TIME TO REVIEW YOUR TAX AHEAD OF APRIL 5

“There is no such thing as a good tax...”
Winston Churchill, 1924

Unfortunately, tax isn't optional, you may not have a specific issue at the moment, but a review prior to the end of the tax year could assist in planning for the future, and perhaps even identify some savings you can make now.
Here are some personal tax issues to look at before 5 April 2012 from Carol Wright of Springfords:
• Capital gains tax – the annual CGT exemption allows you to take gains of up to £10,600 tax free (£5,300 for trusts). You can take advice on how to plan to make best use of this, as well as looking at how you might mitigate liabilities on gains in excess of the limit.
• Pension contributions – advise on how to maximise higher rate tax relief could assist, as well as how you can make best use of the opportunity to carry forward relief from earlier years. Act before 5th April 2012 to use relief stretching back to 6 April 2008.
• Tax efficient investments – consider using your annual ISA allowance of £10,680 prior to 5 April, to secure tax free income and growth. (
Corporate investments – Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust subscriptions can attract 30% income tax relief as well as generous capital gains tax savings. Investments prior to 5 April will reduce this year's tax liability, and you may even want to carry back some relief to the previous year to generate a tax repayment. The rules are labyrinthine.
• Charitable donations – higher rate tax relief can be obtained on Gift Aid donations, offering a philanthropic way to reduce your tax costs. Gifts of certain assets to a charity outwith the Gift Aid scheme can also attract tax relief up to 50%.
• Allowances and lower rate bands – where possible, you should ensure these are fully used by 5 April. If you have your own company or business, for instance, consider alternative methods of extracting income prior to the end of the year.
• 60% tax rate – if your income exceeds £100,000 you will lose personal allowances, and any income between £100,000 and £114,950 will attract an effective tax rate of 60%. Get We advice on what action can be taken by 5 April to help preserve your personal allowances.
In the longer term, look at
• Inheritance tax (IHT) planning –

Wills – it's important to revisit these regularly to ensure they remain tax effective, especially if there have been any changes to your personal circumstances – it's also a good point to consider IHT tax planning.
For those in business, there are additional ways we can help, on an on-going basis:
• Accounting date – altering the year end date for self employed businesses can result in substantial savings.

Capital allowances – get advice on the timing of purchases to secure higher levels of Annual Investment Allowance relief, which reduces from a maximum of £100,000 down to £25,000 after 5 April.
• Losses – losses can maximise tax refunds and impact on future tax liabilities,

Income extraction – views regularly alter on this one, but get a summary of the various methods available and received advice on any current issues that you need to be aware of when deciding how to take income from your company so that action can be taken prior to 5 April if necessary.