If you want to save or invest tax-free in the UK, you’re in luck. You can shovel cash into a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) wrapper (tax-free on the way in) or shovel it into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) wrapper (tax-free on the way out). And even if you stay outside these vehicles, you can earn a reasonable amount in interest and dividends before a tax bill arrives.

The most loved and best understood of all these things is the ISA — into which savers can put up to £20,000 ($25,266) a year in a mix of equities, bonds and cash. In 2021, a whopping 42% of the population of England had an ISA of some sort or another, with a total value of £741.6 billion. This is obviously good news, but there is also something slightly odd about it.