Even though the end of this tax year may seem fairly distant, if you haven’t yet taken full advantage of your Individual Savings Account (ISA) allowance you could be missing out from sheltering your investments from tax.

ISAs enable you to hold investments and pay no capital gains tax and no further tax on the income you receive. From 6 April 2010, the government increased the ISA allowance limit to £10,200 for all eligible ISA customers.

An ISA is a tax-efficient ‘wrapper’ in which you can hold either stock market-based investments or a traditional savings account. Any interest earned on savings or bonds and any capital gains made on investments within an ISA are tax-free.

Levels and bases of and reliefs from taxation are subject to change and their value depends on the individual circumstances of the investor. Thresholds, percentage rates and tax legislation may change in subsequent finance acts.