can check the data that HMRC holds by accessing their personal tax account.

Investors can also access their Personal Tax Account using the HMRC app on any electronic device.

You can advise Investors that guidance is available to check and update their personal details with HMRC.

Investors can also use the link ‘Tell HMRC your name has changed’ in their personal tax account.

To change their personal details online investors will need to have some information ready with their employer’s details or self-employment details. Investors may be required to send proof of the changes made to HMRC at a later date.

Find out about the most common data mismatches in the creation of a LISA account

When an investor’s details do not match the data held by HMRC, the reason could be:

  • HMRC holds a completely different set of details — a different identity
  • the National Insurance number being reported to the LISA service is not correct
  • the investor may have provided an invalid temporary National Insurance number — a temporary National Insurance starts with TN
  • the investor may have provided an invalid national insurance number from the Isle of Man that starts with MA
  • the investor may have changed their surname name and has not told HMRC
  • the investor’s surname with HMRC is spelled differently from the name given to their LISA provider
  • the investor may have made a mistake and has provided their LISA provider with incorrect details — these should be checked with investors first before the investor contact

Investors must provide correct personal details to their LISA provider and tell HMRC of any changes to the personal details.

LISA providers cannot correct details held by HMRC for an investor. If an investor does not check that HMRC holds their correct information then a LISA manager can refuse to open their LISA.

LISA providers should explain to investors that their account will only be opened after they have checked their personal data with HMRC.

HMRC cannot pay a government bonus for an investor until they pass the HMRC identity check.

The most common reasons for investor details not matching with HMRC’s data are:

  • incorrectly spelt surnames
  • double-barrelled surnames
  • middle names and surnames are in the wrong order
  • an investor has applied for a LISA using a name that is different from their ‘known as’ name that HMRC uses in correspondence to the investor

Examples of possible data mismatches

Investor’s data HMRC record Service outcome
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
Investor ID — N/A
Success + Investor ID created
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name STEVENS
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
Investor ID — N/A
Failure + Investor not found
NINO AA123456B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
Investor ID — N/A
Failure + Investor not found
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
Investor ID — N/A
Failure + Investor not found
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
NINO AA123457B
First Name LISA
Last Name SAVER
Date of Birth 13 January 1980
Investor ID — 0000000001
Failure + Investor ID already exists

How HMRC will check an investor’s eligibility for a LISA

HMRC will check the date of an investor’s first payment into their LISA against the investor’s date of birth.

This check confirms if they are:

  • aged 18 or over on the day that they made their first payment
  • under the age of 40 on that day that they made their first payment
  • not shown as ‘deceased’ on HMRC’s records

If HMRC’s checks show that the investor is not eligible for a LISA for any of these reasons then an unsuccessful response will be returned for the account creation request.

HMRC cannot disclose any information about the date of death of an investor to a LISA provider. ISA managers should try and contact the investor’s executors for confirmation that the investor has died.

How HMRC will check an investor is compliant

When an investor’s account data is submitted, HMRC will check if the investor already has a LISA.

If another LISA is found HMRC will check the date of first payment made into each account belonging to the investor. The LISA that the investor paid into first is the valid account. HMRC will automatically change the status of the investor’s second LISA to ‘VOID’.

Creating a LISA account scenarios

Data HMRC record Outcome
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount1
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 6 April 2019
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID N/A
Creation Reason N/A
Date of first payment N/A
Date of birth 13 January 980
Date of death N/A
Success + Account created (customer is both eligible and compliant)
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount1
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 6 April 2019
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID N/A
Creation Reason N/A
Date of first payment N/A
Date of birth 13 January 1979
Date of death N/A
Failure — Eligibility check failed Investor is over 40 years old
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount1
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 6 April 2019
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID N/A
Creation Reason N/A
Date of first payment N/A
Date of birth 13 January 1980
Date of death 20 March 2019
Failure — Eligibility check failed Investor died before first payment
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount1
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 7 April 2019
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount2
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 6 April 2019
Date of birth 13 January 1980
Date of death N/A
Compliance check failed — Account 2 was received a payment earlier than Account 1
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount1
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 6 April 2019
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount2
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 7 April 2019
Date of birth 13 January 1980
Date of death N/A
Success + Account created (customer is both eligible and compliant) Account 2 will be voided by HMRC.

When a LISA manager receives an unsuccessful response back from HMRC they should contact the investor and explain why their account has not been confirmed with HMRC.

If the response was that an investor is not eligible for a LISA, then their account will need to be closed.

When an investor has been identified as having 2 LISAs and they want to keep their account with you, they must close their LISA with their other LISA manager.

This may not be possible because their 30 day account cancellation period has expired, and their LISA with you will have to be closed.

When funds are transferred into a LISA from a different type of ISA, the date of first payment that should be reported to HMRC should be the date the funds were received by the LISA manager.

The account ID used for every new account or fully transferred account that LISA providers report to HMRC must be a new unique account ID that has not been previously used on any other account.

When a customer opens a LISA account following the transfer of funds from another LISA, then the LISA managers should wait until all the appropriate paperwork and funds have been received before reporting the account to HMRC.

A report to HMRC to create a new LISA will fail HMRC’s compliance checks if the investor’s previous LISA is still shown as open and has received payments from the investor in the same tax year.

Transferring a LISA account

The process for transferring a LISA is different from the transfer of other types of ISAs. When a LISA is transferred the receiving LISA manager will report the transferred account to HMRC.

The exporting LISA manager does not report the transferred account to HMRC. When the receiving LISA manager reports the transfer to HMRC, then HMRC will update its records to show that the investor’s LISA has been transferred.

Following the correct LISA transfer process will enable investors to withdraw funds from their new account for a property purchase 12 months after the date that they paid into their original LISA, before it was transferred.

A LISA transferred to a new LISA provider will have passed HMRC’s eligibility and compliance checks and these will not be done again.

Bonus claims made and withdrawal charges reported to HMRC by the original LISA manager will remain linked to the investor’s original manager. This enables them to make any bonus claim corrections to HMRC.

All bonus claims or withdrawal charges after the LISA is transferred must be reported to HMRC by the new LISA manager.

All types of LISA transfers that must be accurately reported to HMRC.

Transfer a LISA Account in full

The importing LISA manager must report to HMRC after accepting a LISA account that is transferred in full.

HMRC will then update the previous manager’s Account ID to show its status is closed and a closure reason of ‘transferred out’.

The exporting LISA manager should not report the account as closed and must leave it with a status of ‘Open’.

If the exporting LISA manager reports that their account is closed before the transfer has been reported to HMRC then the original account will have to be reinstated before the transfer can take place.

HMRC cannot correct accounts reported as closed in error by a LISA provider.

When a LISA is correctly transferred, the date that an investor is eligible for withdrawing funds to purchase their first residential property transfers to their new LISA manager.

Reporting a full transfer of current year LISA payments

You can report a full transfer of current year LISA payments to HMRC in 2 different ways by the importing LISA manager:

  • if a LISA account ID does not already exist with HMRC then the new account will be created and updated with payment status of active in the current financial year

  • if the LISA already exists then the account will be updated with payment status of active in the current financial year

In both cases the original Account ID will remain with a status of open but will be updated with a payment status of ‘Locked’ for the current financial year.

Reporting a partial transfer of previous year LISA funds

When this is reported to HMRC by the importing LISA manager any of these will happen.

If an account ID for the new LISA does not already exist with HMRC, then the new account will be created and updated with the payment status depending on the account transferred from.

If the transferred account shows:

  • ‘no payment present’ then the new account will also show ‘no payment present’

  • payment status is ‘available’ then the new account will also show payment status ‘available’

  • payment status is ‘active’ then the new account will be set to ‘locked’

If the LISA being transferred to already exists then a response will be returned showing that a LISA already exists.

LISA Transfers and bonus claims

When transferring LISA funds the exporting ISA manager must clearly indicate on the transfer form, which payments:

  • made by the investor still require a bonus claim to be submitted to HMRC
  • have had a bonus claim submitted but the payment has not yet been received from HMRC

LISA Transfers and withdrawal charges

When transferring funds the exporting ISA manager must report and account for any withdrawal charges that have already been deducted from the investor’s LISA to HMRC.

