Find out how Cash ISAs, the Personal Savings Allowance, Premium Bonds and the starting rate can stop you paying tax on savings.

In my live YouTube Q&As I’m often asked about how much tax is due on savings, or which is the best Cash ISA, and my answers are often “none” and “there isn’t one” respectively.

That’s largely because of something called a Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) which eliminates or reduces the tax most will pay on your savings regardless of the account the money is held in.

But interest rates are on the move, so this could change. Plus it’s not the only allowance or account that will mean you can earn interest tax-free. Here’s how the PSA and other tax-free savings options work in the UK.

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Tax and your savings

You might not realise it, but interest earned on saving is technically subject to tax at your tax rate. As long as you’re earning more than £12,570 a year you will be paying tax.

So if you’re a basic rate taxpayer and earn £100 in interest in a financial year, you’d pay £20 of that in tax. Higher rate taxpayers (earning above £50,270 a year) would pay £40.

But there are four ways to avoid this payment to HMRC: Cash ISAs, the Personal Savings Allowance, the starting rate for savings and finally Premium Bonds.

The Cash ISA tax-free allowance

The one most are familiar with is the Cash ISA. An ISA is a type of savings account where the interest is tax-free, and the Cash ISA is (as the name suggests) one for cash savings rather than investments.

There’s an annual ISA allowance, which limits how much you can pay in one each year to £20,000, though that allowance resets for new deposits each April. That means once the money is in an ISA, it will keep earning tax-free interest year after year.

This is why so many people have the idea in their heads that they need an ISA for their savings. And for a while it was often the best place to stash your cash. But since 2016 (so quite a while now) there’s also been the Personal Savings Allowance (PSA).

The Personal Savings Allowance

Most of you reading this will be entitled to a PSA. This allowance isn’t about how much money you can save tax-free, instead it’s based on how much interest you can earn before tax is due. And it’s a decent amount.

How much is the Personal Savings Allowance?

If you’re a basic rate taxpayer you have an allowance of £1,000 in interest earned before tax is due. If you’re a higher rate taxpayer, the Personal Savings Allowance is £500. Additional rate taxpayers lose the PSA completely.

The standard £1,000 allowance is decent, especially when you look at interest rates right now. When the best you can get is 0.6%, you’d need to have a massive £166,666 held in that account before you would start paying tax on the interest.

If you haven’t moved your money at all for a while it could even be languishing in an account paying as little as 0.1% (or worse). And you’d need ONE MILLION POUNDS before you hit the PSA roof.

But rates improve(see the latest best buys here), or if you’re a higher rate taxpayer, the allowance will be reached on lower balances. If rates reach 2%, then earnings on £50,000 and £25,000 would fill the PSA.

Don’t forget you only really need three to six months of expenses available in cash, with the rest invested for the longer term. Even if you wanted a year’s worth available I’d doubt many people will need to have above £25,000 saved up. Probably a lot less.

Of course there will be short-term exceptions, such as savings for a house deposit that could take you above those levels – though right now the rates available mean that’s not going to be a concern.

So for most of us, all we need to worry about when looking for a savings account is the best interest rate, not whether we’ll be able to earn tax-free interest.

The starting rate for savings tax allowance

There’s a third level that’ll wipe out tax on interest, and this is for low earners. There’s effectively an extra £5,000 allowance for interest earned, though how much you’ll get depends on your salary.

To be eligible you need to earn less than £17,570 and the total amount is a little complicated. For anyone earning under £12,570 you get the full £5,000 a year allowance.

Then for every £1 you earn over £12,570, the starting rate reduces by £1. So someone earning £15,570 a year would lose £3,000 from the allowance, giving them a total of £2,000 they could earn.

This is in addition to the PSA which would be worth the full £1,000.

Premium Bonds

The final account that’ll pay you tax-free returns is the Premium Bond. Though you’re not guaranteed interest, any prizes you do win are paid tax-free. If you have an average rate of luck and more than £5,000 saved, these should equal or beat the interest rate on the best easy-access accounts.

There’s a limit of £50,000 that can be held by an individual in a PB. Here’s more about how Premium Bonds work and how they compare to savings accounts.

What about joint accounts?

Technically any interest earned in joint accounts is split down the middle. So say the account receives £100 in a year, you’ll both put £50 towards your respective allowances.

What’s the best savings account?

When an ISA can be useful

Obviously if the interest you’ll earn is going to take you above the PSA then putting some of the cash in a Cash ISA can make sense (though the same can be said for Premium Bonds).

ISAs are also something to bear in mind if you see interest rates rising, which could see you reach the PSA level sooner than you currently are.

And there’s also no guarantee that this or a future government won’t slash the PSA levels, or even remove it completely. In which case you might want to ring-fence some cash in ISAs to future proof its tax-free status.

If you do this, don’t forget that the £20,000 allowance is split between all the different ISA types such the Stocks and Shares ISA or Lifetime ISA.