UK’s Hunt proposes to alter the ISA to encourage stock ownership.

The greatest overhaul of Individuals saving accounts (ISA) in years is being planned by UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt in an effort to encourage more people to use tax-free investments to support London-listed firms, the British newspaper Financial Times reported on Friday.

According to the FT story, which cited persons briefed on the discussions, Treasury officials from the nation recently met with executives from the investment business to discuss how to streamline the present ISA product and remove obstacles to making investments in the stock market.
Using ISAs, one may maintain investments and savings without having to pay tax on capital gains or interest. These consist of stock and share ISAs as well as cash ISAs.

An increased ISA allocation for making investments in UK companies is reportedly being investigated as a radical solution, based to the FT story.

The ability to hold stock market investments and cash savings together in an ISA rather than separately, as they are currently, would allow people to save and invest money tax-efficiently, according to the analysis.