Withdrawal charges deducted can still be reported to HMRC after a LISA has been transferred to another ISA manager.

HMRC will collect the withdrawal charge from the exporting LISA manager because they managed the LISA when the investor made their withdrawal.

The date of the first payment made into a LISA after a transfer has completed must not be changed. This can cause the original LISA to be voided by HMRC when it may still have some of the investor’s funds that have not been transferred.

Examples

Full LISA to LISA transfer

LISA opened with manager A on 6 April 2018.

Total 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 payments made to manager A = £1,500.

Bonus claim made on 10 April 2019, £375.00 paid by HMRC to manager A on 24 April 2019.

Customer transfers £1,875 + accrued interest to Manager B on 5 June 2019.

The LISA transferred must be reported to HMRC by ISA manager B who must not create a new account before accepting the full transfer from manager A.

Current year LISA to LISA transfer

Cash LISA account opened with LISA manager A on 6 April 2017.

Total payments during 6 April 2017 to 5 April 2018 = £1,500.

Bonus claim made on 10 April 2018, £375 paid by HMRC on 24 April 2018.

Customer opens and subscribes to a new LISA on 6 July 2018 with ISA manager B.

2018 to 2019 payments = £1,500.

Bonus claim made on 10 August 2018 for £375 and paid by HMRC on 24 August 2018.

Customer decides to transfer all funds with ISA manager B to ISA manager A on 5 September 2018.

ISA manager A should report a Current Year Transfer to HMRC to move the current year payments from ISA manager B to ISA manager A.

Current year and part previous year LISA to LISA transfer

A Cash LISA account opened with ISA manager A on 06 April 2017.

Payments made during 6 April 2017 to 5 April 2018 = £1,500.

Bonus claim made on 10 April 2018 and £375 paid by HMRC on 24 April 2018.

Payments made during 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 = £1,500.

Bonus claim made on 10 August 2018 for £375 and paid by HMRC on 24 August 2018.

Customer transfers all current year payments and some (but not all) previous year payments from ISA manager A to ISA manager B on 5 September 2018.

ISA manager B should report this Current Year Transfer to HMRC to move the current year payment from ISA manager A to ISA manager B.

Current year only LISA to LISA transfer

LISA opened with ISA manager A on 6 April 2017.

Payments made during = £1,500.

Bonus claim made on 10 April 2018 and £375 paid by HMRC on 24 April 2018.

Payments made during 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 = £1,500.

Bonus claim made on 10 August 2018 and £375 paid by HMRC on 24 August 2018.

Customer transfers current year funds only from ISA manager A to ISA manager B on 5 September 2018.

ISA manager B should report a Current Year Transfer to HMRC. This will create an account ID and move the current year payment from ISA manager A to ISA manager B.

LISA to LISA transfer

Cash LISA account opened with LISA manager A on 6 April 2017.

6 April 2017 to 5 April 2018 payments = £1500.00.

Bonus claim made on 10 April 2018 for £375.00 and paid by HMRC on 24 April 2018.

Customer opens and subscribes to a new LISA account on 6 July 2018 with LISA manager B.

6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 payments = £1500.00.

Bonus claim made on 10 August 2018 for £375.00 and paid by HMRC on 24 August 2018.

Customer transfers all funds from LISA manager A to LISA manager B on 5 September 2018.

In this example no report to HMRC is required because both accounts already exist and the current year payment is already present with LISA manager B.

Transferring a LISA or funds held in a LISA between managers

A successful transfer of a LISA between managers is dependent on the data and the account or payment status all being correct.

If they are not then the report to HMRC of an account transfer will return an unsuccessful response.

The reasons for an unsuccessful transfer response include:

  • an incorrect account ID has been provided by the original ISA manager instead of the account ID originally reported to HMRC
  • an incorrect LISA manager reference has been provided by the original ISA manager
  • an incorrect LISA Investor ID reference has been provided by the original ISA manager
  • a full account transfer has already been reported to HMRC
  • the account being transferred is shown as closed because it has been cancelled or voided
  • a possible a transfer of Previous Year payments between 2 Open LISAs that does need to be reported to HMRC
  • the payment status on the transferred LISA is shown as ‘locked’ which means that the account cannot accept or transfer current year payments
  • one of the accounts has been incorrectly reported to HMRC as being closed with all funds withdrawn — if this is incorrect the exporting LISA manager will need to reinstate their account to allow the importing LISA manager to carry out the transfer — this can be done using the Create Transfer Account API

If the receiving LISA manager sees that the data supplied is incorrect then this should be checked with the previous LISA manager before the transfer is reported to HMRC.

The Transfer Account API can only be used to report the transfer of a LISA. It cannot be used to report the transfer of funds from another type of ISA into a LISA.

Closing or cancelling a LISA account

An investor can cancel their LISA within 30 days of the date of making their first payment. They can have their funds returned without incurring a withdrawal charge, but they are not entitled to receive a government bonus.

They can open another LISA account in the same financial year with the same or another ISA manager.

The cancellation of a LISA account can still result in the investor’s account receiving a government bonus.

The government bonus may have been already claimed and paid by HMRC within 30 days of the account being opened.

If an investor cancels their account within the 30 day time limit the bonus received will have to be repaid to HMRC as part of the cancellation process. The bonus can be repaid as part of a corrected bonus claim.

Investor incurring a withdrawal charge

When investors close their account within the first 30 days but the account is not reported to HMRC as closed a 25% withdrawal charge will apply to the amount withdrawn.

When the account is reported as closed to HMRC the incorrect withdrawal charge will need to be refunded to the investor.

ISA managers can do this as part of a corrected withdrawal charge report to HMRC via the API.

If a LISA is cancelled by an investor within 30 days any government bonus and withdrawal charges submitted to HMRC after the 20th of each month will need to be reversed in full so that the investor receives all of their original investment back.

Cancellation examples

Data HMRC record Outcome
Closure date 6 March 2019
Closure reason Cancellation
Account ID LISAAccount3
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 March 2019
Closure date N/A
Closure reason N/A
Success — Account cancelled
Closure date 6 March 2019
Closure reason Cancellation
Account ID LISAAccount3
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 May 2019
Closure date N/A
Closure reason N/A
Failure — Closure date outside cancellation timelines

When a LISA account has a pending government bonus or withdrawal charge that have been reported to HMRC, these will be automatically cancelled in the online service if the cancellation request to HMRC is successful.

‘Pending’ means a government bonus claim which has been successfully submitted by an ISA manager but has not been paid by HMRC. It also means a withdrawal charge reported to HMRC but the collection process has not started.

When an account is cancelled new bonus claims and withdrawal charges cannot be reported to HMRC for that account. Only corrections can be reported and will be processed by HMRC.

The date of closure of a cancelled LISA cannot be corrected if it is incorrectly reported to HMRC. ISA managers must ensure that the date of closure is correctly reported to HMRC.

Closing a LISA account

If an investor closes a LISA account more than 30 days after the date of first payment a 25% withdrawal charge must be deducted from the amount withdrawn from the closed account.

Investors are entitled to any bonus claim due to them before they closed their LISA and HMRC will process and pay these government bonuses in the normal way.

When a LISA is closed, ISA managers can still make corrections to previous government claims or withdrawal charges relating to the closed account.

An investor who has closed a LISA that they have made payments to in the current financial year cannot open another LISA in the same financial year.

Updating an investor’s personal details

An investor’s personal details held by HMRC cannot be updated using the LISA digital service.

Investors must contact HMRC or use their Personal Tax Account to tell HMRC about any changes to their personal details.

How to update the date of first payment

ISA managers will need to report to HMRC a change to the date of first payment made by an investor.

This change could be because of an error, or a late first payment made into the LISA.

Changing the date of an investor’s first payment could result in the voiding of the account if the investor has a LISA with another LISA manager.

ISA managers should only change the date of an investor’s first LISA payment if this is to correct an error.

