Moving SAYE and SIP Employee Shares Into an ISA (2026/27)

If your employer runs a Save As You Earn (SAYE, also called Sharesave) scheme or a Share Incentive Plan (SIP), you may end up holding a chunk of company shares when the plan matures. There is a useful but time-limited rule: you can move those shares into a stocks and shares ISA, sheltering all future growth and dividends from tax, without triggering Capital Gains Tax on the transfer itself.

The 90-day share exchange rule

When SAYE shares are acquired on maturity, or when shares cease to be held within a SIP, you can transfer them directly into a stocks and shares ISA. The key conditions for 2026/27:

• The transfer must happen within 90 days of the date you acquired the shares.
• The market value on the day of transfer counts against your GBP 20,000 ISA allowance.
• The transfer is treated as a disposal and reacquisition for CGT, but it is exempt, so no CGT is due on the move.

This is sometimes called a share exchange or "in specie" transfer. Your ISA provider needs to accept it, so check first.

Why it is worth doing

Holding employer shares outside any wrapper exposes you to two taxes once you eventually sell or receive dividends:

• Dividends above the GBP 500 allowance taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% or 39.35%.
• Gains above the GBP 3,000 annual exempt amount taxed at 18% or 24%.

Concentrated single-company holdings are also risky. Moving them into an ISA lets you later sell tax free and diversify into funds.

Worked example

Imagine your SAYE scheme matures and you buy 2,000 shares at the GBP 4 option price. On maturity day they are worth GBP 7 each, so a market value of GBP 14,000. You acquired them at a built-in gain of GBP 6,000 (GBP 3 x 2,000).

• You transfer all 2,000 shares into your stocks and shares ISA within 90 days.
• The GBP 14,000 market value uses GBP 14,000 of your GBP 20,000 ISA allowance, leaving GBP 6,000.
• No CGT is due on the transfer, even though the embedded gain is GBP 6,000.

A year later the shares have risen to GBP 8 and pay a GBP 600 dividend. Because they are inside the ISA:

• The GBP 600 dividend is tax free (outside the ISA, GBP 100 would be above the dividend allowance and taxable).
• When you sell, the gain is tax free, regardless of size.

Points to watch

• Allowance limit: if your shares are worth more than GBP 20,000, you can only move that much in one tax year. The excess stays taxable, or waits for next year.
• Provider acceptance: not every ISA manager accepts in specie share transfers. Confirm before the 90-day clock runs out.
• SIP timing: shares are usually most tax efficient when held in the SIP for five years; the ISA transfer route is about what you do after they leave the plan.
• Income Tax already settled: the share exchange route deals with future CGT and dividend tax, not any Income Tax or NI that arose when the shares were awarded.

Used well, the 90-day rule turns a lumpy, taxable single-stock holding into a diversified, tax-free ISA pot over a few years.

To estimate the tax you would otherwise pay on dividends and gains, try the CalcHub dividend tax and capital gains tax calculators, and read the employee share scheme guidance on gov.uk before transferring.