Am I allowed to open a LISA if I am not a British national? What happens if at some point I return to my home country and stop being a UK tax payer?
10 February 2022
Question by Pedro
Am I allowed to open a LISA if I am not a British national? What happens if at some point I return to my home country and stop being a UK tax payer?
Answered by Ria Coles
You do not need to be a British Citizen to open a LISA, the LISA is open to individuals living in the UK.
If you move abroad you can keep the LISA open but you would need to stop paying in, you can however restart payments if you move back.
If you move away from the UK permanently then you have three options. Either use the money to buy a UK residential property, wait until you are 60 years old, or pay a 25 per cent penalty to get hold of your cash early which would effectively wipe out the state bonus and cost you 6 per cent on the money you originally saved.