Data HMRC’s record Outcome
Investor has one LISA — correct date of first payment is 6 May 2019 LISA manager — Z9999
Account ID LISAAccount5
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 April 2019
corrected to 6 May 2019
Closure date N/A
Closure reason N/A
Success — Updated
Investor has 2 LISAs — correct date of first payment is 6 May 2019 LISA manager — Z9999
Account ID LISAAccount5
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 6 March 2019
corrected to 6 May 2019
LISA manager — Z8888
Account ID LISAAccount6
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 April 2019
Success — Updated but account 5 now Void
Investor has 2 LISAs — correct date of first payment is 6 April 2019 LISA manager — Z9999
Account ID LISAAccount5
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 March 2019 updated to 06 April 2019 LISA manager — Z8888
Account ID LISAAccount6
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 April 2019
Success — Updated but this update will result in HMRC voiding LISAAccount6

Reinstating a LISA

You may need to reinstate a LISA. An account can be closed and reinstated at any time.

The main reasons for reinstating a LISA are:

  • the account was closed by accident
  • a withdrawal of funds has left a LISA account with zero balance that under the LISA managers terms and conditions means that the account needs to be closed
  • following a failed property purchase withdrawn funds need to be returned to the investor’s closed LISA

A request to reinstate a LISA does not require any additional data to be sent to HMRC.

HMRC will check to see if the reinstatement request can be processed. HMRC records the current status of an account and does not keep a history of a LISA closing and subsequently being reinstated.

Reinstatement examples

Data                                                                                        HMRC’s record                                                                                        Outcome
Investor has one Account ID LISAAccount7 LISA manager — Z9999
Account ID LISAAccount7
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 April 2019
Closure date 20 August 2019
Closure reason All funds withdrawn
Success — Account reinstated.
The account’s creation reason will be changed to ‘Reinstated’ and both the closure date and closure reason will be removed
Investor has 2 Account IDs LISAAccount7 and LISAAccount8 LISA manager — Z9999
Account ID LISAAccount7
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 March 2019
Closure date 20 August 2019
Closure reason All funds withdrawn
LISA manager — Z8888 Account ID LISAAccount8
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 April 2019
Success — LISAAccount7 is reinstated.
LISAAccount8 is not affected because it was opened in a later tax year 2019/20
Investor has 2 Account IDs LISAAccount7 and LISAAccount8 LISA manager — Z9999
Account ID LISAAccount7
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 30 April 2019
Closure date 20 August 2019
Closure reason Void
LISA manager — Z8888
Account ID LISAAccount8
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 6 April 2019
Failure — Compliance error LISA_Account 7 cannot be reinstated because LISA_Account 8 has an earlier first payment date in the same tax year 2019/20.

Claims and charges on LISA accounts

LISA managers are able to submit monthly government bonus claims to HMRC.

ISA managers can claim government bonuses from HMRC after the normal reporting deadline when any investor identity or account errors have been resolved.

When an ISA manager needs to make a retrospective bonus claim for any reason they should claim the bonus in the normal way using the correct data for the original claim period.

LISA Bonus claims can be made to HMRC or corrected by an ISA manager within 6 years after the end of the original bonus claim period. This includes:

  • anything which should have been included in the original bonus claim, but was not
  • anything which should not have been included in the original bonus claim, but was
  • any other error that occurred in the original claim

Claiming a LISA government bonus

LISA managers must be able to submit a bonus claim for each of their eligible investors to HMRC.

HMRC’s online service will send a digital response back to your software.

When a successful bonus claim is made HMRC will send a transaction ID to be stored in your software that can be used for reference purposes.

Bonus claims can be submitted to HMRC at any time, but the deadline for making a monthly bonus claim to HMRC is the 20th day of the month following the end of the claim period. A monthly bonus claim for the period ending 5 May 2019 should be submitted to HMRC by 20 May 2019.

A bonus claim submitted after 20 May will still be processed by HMRC but the response from HMRC will be marked as a late claim.

Government bonus claim examples

Data submission                                                                                        HMRC’s record                                                                                        Outcome
Period start date= 6 April 2019

Period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period = 2000.00
New subs YTD = 2000.00
Total subs for period = 2000.00
Total subs YTD = 2000.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 500.00
Total bonus due YTD = 500.00
Claim reason=Regular Bonus
Period start date = 6 April 2019
Period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period = 2000.00
New subs YTD = 4000.00
Total subs for period = 4000.00
Total subs YTD = 4000.00
Bonus paid YTD = 500.00
Bonus due for period = 500.00
Total bonus due YTD = 1000.00
Claim reason = Regular Bonus
N/A Successful claim for 2 bonuses in the same claim period.
This results in a single payment of £1,000 to the ISA manager.
Both £500 bonus claims must be separately reconciled
Period start date= 6 May 2019
Period end date=5 June 2019
New subs for period = 4400.00
New subs YTD = 4400.00
Total subs for period = 4400.00
Total subs YTD = 4400.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 1100.00
Total bonus due YTD = 1100.00
Claim reason=Regular Bonus
N/A This bonus claim will be unsuccessful and an error response will be returned by HMRC because the 4400.00 new subs for the period exceed the 4000.00 annual LISA limit.
Period start date = 6 March 2019
Period end date = 5 April 2019
New subs for period = 4000.00
New subs YTD = 4000.00
Total subs for period = 4000.00
Total subs YTD = 4000.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 1000.00
Total bonus due YTD = 1000.00
Claim reason=Regular Bonus
Period start date = 6 March 2019
Period end date = 5 April 2019
New subs for period = 4000.00
New subs YTD = 4000.00
Total subs for period = 4000.00
Total subs YTD = 4000.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 1000.00
Total bonus due YTD = 1000.00
Claim reason=Regular Bonus
This bonus claim will be unsuccessful and an error response will be returned by HMRC because the bonus claim data is identical to a previous claim and appears to be a duplicate claim.
Original Transaction ID=0000000001
Original bonus amount = 300.00
Reason = Additional bonus
Transaction result = 100.00
period start date = 6 April 2019
period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period = 1600.00
New subs YTD = 1600.00
Total subs for period = 1600.00
Total subs YTD = 1600.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 400.00
Total bonus due YTD = 400.00
Claim reason = Superseded Bonus
Transaction ID = 0000000001
period start date = 6 April 2019
period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period =1200.00
New subs YTD = 1200.00
Total subs for period = 1200.00
Total subs YTD = 1200.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 300.00
Total bonus due YTD = 300.00
Claim reason = Regular bonus
There are 2 possible outcomes:
1. If the first bonus claim of £300 has been paid by HMRC then an additional payment of £100 will be paid.
2. If the first bonus £300 has not been paid then a payment of £400 will be paid by HMRC.
Original Transaction ID=0000000002
Original bonus amount = 400.00
Reason= Bonus recovery
Automatic recovery amount = 100.00
Transaction result = -100.00
period start date = 6 April 2019
period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period = 1200.00
New subs YTD = 1200.00
Total subs for period = 1200.00
Total subs YTD = 1200.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 300.00
Total bonus due YTD = 300.00
Claim reason = Superseded Bonus
Transaction ID=0000000002
period start date = 6 April 2019
period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period = 1600.00
New subs YTD = 1600.00
Total subs for period = 1600.00
Total subs YTD = 1600.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 400.00
Total bonus due YTD = 400.00
Claim reason = Regular bonus
There are 2 possible outcomes:
1.If the first bonus claim of £400 has been paid by HMRC then a debt of £100 will be raised and collected from the ISA manager by direct debit
2.If the first bonus claim of £400 has not been paid then a payment of £300 will be paid by HMRC
Original Transaction ID=0000000004
Original bonus amount = 400.00
Reason= Bonus recovery
Automatic recovery amount = 50.00
Transaction result= -100.00
period start date = 6 April 2019
period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period = 1200.00
New subs YTD = 1200.00
Total subs for period =1200.00
Total subs YTD = 1200.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 300.00
Total bonus due YTD = 300.00
Claim reason = Superseded Bonus
Transaction ID = 0000000004
Period start date = 6 April 2019
Period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period =1600.00
New subs YTD =1600.00
Total subs for period =1600.00
Total subs YTD =1600.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 400.00
Total bonus due YTD = 400.00
Claim reason = Regular bonus
There are 2 possible outcomes:
1.If the first bonus claim of £400 has been paid by HMRC then £50 will be collected from the ISA manager by direct debit and £50 will be collected by HMRC from the LISA investor
2. If the first bonus claim of £400 has not been paid then a payment of £300 will be paid.
Original Transaction ID =0000000005
Original bonus amount = 400.00
Reason= Bonus recovery
Automatic recovery amount = 400.00
Transaction result = -400.00
period start date = 6 April 2019
period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period = 0.00
New subs YTD = 0.00
Total subs for period = 0.00
Total subs YTD = 0.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 0.00
Total bonus due YTD = 0.00
Claim reason=Superseded Bonus
Transaction ID = 0000000005
period start date = 6 April 2019
period end date = 5 May 2019
New subs for period =1600.00
New subs YTD = 1600.00
Total subs for period = 1600.00
Total subs YTD = 1600.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 400.00
Total bonus due YTD =400.00
Claim reason = Regular bonus
There are 2 possible outcome:
1.If the first bonus of £400 has been paid by HMRC then a debt of £300 will be raised and collected from the LISA manager by direct debit to reflect the bonus has been repaid in full
2.If the first bonus claim of £400 has not been paid then no payment will be made by HMRC.

