The tax efficiency checklist: maximise your tax efficiency before year end – 5 April 2024

With year end fast approaching, this is your last chance to ensure you don’t pay HMRC more than you owe in tax. Year end is 5 April 2024, so you have no time to waste – go through this checklist, and ensure you haven’t left any opportunity to minimise your tax bill:

Allowable expenses

• Have you claimed all of your allowable expenses yet?
• Do you have all your paid invoices properly recorded? Chase up anything outstanding now.
• Do your receipts go back the full six years? Make sure to keep them that long going forward.

Pension contributions

• Maximise your tax efficiency by making pension contributions through your limited company.
• You should also make sure that you’ve carried forward any unused allowance from the previous three years.
• Make sure to include your partner or spouse’s allowance, too.

ISAs

• Have you used your and your partner’s full ISA allowance?
• If it’s available, have you used the full junior ISA allowance of £9,000?

Inheritance tax

• Make sure that you use your full £3,000 per year allowance. Remember, it’s £3,000 per year, NOT per person!
• You can give the entire £3,000 of money (or gifts) to one person or split it between many.
• This exemption can be carried over for one year… did you use last year’s?

Dividend allowance

• Assuming you take a salary of £9,100, then…
• You get £3,470 taxed at 0%.
• £1,000 dividend allowance taxed at 0%.
• And the remainder of the basic rate band of £36,700 is then taxed at the rate of 8.75%.

What else can you do?
You can reduce your company’s liability to Corporation Tax by making contributions into your pension scheme as part of your remuneration package.

If you are looking for further advice on tax, call JW Hinks’ experienced team of tax experts on 0121 456 0190. We can help you leave no stone unturned in maximising your tax efficiency while keeping you compliant with HMRC regulations.