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Whichever steps you take, don’t forget to make the most of your valuable reliefs and allowances before the end of the current tax year on 5 April.
Are you making the most of this year’s £20,000 allowance? Using Stocks and Shares ISAs can be great for investing over the long term and saving for your biggest goals in life.
Are you looking to save for the children in your life to give them a head start? You can contribute up to £9,000 per child into a Junior ISA with no further liability to Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax.
Are you getting the most from the tax-savings benefits your pension can bring? There’s a chance the government might reduce some of these soon, so make sure you’re taking advantage before the end of this tax year on 5 April.
Are you thinking about how you can reduce the Inheritance Tax your children or grandchildren might have to pay when you die? Using your gifting allowances before 5 April will reduce the taxable value of your estate.
Are you sure you won’t get caught in the CGT trap? Make sure you’re paying what you owe, but not paying when you don’t need to. The government might raise CGT rates soon, so make the most of this year’s allowances before 5 April.
The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.
The levels and bases of taxation and reliefs from taxation can change at any time and are dependent on individual circumstances.
There are many simple, permissible and effective ways to help reduce your tax bill. The tax regulations have changed continuously in recent years and a tax health check can be a key tool to analyse and highlight areas for concern.
Our tax health check is comprised of eleven simple questions which help us to identify simple but effective tax-saving opportunities that may be relevant to you. Dependent on the answers to the questions there may be an opportunity, or opportunities, to improve financial well-being. Based on the answers given, it will be possible to ascertain which, if any, action(s) may be appropriate for you.
For every tax health check we complete before tax year-end, we help a migrant family to learn about money management in Thailand.
With no access to basic financial infrastructure, refugee families on the Thai/Burma border have no way to manage the few resources they have. This puts them at constant risk of losing the ability to survive.
Financial literacy gives even families in poverty a level of security and safety for their children they never knew was possible. Train communities in money management so that families can save together, borrow cheaply for emergencies, and even earn returns on their deposits.
Schedule a no-obligation tax health check today.
ISAs can be a great way of making your money work harder for you, as any money you put in to them is free of any further liability to Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax – so no tax on your interest, no tax on withdrawals and no tax on the profits. You can put up to £20,000 per person into an ISA this tax year (ending 5 April).
They’re also a great way to start investing in stocks and shares – because, as well as giving you all these tax benefits, they’re very simple. The only downside is you can’t carry forwards any ISA allowance you don’t use in a single tax year – so use it or lose it before 5 April.
The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.
An investment in a Stocks and Shares ISA will not provide the security of capital associated with a Cash ISA.
The Personal Savings Allowance means you don’t have to pay tax on some of the interest you receive from your cash savings accounts – up to £1,000 a year for those paying the basic rate of Income Tax and up to £500 a year for higher rate taxpayers (but there is no saving for additional rate taxpayers). As interest rates are currently so low, that means you can hold a lot in a cash savings account before you would end up paying tax on the interest.
It’s really important to have an ‘emergency fund’ of cash that you can access
quickly in case disaster strikes. So the good news is that, thanks to the Personal Savings Allowance and low interest rates, you can still hold plenty of cash without needing to use up your ISA allowance to keep the interest tax-free. You could therefore use your ISA to invest in stocks and shares instead, which over the long term can be more lucrative.
The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time and are generally dependent on individual circumstances.
Your pension is one of the best ways of saving for retirement – particularly because you get income tax relief on the money you put into your pension pot (up to a maximum of £40,000 this tax year). That’s why you should consider paying in as much as you think you can afford on a regular basis.
It’s also worth thinking about topping up your pension as much as you can before the end of this tax year (5 April) and making use of any unused allowances from previous tax years, as it’s possible the government might change the tax allowances available to you – so use them whilst you can.
The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time and are dependent on individual circumstances.
Capital gains tax (or CGT) is one of the most complex taxes to understand, so it’s no wonder that people fall into the trap of paying unnecessarily or end up being fined for not paying when they should. This is also made worse by the myth that only the very wealthy are likely to have to pay it.
You’re liable for CGT when you sell an asset at a profit. This could be anything from a second home to stocks and shares – or even valuable items such as jewellery or antiques, which is where people often fall foul of the tax. There’s a tax-free allowance of £12,300 for this year, then after that the rate is dependent on the level of income tax you pay – 10% for basic-rate taxpayers and 20% for higher-rate payers (and 18% and 28% respectively if you’re selling a property).
However, you can claim some ‘allowable expenses’ to reduce your tax bill, such as for house repairs. You can also split your gains over two tax years and make use of tax-free transfers to your spouse – although this can be complicated so it’s worth seeking expert advice.
As the 5 April deadline approaches, you may want to consider using the valuable tax-savings and investment opportunities before they are lost.
By joining together your goals and our expertise, we can help you reach future financial security.
Take a step in the right direction – act by 5 April. Speak to one of our financial advisers to find out more.
Tel: 020 8042 0156
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Knightsbridge, London
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