HMRC’s rounding rules ensure that investors are not disadvantaged but this may cause anomalies. ISA manager should round up their bonus payment calculation to the nearest penny — see the examples:

Investor’s Deposit Accurate Bonus Calculation Bonus that will be paid by HMRC
£1.11 0.2775 £0.28
£2.22 0.5550 £0.56
£3.33 0.8325 £0.84
£4.45 1.1125 £1.12
£5.55 1.3875 £1.39
£6.66 1.6650 £1.67
£7.77 1.9425 £1.95
£8.88 2.2200 £2.22
£9.99 2.4975 £2.50

An investor could receive bonus payments in any one year totalling £1,000.12.

The Bonus claim function API enables ISA managers to:

  • claim a new bonus payment
  • correct a previous bonus claim during the reporting period when it was initially reported
  • correct a bonus claim after the claim reporting period has ended
  • repay any overpaid bonus amounts to HMRC — HMRC’s priority order for reclaiming bonus payments is to reclaim money from the investor’s LISA account and then any remaining debt from the investor directly
  • receive additional bonus payments arising from corrected bonus claims

When retrospective bonus claims are submitted to HMRC the claim period must refer to when the payments were received from investors not the current claim period.

If an ISA manager needs to make a second correction to a bonus claim they should contact HMRC for advice before submitting a second correction.

Withdrawal charges

A 25% withdrawal charge must be applied when an investor withdraws funds for a non-Life event.

A withdrawal charge is deducted from the amount withdrawn from a LISA account. The charge should always be deducted at the time when the investor withdraws funds from their LISA account.

There may be situations when the withdrawal charge can only be calculated after a withdrawal has been made for example when funds withdrawn for a failed house purchase are not subsequently returned to an investor’s LISA.

When a withdrawal charge is incorrectly calculated and deducted, ISA managers can report a superseded withdrawal charge to HMRC to reduce the original withdrawal charge made or receive a full refund of an incorrect withdrawal charge.

Reporting withdrawal charges to HMRC

Withdrawal charges must be individually reported to HMRC for each of your investors, they can be done at any time.

Each withdrawal charge submission is processed separately and HMRC will send a transaction ID to be stored in your software to be used for reference purposes.

The monthly period for reporting withdrawal charges to HMRC ends the 20th day of the month following the end of the claim period for example a withdrawal charge report for the period ending 6 May 2019 should be submitted to HMRC by 20 May 2019.

The monthly period for reporting withdrawal charges to HMRC and the deadline for submitting the report to HMRC is the same as the period for claiming government bonus payments from HMRC.

A withdrawal charge report submitted after 20 May will be processed by HMRC but will be marked as a late report in the response from HMRC.

Withdrawal charge examples

Data submission                                                                                        HMRC’s record                                                                                        Outcome
Period start date = 6 March 2019
Period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 1000.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 1000.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = True
Withdrawal reason = Regular
Withdrawal Automatic recovery amount = 1000.00
N/A This example results in a debt of £1,000 to be collected from the LISA manager by direct debit
Period start date = 6 March 2019
Period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 1000.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD =1000.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = False
Withdrawal reason = Regular
Withdrawal Automatic recovery amount = 0.00
N/A In this example a debt of £1,000 needs to be collected from the LISA Investor
Period start date = 6 March 2019
Period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 1000.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 1000.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = False
Withdrawal reason = Regular Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 500.00
N/A This example results in a debt of £500 to be collected from the LISA manager by direct debit and £500 to be collected from the LISA Investor
Original Transaction ID = 0000000001
Original withdrawal charge amount = 500.00
Reason= Additional withdrawal
Transaction result = 500.00
period start date = 6 March 2019
period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 1000.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 1000.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = True
Withdrawal reason = Superseded Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 1000.00
Transaction ID = 0000000001
period start date = 6 March 2019
period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 2000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 500.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 500.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = True
Withdrawal reason = Regular Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 500.00
This example will result in one of 2 outcomes.
1.If the first withdrawal charge of £500 has already been collected by HMRC then an additional £500 will be collected from the LISA manager by direct debit
2.If the first withdrawal charge of £500 has not been collected then HMRC will collect a total debt of £1000 in a single transaction by direct debit.
Original Transaction ID = 0000000002
Original withdrawal charge amount = 500.00
Reason= Withdrawal reduction
Transaction result = -250.00
period start date = 6 March 2019
period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 1000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 250.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 250.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = True
Withdrawal reason = Superseded Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 250.00
Transaction ID = 0000000002
period start date = 6 March 2019
period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 2000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 500.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 500.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = True
Withdrawal reason = Regular Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 500.00
This example will result in one of 2 outcomes.
1.If the first withdrawal charge of £500 has already been collected by HMRC then a payment of £250 will be refunded to the LISA manager.
2. If the first withdrawal charge of £500 has not been collected then HMRC will only collect a debt £250 in a single financial transaction by direct debit.
Original Transaction ID = 0000000003
Original withdrawal charge amount = 500.00
Reason= Withdrawal refund
Transaction result= -500.00
period start date = 6 March 2019
period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 0.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 0.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 0.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = False
Withdrawal reason = Superseded Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 0.00
Transaction ID = 0000000003
period start date = 6 March 2019
period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 2000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 500.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 500.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = True
Withdrawal reason = Regular Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 500.00
This example will result in one of 2 outcomes.
1.If the first withdrawal charge of £500 has been collected by HMRC then a payment of £500 will be refunded to the LISA manager. HMRC may ask the ISA manager why the refund is required.
2.If the first withdrawal charge of £500 has not already been collected then HMRC will not collect any debt
Original Transaction ID = 0000000004
Original withdrawal charge amount = 500.00
Reason= Additional withdrawal
Transaction result = 500.00
Period start date = 6 March 2019
Period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 6000.00
Withdrawal charge amount =1500.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD =1500.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = False
Withdrawal reason = Superseded Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 1000.00
Transaction ID = 0000000004
period start date = 6 March 2019
period end date = 5 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 2000.00
Withdrawal charge amount = 500.00
Withdrawal charge amount YTD = 500.00
Funds deducted during withdrawal = True
Withdrawal reason = Regular Withdrawal
Automatic recovery amount = 500.00
This example will result in one of 2 outcomes.
1.If the first withdrawal charge of £500 has already been collected by HMRC then an additional £500 will also be collected from the LISA manager by direct debit and £500 will be collected from the investor
2.If the first withdrawal charge of £500 has not been collected then HMRC will collect a total debt of £1000 from the LISA manager by direct debit and the balance of £500 will be collected from the investor

HMRC’s rounding rules ensure that investors are not disadvantaged but this may cause anomalies. ISA manager should round down their withdrawal charge calculation to the nearest penny — see the examples:

Withdrawal Charge amount Accurate Charge Calculation Charge due to HMRC
£1.11 0.2775 £0.27
£2.22 0.5550 £0.55
£3.33 0.8325 £0.83
£4.45 1.1125 £1.11
£5.55 1.3875 £1.38
£6.66 1.6650 £1.66
£7.77 1.9425 £1.94
£8.88 2.2200 £2.22
£9.99 2.4975 £2.49

