What should I consider before the end of this tax year?
The end of the 2019/20 tax year is fast approaching, and there are a number of valuable allowances and reliefs that will be lost if they are not used before the deadline
These opportunities include, but are not limited to, four important areas of tax planning. We’ve summarised these allowances below and suggest that if appropriate to your particular situation, these areas should be reviewed before 5 April 2020.
1. Take your ISA contributions to the max
The term ‘ISA’
stands for ‘Individual Savings Account’, which allows you to save
tax-efficiently into a cash savings or investment account. With a Cash ISA or a
Stocks & Shares ISA (or a combination of the two), you can save or invest up
to £20,000 a year tax-efficiently. Your ISA allowance doesn’t roll over into a
subsequent tax year, so if you don’t use it, you’ll lose out forever.
If you are in a position to, it may make sense for you and your spouse to
take advantage of each other’s ISA allowance, particularly if one of you has
more financial resources than the other. That way, you can save (in the case of
Cash ISAs) or invest (in the case of Stocks & Shares ISAs) up to £40,000
tax-efficiently in the current tax year.
Also, 16 and 17-year-olds actually
have two ISA allowances, as they’re able to open a Junior ISA (once they have
transferred their Child Trust Fund [CTF] to their Junior ISA and closed the
CTF), which for 2019/20 has a limit of £4,368, as well as an adult Cash ISA.
This means that you could put away up to £24,368 in your child’s name
tax-efficiently this tax year.
People aged 18–39 can open a Lifetime ISA, which entitles them to save up to £4,000 tax-efficiently a year until they’re 50. The Government will top up the savings by 25%, up to a maximum of £1,000 a year.
Viewing your and your spouse’s allowances as one will allow you to make the most of these tax advantages.
2. Make the most of your pension tax reliefs
Now is also
the time to check you are taking full advantage of your pension tax reliefs and
allowances. Normally, between you and your employer, you can contribute a
maximum of £40,000 into your pension in a tax year (this is called your ‘annual
allowance’). If you earn less than £40,000 a year, tax relief will only be
available on contributions with a gross equivalent equal to your income.
However, for high earners with a taxable income of more than £150,000 per year,
this is tapered downwards.
If you don’t manage to make full use of your
£40,000 pensions annual allowance this tax year, you can carry it forward for up
to three years. For example, in the current 2019/20 tax year, you could carry
forward unused contributions from 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19, but the clock
re-starts on 6 April this year.
3. Tackle the ongoing issue of Inheritance
Tax
Inheritance Tax (IHT) is usually payable at 40% on the portion
of an estate that exceeds the £325,000 nil-rate band (NRB). Like the NRB, the
unused percentage of the residence nil-rate band (RNRB) can be transferred
between spouses and registered civil partners.
The RNRB is on top of the NRB, allowing individuals to pass on a qualifying residential property to their direct descendants. The maximum RNRB is £150,000 this year, and next year a couple will be able to combine their NRB and RNRB allowances to pass on property worth £1 million free of IHT. The RNRB is reduced by £1 for every £2 that the value of the net estate exceeds £2 million.
You can act at any time to help reduce potential IHT. However, gifting money
is an area that is subject to an annual limit, which runs from the start of the
tax year, and could be worth adding to your year-end to-do list. Tax exemptions
released through gifting should form a key part of IHT planning.
The annual
allowance means you can gift up to £3,000 each year, exempt from IHT – so as a
couple, you can make £6,000 worth of gifts. It can also be carried forward for
one year.
You can give as many gifts of up to £250 to as many people as you like – that is, unless the person has already received a gift equating to the annual £3,000 exemption. Some types of gifts, such as wedding gifts or gifts to help with living costs, can also be given tax-free.
However, another factor to consider is the legislation around IHT, which could be subject to change in the near future. The Office of Tax Simplification is currently undertaking a significant review that could inform forthcoming policy decisions, so this year – before any changes come into force – reviewing your IHT plans, including gifting, should be a priority.
This is a complex area with qualifying conditions and requires expert estate planning advice.
4. Plan to reduce a Capital Gains Tax bill
Capital Gains
Tax (CGT) is a tax on the profits you make when you sell something such as an
investment portfolio or a second property. Everyone has an annual allowance of
£12,000 (in 2019/20) before CGT applies.
The allowance is for individuals, so couples have a joint allowance for 2019/20 of £24,000. If appropriate to your particular situation, it might be worth considering transferring an asset into your joint names so you both stay within your individual allowances.
Any gains in excess of the allowance are charged to CGT at either 18% (basic-rate taxpayers) or 28% (higher-rate taxpayers), depending on the individual’s other total taxable income in the year the gain arises.
An important thing to remember with this aspect of taxation is that any
losses you make on sales can be offset against your capital gains for CGT
purposes.
Currently, CGT on the sale of a residential property, other than
your main residence, is payable under self-assessment and will not be due until
31 January following the end of the tax year. This will change with effect from
6 April 2020, when payment of CGT from the sale of such a residential property
will be required within 30 days of the date of sale/completion.
INFORMATION IS BASED ON OUR CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF TAXATION LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS. ANY LEVELS AND BASES OF, AND RELIEFS FROM, TAXATION ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE, AND THEIR VALUE DEPENDS ON YOUR INDIVIDUAL CIRCUMSTANCES.TAX RULES ARE COMPLICATED, SO YOU SHOULD ALWAYS OBTAIN PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. THE VALUE OF INVESTMENTS CAN FALL AS WELL AS RISE. YOU MAY NOT GET BACK WHAT YOU INVEST.