Your tax year-end checklist

Make the most of your tax-saving opportunities before 5 April.

The end of this tax year – 5 April – is approaching fast. So act now to make sure you’ve thought about all the steps you can take to reduce your tax bill and make your money work harder for you. If you’ve taken action already, that’s great. If not, here are ten ideas to consider. Contact your St. James’s Place Partner for more advice, and they’ll be happy to guide you in the right direction.

1. Make use of your ISA allowance of £20,000. Check your spouse or partner has maximised their ISA allowance to fully utilise the combined allowance of £40,000.
2. Make contributions of up to £9,000 per child into Junior ISAs to help them get a head start.
3. Those wishing to maximise pension saving should consider fully utilising their annual allowance. Unused allowances can be carried forward, but only from the three previous tax years. If your 2020/21 allowance is fully utilised, you should review whether you have any unused allowances from the 2017/18 tax year first.
4. High earners could take steps to bring their taxable income down by making pension contributions or charitable donations. These can help individuals: • Bring their income to below the additional rate tax band, which starts at £150,000. • Regain their Personal Allowance, which starts to be withdrawn for incomes over £100,000. • Avoid losing Child Benefit, which is gradually removed if one parent in the household earns more than £50,000.
5. Take advantage of your annual Capital Gains Tax (CGT) exemption by realising gains of £12,300 in this tax year. The government might raise CGT rates soon, so make the most of this year’s allowance.
6. Use your IHT gifting exemption of £3,000 for this year.
7. If you’re thinking of making a large pension withdrawal, it could make sense to spread the withdrawal over two or more tax years to minimise your Income Tax liability.
8. If you own a business and depending on your earnings, consider taking dividend income instead of salary to avoid National Insurance contributions (NICs). The first £2,000 of dividend income is tax-free.
9. Divert your company’s pre-tax profits into a personal pension to reduce your company’s liability to Corporation Tax, Income Tax (including on dividends) and NICs. Contributions will need to be paid before your company’s financial year-end in order for the business to qualify for the deduction in that accounting period.

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 you invested. The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time and are dependent on individual circumstances

The ‘St. James’s Place Partnership’ and the titles ‘Partner’ and ‘Partner Practice’ are marketing terms used to describe St. James’s Place representatives. Members of the St. James’s Place Partnership in the UK represent St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc Registered Office: St. James’s Place House, 1 Tetbury Road, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1FP, United Kingdom. Registered in England Number 4113955.