HMRC’s processing of bonus claims and withdrawal charges

HMRC’s financial processing is split into several sections:

Making payments to the LISA manager include:

  • government bonus payments paid by HMRC to an ISA manager
  • repayment paid by HMRC to the LISA manager of reduced withdrawal charges that has previously been collected by HMRC
  • refunding full withdrawal charge to an ISA manager which have already been collected by HMRC

Collecting debts from the LISA manager include:

  • withdrawal charges from an ISA manager
  • reduced bonus payments already paid by HMRC from the LISA manager
  • a fully reversed bonus requests already paid by HMRC from the LISA manager

Collecting debts from the LISA investor directly include:

  • withdrawal charges directly from the LISA investor due to insufficient funds in the LISA manager’s account
  • reduced bonus payments directly from the LISA investor due to insufficient funds in the LISA manager’s account
  • a fully reversed bonus request directly from the LISA investor due to insufficient funds in the LISA manager’s account

Government bonus payments to ISA managers

Bonus payments are paid in a single payment by HMRC for each monthly claim period. Payments include:

  • new government bonus payment requests
  • corrected government bonus payment requests when an additional bonus is due
  • corrected withdrawal charges when part of an incorrect withdrawal charge needs to be refunded

Monthly payments made by HMRC is an automated process and a single payment will be made for successful bonus payments that are due.

Bonus claims reported to HMRC after the end of the monthly reporting period will be not be paid until the end of the next monthly reporting period.

HMRC’s payment to ISA managers of government bonus claims

Following checking and any necessary correcting by HMRC, successful bonus claims will be paid within 14 days after the due date the claim was due.

Payments will always be made by BACS to the bank account provide by LISA managers when they applied to HMRC for approval for offer LISAs to investors.

If HMRC receives a BACS rejection notification after issuing a bonus payment to an ISA manager, then HMRC will contact the ISA manager to confirm the bank details provided are still correct.

Any payment processing failure by HMRC’s will be investigated and HMRC will attempt to make the payment 3 times before informing an ISA manager there is a problem preventing their bonus claim being paid.

Other payments that can be made to LISA managers

If an investor successfully appeals to HMRC against an incorrect withdrawal charge HMRC will make a separate BACS payment to a LISA manager’s bank account.

The payment will not be included with an ISA manager’s usual monthly bonus payment.

Collecting withdrawal charges from LISA managers

Withdrawal charges reported to HMRC by LISA managers will be collected as a single Direct Debit payment. The amount collected will include:

  • new withdrawal charges reported to HMRC
  • corrected withdrawal charges where a further charge needs to be paid to HMRC
  • corrected bonus claims when an incorrectly claimed bonus needs to be repaid to HMRC

Collecting withdrawal charges from ISA managers

The collection of withdrawal charges by Direct Debit is an automated monthly process.

HMRC processes all withdrawal charge transactions and prepares the direct debit for collection after the 19th day of each month.

The direct debit is collected 14 days after the 20th of each month.

During this period, ISA managers can check the total amount that will be collected by Direct Debit.

HMRC will issue an advance notice to an ISA manager’s liaison officer 3 business days before the Direct Debit that will be collected. The notice will confirm the amount that will be collected by Direct Debit.

Collecting withdrawal charges from LISA Investors

After the reporting period ends on the 19th day of the month HMRC will process all debt transactions.

HMRC will split a withdrawal charge due between the ISA manager and the LISA investor, if there’s insufficient funds in the investor’s account to pay all of the withdrawal charge.

ISA managers are only liable for withdrawal charges that have been deducted when a withdrawal was made or can be deducted from funds held in an investor’s account.

ISA managers are not responsible for paying a withdrawal charge to HMRC when the balance of an investor’s account is zero or the account has been closed.

When a LISA investor is liable for paying a withdrawal charge, HMRC contact the investor about paying the withdrawal charge.

When an investor’s account has been transferred to a new LISA manager and the original LISA manager makes a correction that will result in a payment due to HMRC then they should show the ‘auto-recovery amount’ to be collect from them as zero.

Corrected bonus or withdrawal charges

ISA managers should correct any bonus claims or withdrawal charges as soon as possible.

If a correction is made to a bonus claim by a LISA manager before it has been processed, HMRC will replace the original bonus claim with the corrected claim.

HMRC monitors the number of bonus claim corrections made by LISA managers and may ask a LISA managers to explain why frequent corrections are being made to their bonus claims.

Property purchases

The purchase of an investor’s first residential property must be reported to HMRC. ISA managers must report to HMRC when:

  • funds are withdrawn from a LISA for a first property purchase
  • a conveyancer askes for an extension to the 90 day time limit for completing the purchase of an investor’s first property
  • an investor’s property purchase has completed successfully or has failed

Releasing funds to an investor’s conveyancer

When an ISA manager receives all the appropriate paperwork from an investor’s conveyancer requesting funds to be withdrawn from the LISA they must report this to HMRC.

LISA managers must be able to report all property purchase using funds in a LISA to HMRC. Every submission will be processed by HMRC who will provide a response back to your software. Every successful submission to HMRC will result in a Life event ID being sent back to your software.

Reporting withdrawals LISA funds

Data submission                                                                                        HMRC’s record                                                                                        Outcome
Account ID = 1
Event date = 6 May 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
N/A This submission to HMRC results in a success response being sent to the ISA manager confirming funds can be released to the investor’s conveyancer
Account ID = 1
Event date = 6 May 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
Account ID = 2
Event date = 7 May 2019
Withdrawal amount = 8000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
N/A This submission to HMRC results in a success response being sent to the ISA manager confirming funds can be released from both accounts to the investor’s conveyancer
Account ID = 1
Event date = 7 May 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 2
Event date = 6 May 2019
Withdrawal amount = 8000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 11
Postal code = AA11 1AB
This submission to HMRC results in the release of funds being refused by HMRC because details of the property being purchased on both requests does not match.
Account ID = 1
Event date = 9 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 9000.00
Original life event ID = 1
Original life event date = 7 April 2019
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 1
Event date = 7 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
This submission results in the life event being superseded with more up to date information A new life event ID will be sent to the ISA manager for this corrected submission

ISA managers can tell HMRC about a change to the amount withdrawn from a LISA or the date of the withdrawal.

ISA managers cannot report a change to the property being purchased or an investor’s conveyancer to HMRC.

When a LISA manager makes an incorrect report to HMRC of a release of LISA funds for a house purchase, then the outcome of the house purchase needs to reported to HMRC as ‘Failed’. Then a correct report should be made to HMRC as soon as possible.

Reporting an extension to the property purchase time limit

There is a 90 day time limit for completing a property purchase using funds withdrawn from a LISA.

When this deadline cannot be met the investor’s conveyancer must contact the ISA account manager for an extension to the time limit to allow the purchase to continue.

There can be a maximum of a further 90 days extension to complete the property purchase.

No further extensions can be applied for and all funds must be returned to the investor’s account if the property purchase cannot completed within 180 days of the funds being withdrawn from the investor’s LISA.

LISA managers should use the same life event ID that was returned by HMRC when reporting extensions to the time limit that have been granted for completing the investor’s house purchase.

Notifying HMRC of an extension to a property purchase time limit

Data submission                                                                                        HMRC’s record                                                                                        Outcome
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 July 2019
Event type = Extension one
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 1
Event date = 7 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference= CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1 Postal code = AA11 1AA
This submission to HMRC results in a success response allowing the time limit for purchasing the investor’s property to be extended.
Your software will receive a second life event ID confirming the time limit extension.
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 September 2019
Event type = Extension two
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 1
Event date = 7 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference= CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
Life event ID = 2
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 July 2018
Event type = Extension one
This submission to HMRC results in a success response allowing the time limit for purchasing the investor’s property to be further extended.
Your software will receive a third life event ID confirming the time limit has been further extended.
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 October 2019
Event type = Extension one
Life event ID=1
Account ID=1
Event date = 7 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
Life event ID = 2
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 July 2019
Event type = Extension one
This submission will result in an error response from HMRC because a time limit has already been granted.
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 November 2019
Event type = Extension two
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 1
Event date = 07-04-2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference= CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
Life event ID = 2
Fund release ID =1
Event date = 6 July 2019
Event type = Extension one
Life event = 3
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 September 2019
Event type = Extension two
This submission will result in an error response from HMRC because a further time limit has already been granted.
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 9 July 2018
Event type = Extension one
Original life event date = 6 July 2019
Original life event ID = 2
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 1
Event date = 7 April 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference= CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
Life event ID=2
Fund release ID=1
Event date = 6 July 2019
Event type=Extension one
This results in a success response to update the extension one data with a new event date of 9 July 2019
Your software will receive a third life event ID confirming the date that the time limit was extended has been corrected.

