Investing in an ISA is a brilliant way to top up your State Pension. All the share price growth and dividend income you generate will be free of tax. That’s a real boon today, with the £12,570 UK personal income tax allowance frozen all the way to 2031.
The full new State Pension is now worth £12,547.60. That’s a whisker below the personal tax allowance today. Next year it will definitely exceed it. That means every penny of income from other sources will be taxable. But income from an ISA will remain tax-free, whether that’s savings interest from a Cash ISA or dividends from a Stocks and Shares ISA. You don’t even have to mention ISA holdings on your tax return, which saves a lot of time and trouble.
Please note that tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. The content in this article is provided for information purposes only. It is not intended to be, neither does it constitute, any form of tax advice. Readers are responsible for carrying out their own due diligence and for obtaining professional advice before making any investment decisions.
Let’s say somebody fancies effectively doubling their State Pension income, by using their ISA to generate a regular passive income in retirement.
Get HMRC off your back
How much investors need to generate that £12k+ a year depends on the underlying yield on their ISA. Today, the average easy-access Cash ISA pays 2.73%, according to Moneyfacts. With that, they’d need a savings pot of £459,619.
However, if they built a balanced portfolio of dividend-paying FTSE 100 shares with an average 4% yield, they could target the same income with a £313,690 pot. And if they targeted shares yielding 5% on average, they could potentially do it with just £250,952.
Over the last 10 years, the average Stocks and Shares ISA has grown at 9.5% a year, against 4% for Cash ISAs. So investors could have a much bigger pot in retirement, and potentially be able to generate more income from it too.
Lloyds shares offer income and growth
One stock I really like today is Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY). Its shares are up 35% in the last year, and 115% over five. That’s a brilliant performance, and it’s not even the main attraction for me. Lloyds is also a brilliant dividend stock. With dividends reinvested, the total five-year return nears 140%. That would have turned £10,000 into roughly £24,000.
Lloyds published first-quarter results today. So were they good? They certainly were. Underlying profit rose a bumper 31% to £2bn compared to last year. That was even better than markets had expected. Earnings have been boosted by higher interest rates, which allow banks to widen the margin between what they pay savers and charge borrowers. With interest rates likely to rise as inflation picks up, margins could climb still higher.
Lloyds could take a hit from the slowing UK economy, which could hurt mortgage lending. Also, its shares are more expensive than they were. The forward price-to-book ratio is 1.3, notably above its 10-year average of 0.85.
But with the shares forecast to yield 5.1% next year, I think this remains a compelling dividend income opportunity. Over time, I expect a fair bit of share price growth too. I think it’s well worth considering for investors seeking passive income on top of their State Pension and growth potential too.
