Year End Tax Planning
As the saying goes,”Tax need not be Taxing”, especially if you take time to plan for the year ahead.
How do you ensure that you make the most of any opportunities to save paying more tax than you need to?
Do you think you paid too much tax last year and would benefit from reviewing your tax planning to make the most of any reliefs and exemptions?
Follow our guide below to the 12 tax planning tips you should use to improve your tax position this year.
12 Top Tips for Tax Planning
- Ensure the personal allowance is used, including the spouse’s personal allowance.
- Any spouse’s unused personal allowance can also be used to save up to £230 in tax by transferring to the other spouse, (not applicable if a higher rate taxpayer).
- Use the child’s personal allowance by providing income from trusts or gifts of capital. Invest in a Junior ISA on behalf of the child.
- Switch investments to a spouse to use the 0% starting rate for savings.
- Obtain tax relief at your marginal tax rate by making pension contributions. If total income is £100,000 or more, you might be able to preserve the personal allowance. The annual allowance is £40,000 but it is restricted for incomes in excess of £150,000.
- Obtain tax relief by investing in Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS), Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS) or Venture Capital Trusts (VCT).
- Use the annual ISA allowance of £20,000 to provide for tax-free income and capital gains.
- Try to structure investments to utilise the dividend allowance of £5,000. The allowance will reduce to £2,000 from 6th April 2018.
- Try to avoid the High Income Child Benefit charge by keeping income under £50,000. Consider the use of pension contributions and making gift aided donations to charity.
- Make gift aid payments to reduce higher rate tax and reduce income for entitlement to personal allowance and child benefit.
- If there is a need to reduce income, switch investments to capital growth products.
- Make use of your annual Capital Gains Tax exemption of £11,300.
Contact us
For more tax planning advice whether it be Business Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Income Tax or Inheritance Tax, contact the Specialist Tax team at Hunter Gee Holroyd on 01904 655202 or email enquiries@hghyork.co.uk
Image courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