Notifying HMRC of the outcome of a property purchase

When the purchase of a property using funds withdrawn from a LISA is successful or unsuccessful then the investor’s conveyancer must inform the LISA manager within 10 working days of the final outcome.

The life event ID that was returned by HMRC when the withdrawal of LISA funds was reported must also be also be used to report the outcome of a property purchase.

If HMRC is not notified that an investor’s property purchase has failed then future withdrawals of LISA funds to purchase another property will not be permitted.

Data submission                                                                                        HMRC’s record                                                                                        Outcome
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 September 2019
Property purchase result =purchase completed
property purchase value = 250000
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 1
Event date = 7 July 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
This notification results in a success response closing the property purchase process.
Your software will receive a second life event ID from HMRC to confirm the outcome of the property purchase.
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 September 2019
Property purchase result = purchase failed
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 1
Event date = 7 July 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number =1
Postal code= AA11 1AA
This notification results in a success response closing the property purchase process.
Your software will receive a second life event ID from HMRC to confirm the outcome of the property purchase.
Event date = 6 September 2018
Property purchase result =purchase completed
property purchase value = 280000
Original life event date = 9 July 2019
Original life event ID = 2
Life event ID = 1
Account ID = 1
Event date = 7 July 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference= CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
Life event ID = 2
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 September 2019
Property purchase result=purchase completed
Property purchase value = 250000
This notification results in a success response correcting the data relating to the purchase outcome
Your software will receive a second life event ID from HMRC to confirm the purchase outcome correction.
Event date = 6 September 2018
Property purchase result = purchase failed
Original life event date = 9 July 2019
Original life event ID=2
Life event ID =1
Account ID =1
Event date = 7 July 2019
Withdrawal amount = 4000.00
Conveyancer reference = CR12345-6789
Name or number = 1
Postal code = AA11 1AA
Life event ID = 2
Fund release ID = 1
Event date = 6 September 2019
Property purchase result = purchase completed
property purchase value = 250000
This notification results in a success response correcting the purchase outcome from completed to failed.
Your software will receive a third life event ID from HMRC to confirm the correction to the purchase outcome.

ISA managers can report the these changes to property purchase notifications sent to HMRC:

  • the event date
  • the purchase value
  • the outcome

ISA managers cannot report to HMRC changes to:

  • the property details
  • the conveyancer’s details

First payment date

A LISA is regarded as opened when the first payment is received by the ISA manager from the account investor. This is the date ISA managers must report to HMRC when creating the investor’s new account.

Investors can open and contribute to a LISA each tax year. An investor who has more than one LISA can only contribute to one LISA each tax year.

The date of first payment made in every tax year is reported to HMRC on a monthly bonus claim or on a report of an account transfer. This becomes the first entry in the payment table.

The date of the first payment made by an investor each tax year cannot be changed and will be checked every time a bonus claim is made to HMRC.

Only the date of the very first payment made by an investor when a LISA was opened can be corrected by an ISA manager.

The ‘real time’ reporting of LISA payments to HMRC ensures that investors cannot contribute to more than one LISA in the same tax year.

The date of first payment made by an investor each tax year is held within HMRC’s records as follows:

Account details                                                                                        HMRC’s record                                                                                        Outcome
Investor ID =0000000001
Account ID =LISAAccount1
Creation Reason = New
Tax year = 2017 to 2018
Date of first payment = 20 April 2017
Status = Active
Tax year = 2018 to 2019
Date of first payment = 6 April 2018
Status = Active
Tax year = 2019 to 2020
Date of first payment =6 April 2019
Status = Locked
Tax year = 2020 to 2021
Date of first payment = 6 April 2020
Status = Active
This shows how the LISA data table held by HMRC. The investor has paid into their LISA in the tax years 2017 to 2018, 2018 to 2019 and 2020 to2021.
But in the tax year 2019 to 2020 the investor contributed to another LISA account which resulted in this account being locked for 2019 to 2020.

A LISA payment status can have 5 possible options:

‘Active’ payment status

An account has an active status when it has:

  • received a payment for the first time
  • received a contribution from the investor in the tax year

When the first bonus claim is made in the tax year then, a new payment entry is created for that tax year with an automatic date of 6 April YYYY. This means that the account for which a bonus claim is made has received a contribution from the investor and can accept further contributions during the tax year.

‘Locked’ payment status

An account has a locked payment status when it has:

  • not received a contribution from the investor in the tax year but HMRC has been notified that the investor has contributed to another LISA
  • when a bonus claim on another LISA is made to HMRC during the current tax year

‘Void’ payment status

A LISA has a status of void when the account should not have been opened.

Only if the account can be reinstated will the payment status be changed either to Available (it can accept funds) or Locked (it cannot accept any funds).

‘Available’ payment status

An account has the status of ‘Available’ when:

  • a bonus claim made by another LISA Manager was cancelled and repaid in full to HMRC
  • an investor had other LISAs at the time that a bonus claim on another account was cancelled

When the bonus claim made on an investor’s LISA account with another ISA manager was subsequently cancelled and repaid in full to HMRC then the payment status of the account is changed from ‘Active’ to ‘Available’.

If an investor has other LISA accounts at the time that the bonus claim was cancelled then their payment status is changed from ‘Locked’ to ‘Available’. This can only be done if the first bonus claim is cancelled and repaid in full.

If a second bonus claim is successfully requested on the same LISA account then the payment status cannot be changed until the next tax year.

‘Cancelled’ payment status

An account has a status of cancelled when the account has been closed by a LISA manager.

If the status of an account is cancelled it cannot be reinstated. The investor can open another LISA in the same tax year if they are eligible for a LISA and have not contributed to another LISA account in the tax year.

First payment shown as 6 April each year

The date of first payment into a LISA each tax year is checked to identify which LISA was contributed to first by the investor. Using the 6 April as the date of the first payment stops any bonus claims being made on another LISA that the same investor contributes to in the same tax year.

The actual date of first payment into a new LISA each tax year can be any date.

Examples of Date of First payment entries

Data submission                                                                                        HMRC record (after submission)                                                                                        Outcome
Account creation
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount1
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 16 April 2019
Investor ID = 0000000001
Account ID = LISAAccount1
Creation Reason = New
tax year = 2019 to 2020
Date of first payment 16 April 2019
Status = Active
The successful creation of the account shows the date of first payment into the account
Bonus request
Account ID = LISAAccount1
period start date = 6 May 2019
period end date = 5 June 2019
New subs for period = 3000.00
New subs YTD = 3000.00
Total subs for period = 3000.00
Total subs YTD = 3000.00
Bonus paid YTD = 0.00
Bonus due for period = 750.00
Total bonus due YTD = 750.00
Claim reason=Regular Bonus
Investor ID = 0000000001
Account ID = LISAAccount1
Creation Reason = New
Tax year = 2018 to 2019
Date of first payment 16 April 2018
Status = Active
Tax year = 2019 to 2020
Date of first payment 6 April 2019 Status = Active
The successful bonus request in 2018 to 2019 creates the date of first payment for 2018 to 2019 into the account
Second account creation
Investor ID 0000000001
Account ID LISAAccount2
Creation Reason New
Date of first payment 16 April 2019
Investor ID =0000000001
Account ID =LISAAccount1
Creation Reason = New
tax year = 2017 to 2018
Date of first payment 16 April 2017
Status = Active
tax year = 2018 to 2019
Date of first payment 6 April 2018
Status = Locked
Investor ID =0000000001
Account ID =LISAAccount2
Creation Reason = New
tax year = 2019 to 2020
Date of first payment 16 April 2019
Status = Active
The successful creation of the account ID 2 creates the first payment entry (active) for the LISA and locks the entry for account ID 1.
This means if a bonus request is submitted to HMRC for Account ID 1 then it will be declined
Account closure (cancellation)
Closure date 6 May2018
Closure reason Cancellation
Investor ID =0000000001
Account ID =LISAAccount1
Creation Reason = New tax year = 2017 to 2018
Date of first payment 16 April 2017
Status = Active
tax year = 2018 to 2019
Date of first payment 6 April 2018
Status = Available
Investor ID =0000000001
Account ID =LISAAccount2
Creation Reason = New
tax year = 2018to 2019
Date of first payment 16 April 2018
Status = Cancelled
The successful creation of the account ID 2 creates the date of first payment (active) for the account and locks account ID 1.
However the cancellation of Account ID 2 means that the date of first payment for account ID 1 changes from locked to available and HMRC will accept bonus claims
Bonus correction — full reversal
Account ID=LISAAccount2
Original Transaction ID=0000000005
Original bonus amount=400.00
Reason= Bonus recovery Automatic recovery amount=400.00
Transaction result= -400.00
period start date=6 April 2019
period end date=5 May 2019
New subs for period=0.00
New subs YTD=0.00
Total subs for period=0.00
Total subs YTD=0.00
Bonus paid YTD=0.00
Bonus due for period=0.00
Total bonus due YTD=0.00
Claim reason=Superseded Bonus
Investor ID =0000000001
Account ID =LISAAccount1
Creation Reason = New
tax year = 2017 to 2018
Date of first payment 16 April 2017
Status = Active
tax year = 2018 to 2019
Date of first payment 6 April 2018
Status = Locked
tax year = 2019 to 2020
Date of first payment 6 April 2019
Status = Available
Investor ID =0000000001
Account ID =LISAAccount2
Creation Reason = New
tax year = 2018 to 2019
Date of first payment 16 April 2018
Status = Active
tax year = 2018 to 2019
Date of first payment 6 April 2019
Status = Available
The successful creation of the bonus in 2019 to2020 will create a date of first payment entry (locked) on account ID1 and an ‘active’ entry on account ID 2
However the full reversal of the bonus claim on Account ID 2 means that the payment entry for both account ID 1 and 2 become available and either can now accept a bonus claims. This only happens when the first bonus is reversed successfully. If a second bonus claim is successfully reported on the same account ID then the payment entries cannot be changed back to ‘available’ and the investor can only contribute this account for the tax year.

Submitting end of year LISA information returns

HMRC collects ISA account information data from ISA managers through the annual completion and submission of the ISACOM100 return to HMRC.

Lifetime ISAs must not be included on the ISAComm100 return of ISA account information. Lifetime ISAs are reported monthly on the Lifetime ISA Application Programming Interface (API).

ISA managers can view the account data submitted to HMRC to check its accuracy and make any corrections.

The normal deadlines for reporting this ISA information returns to HMRC are the same for LISAs.

The annual reporting of LISA statistical information to HMRC is done on the appropriate ISA14a form in the same way as other ISAs.

Information about Cash only LISAs and Stocks and Shares LISAs should be reported separately to HMRC.

The market value of each account on the 5 April should include all government bonuses paid and received. Any pending government bonuses not received from HMRC should not be included.

Examples of statistical reporting to HMRC

Cash only LISA opened 6 April 2018.

Investor’s contributions during 6 April 2018 to 4 April 2019 = £4,000.00.

Interest received up to 5 April 2019 = £15.57.

Total account value at 5 April 2019 = £4,015.57.

Bonus claim submitted on 10 April 2019 for £1,000.00 and paid by HMRC on 24 May 2019.

Total account value on 24 May 2019 = £5,015.57.

Reported to HMRC for 6 April 2018 to 5 April2019.

LISA Cash market value = £4015.57.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £0.00.

LISA Cash annual subs = £4000.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £0.00.

Stocks and Shares LISA opened 6 April 2018

Investor’s contributions during 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 = £2,000.00.

Government bonus claim made on 10 August 2018, £500.00 paid by HMRC on 24 August 2018.

Interest and gains received by 5 April 2019 = £195.42.

Total account value on 5 April 2019 = £2,695.42.

Reported to HMRC for 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019.

LISA Cash market value = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £2,695.42.

LISA Cash annual subs = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £2,000.00.

Stocks and Shares LISA opened 6 April 2018.

Investor’s contributions during 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 = £2,000.00.

Government bonus claim made on 15 December 2018, £500.00 paid by HMRC on 24 December 2018.

Previous year transfer received 29 September 2018 = £2,500.00 (including previous year’s bonus payments).

Interest and gains received by 5 April 2019 = £160.62.

Total account value on 5 April 2019 = £5,160.62.

Reported to HMRC for 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019.

LISA Cash market value = £0.00.

LISA Stocks abnd shares market value = £5,160.62.

LISA Cash annual subs = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £2,000.00 (the transfer in of £2,500.00 is not included).

Cash LISA opened 6 April 2018

Current year transfer received 29 September 2018 = £1,875.00 (including current years bonus payment £375.00).

Investor’s contributions during 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 = £1,500.00.

Government bonus claim made on 10 September 2018, £375.00 paid by HMRC on 24 September 2018.

Interest received by 5 April 2019 = £39.95.

Total account value on 5 April 2019 = £3,789.95.

Reported to HMRC for 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019.

LISA Cash market value = £3,789.95.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £0.00.

LISA Cash annual subs = £3,000.00 (including current year contributions of £1,500.00 transferred in).

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £0.00.

Cash LISA opened 6 April 2018

Previous year payments received on 29 September 2018 = £2,000.00 (including previous years bonus payment £400.00).

Investor’s contributions during 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 = £Nil.

Interest received by 5 April 2019 = £50.00.

Total account value on 5 April 2019 = £2,050.00.

Reported to HMRC for 6 April 2018 5 April 2019.

LISA Cash market value = £2,050.00.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £0.00.

LISA Cash annual subs = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £0.00.

LISA managers must be able to report annual submissions to HMRC, details of the data and test scenarios are available on the HMRC developer hub.

ISA managers must make a separate annual submission individually for each LISA. Each account submission is processed separately and HMRC will provide a response back to your software. Each successful submission will result in a Life event ID being sent to your software, ISA managers must store this data to be used for reference.

Examples of end of year submissions to HMRC

Data submission                                                                                        HMRC record                                                                                        Outcome
Event date = 6 May 2018
LISA manager name=Company name
Tax year=2018
Market value Cash=5000
Market value Stocks and shares=0
Annual subs Cash=4500
Annual subs Stocks and shares=0
N/A This results in a success response closing reporting the annual submission as a cash LISA account for the tax year 2017 to 2018
Event date = 6 May 2018
LISA manager name=Company name
Tax year=2018
Market value Cash=0
Market value Stocks and shares=6000
Annual subs Cash=0
Annual subs Stocks and shares=5500
N/A This results in a success response closing reporting the annual submission as a stocks and shares LISA account for the tax year 2017 to 2018
Event date = 8 May 2018
LISA manager name=Company name
Tax year=2018
Market value Cash=5500
Market value Stocks and shares=0
Annual subs Cash=4900
Annual subs Stocks and shares=0
Original life event ID=1
Original event date=6 May 2018
Life event ID=1
Event date = 6 May 2018
LISA manager name=Company name
Tax year=2018
Market value Cash=5000
Market value Stocks and shares=0
Annual subs Cash=4500
Annual subs Stocks and shares=0
This results in a success response to correct the data for a Cash LISA account for 2017 to 2018
Event date = 18 May 2018
LISA manager name=Company name
Tax year=2018
Market value Cash=0
Market value Stocks and shares=55000
Annual subs Cash=0
Annual subs Stocks and shares=4100
Original life event ID=1
Original event date=16 May 2018
Life event ID=1
Event date = 16 May2018
LISA manager name=Company name
Tax year=2018
Market value Cash=5000
Market value Stocks and shares=0
Annual subs Cash=4500
Annual subs Stocks and shares=0
This results in a success response to correct the data initially reported incorrectly as a Cash LISA and corrected to a Stocks and shares LISA.

LISA providers can only report or correct a single submission for each account for each tax year.

There are 2 exceptions to this:

  • if an original account submission to HMRC had a positive market or payment value that now needs to be changed to £nil, then an ISA manager needs to report a new submission to HMRC with the market or payment value showing zeros
  • if an original submission has any values that are incorrect then ISA managers must correct the original submission with zero entries. This will delete the original submission made to HMRC

Example 1 — fully correct a submission to all zeros

Original 2018 to 2019 submission:

LISA Cash market value = £4000.00.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £0.00.

LISA Cash annual subs = £5050.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £0.00.

Correct the original submission with all subs and market equal to zeros.

LISA Cash market value = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £0.00.

LISA Cash annual subs = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £0.00.

Then submit a NEW original submission with all subs and market equal to zeros.

LISA Cash market value = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £0.00.

LISA Cash annual subs = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £0.00.

Example 2 — fully delete a submission

Original 2018 to 19 submission:

LISA Cash market value = £4000.00.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £0.00.

LISA Cash annual subs = £5050.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £0.00.

Correct the original submission with all subs and market equal to zeros.

LISA Cash market value = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares market value = £0.00.

LISA Cash annual subs = £0.00.

LISA Stocks and shares annual subs = £0.00.

Then do not submit a NEW submission for the same tax year — the correction will delete the original submission in this specific scenario.

Viewing LISA data held by HMRC

All data reported by LISA providers is retained by HMRC. Data is only updated following API activity reported to HMRC.

LISA data reported to HMRC is stored in several data tables.

They are the LISA:

  • account (including the current year contributions and opening dates of first payment)
  • bonus request
  • withdrawal charge
  • life event (death or terminal illness, property purchases and statutory submissions)

HMRC creates new data for the:

  • LISA manager’s bulk financial position (including bulk payments and bulk debts)
  • investor’s debt position for each transaction reported to HMRC
  • investor’s payment position for each transaction reported to HMRC

All of this data is accessible through the appropriate API. The personal data of each investor is stored as part of HMRC’s taxpayer record and for data security reasons cannot be shared.

LISA account data

LISA providers can view the account data they submitted to HMRC when reporting each account. They can also see the account’s current status and the payment status for the current tax year.

This enables ISA managers to check the account status of a void account prior to making a bonus claim and the payment status of an account before accepting new payments from an investor.

Viewing LISA bonus request data

LISA managers can view their bonus request data sent to HMRC. They can also see the data sent to HMRC to correct their original bonus claim submission.

ISA managers can check that their bonus requests are accurate and correct up to midnight on the 19th day of each month.

A corrected bonus claim creates a debt due to HMRC. If the amount due to HMRC exceeds the amount being claimed by a LISA manager then it’s possible that this may result in no bonus payment being made by HMRC.

Viewing LISA withdrawal charge data

LISA managers can view the withdrawal charge data they send to HMRC including any data sent to correct original submissions.

A corrected withdrawal charge submitted to HMRC may result in a bonus payment being due to an ISA manager from HMRC.

Viewing LISA Life Event data

LISA managers can view the Life Event data submitted to HMRC including when reporting:

  • death and terminal illness
  • the release of funds for a property purchase
  • an extension to the property purchase completion deadline
  • the completion or failure of a property purchase
  • a LISA End of year return of information for each investor

This enables LISA providers to ensure that the data submitted to HMRC is accurate and correct at all times.

Viewing LISA life event property purchase data

All data regarding a property purchase reported to HMRC is stored for the appropriate Life Event ID’s returned under the ‘purchase fund release’ Life Event ID.

When a call is made to view the ‘purchase fund release’ Life Event ID HMRC will send a response and will confirm if the:

  • purchase extension 1 has been approved then this data will be included in the response (Life Event ID 0000000002)
  • purchase extension 2 has been approved then this data will be included in the response (Life Event ID 0000000003)
  • purchase result has been approved then this data will be included in the response (Life Event ID 0000000004)

Example

This table shows a property purchase withdrawal where the deadline has been extended twice and has been reported to HMRC. LISA managers can see all of the house purchase data reported to HMRC.

Life event — 0000000001 Data
Life event type purchase fund release
Life event date 6 December 2019
Withdrawal amount £25000.00
Property name/number 313
Property postcode NE99 1AA
Conveyancer reference HMCON100
HMRC Creation date 8 December 2019
Life event type Purchase extension 1
Life event date 6 March 2019
Life Event ID 0000000002
Life event type Purchase extension 1
Life event date 6 May 2019
Life Event ID 0000000003
Life event type Purchase result
Life event date 26 May 2019
Property purchase result Completion
Property purchase value £410,000.00
Life Event ID 0000000004

Viewing LISA financial data

LISA bonus claims are always paid in bulk by HMRC.

A bulk bonus payment is made by HMRC when a bonus claim and all corrections requiring further payment are processed.

ISA managers must be able to accurately reconcile bonus payments from HMRC.

HMRC stores some of the original bonus request data within the financial system. This is stored along with any new information so that LISA managers can see each investor’s payment and which bulk payment it was part of.

ISA managers can call the Get Bulk payment or Get Bulk debt API’s to view their bulk payment information.

ISA managers must specify the date range that they want to view. HMRC will return the following bulk payment or debt owed data:

  • payment or debt reference number
  • payment or debt amount
  • payment or debt due date
  • bulk payment or debt paid date

When HMRC processes a bulk BACS payment a unique reference number is allocated to the payment. This payment document number is an 11 character reference that is included on the payment made into the ISA manager’s bank account.

When ISA managers submit new or corrected bonus requests to HMRC they must store the transaction ID returned by HMRC.

If a LISA manager is unsure if a bonus has been submitted to HMRC they can request the bonus again. HMRC will identify and not process a duplicated bonus claim. The transaction ID of the duplicated bonus request will be returned instead.

ISA managers can call the ‘Get payment details’ for a bonus claim or withdrawal charge API. They will need to include the Account ID and the Transaction ID for the transaction that they want to check.

ISA managers may receive a response from HMRC showing that the transaction:

  • was cancelled or voided because the account was cancelled or voided
  • was superseded by another more recent transaction
  • is pending and has not been processed yet

Bonus claims or withdrawal charges resulting in a payment to an ISA manager:

HMRC will return a response showing the:

  • bulk payment reference number
  • amount of the bonus paid for the investor
  • date of that bulk payment was paid
  • due date of the bulk payment if it is shown as pending

Bonus claims or withdrawal charges resulting in a debt due to HMRC

HMRC will return a response showing the:

  • payment reference for the debt to be collected by HMRC
  • amount due to HMRC
  • date the debt was collected
  • due date if the debt has not been collected by HMRC

Appealing a decision

When an investor’s government bonus claim is rejected or they incur a withdrawal charge, they have a right of appeal to HMRC against the decision. HMRC will send a response to ISA managers showing:

  • a government bonus claim has been rejected
  • a government bonus needs to be repaid to HMRC
  • a withdrawal charge is due
  • a withdrawal charge is due because there was a shortfall in the funds returned to an ISA manager following a failed first time residential purchase

Investors must appeal within 30 days after the date that they receive notification of HMRC’s decision. An investor’s appeal:

  • must be made in writing
  • must specify the grounds of appeal
  • must include sufficient information to identify the investor making the appeal and the decision against which the appeal is being made
  • must be signed, or authenticated in another way approved by HMRC, by or on behalf of the appellant

Appeals must be sent to:

HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1BU

Updates to this page

Published 1 July 2019
Last updated 9 August 2023 + show all updates
  1. Information about the first payment date has been updated.

  2. Information about submitting end of year lifetime ISA information returns has been updated.

  3. Guidance updated under 'Government bonus claim examples' - Period end date = 05-05-2019. Also under 'Withdrawal charges', message has been removed and first line confirms 'A 25% withdrawal charge must be applied when an investor withdraws funds for a non-Life event.'

  4. The Lifetime ISA withdrawal charge has been reduced.

  5. This guide has been updated with new information about withdrawal charge calculations.

  6. First published.

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