With the tax year ending soon, now is a good time to check if you’re making the most of available tax reliefs and allowances. If any of this applies to you, or you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.

Savings & ISAs

If you have some extra cash, consider maximising your ISA allowance for the 2024/25 tax year. You can save up to £20,000 per person in an ISA.

If you’re 18 to 39, you might also consider a Lifetime ISA (LISA) to save for your first home or retirement. You can contribute up to £4,000 per year (which counts towards your £20,000 ISA limit). The government adds a 25% bonus on top, meaning you could get up to £1,000 extra each year.

Pension Planning

Thinking about adding more to your pension? If you contribute £4,000, the government boosts it to £5,000. If you’re a higher-rate taxpayer, you could get even more back when you file your tax return.

If you earn over £100,000, your personal tax-free allowance (£12,570) reduces as your income increases. Pension contributions can help bring your taxable income down, potentially giving you a 60% tax saving in this range (£100,000–£125,140).

Buying Business Equipment

If you are a limited company or unincorporated business and you’re buying new equipment, you can claim 100% tax relief on the first £1 million spent in a year. This applies to most business purchases but not cars. However, if you buy a new electric car, you can still get 100% tax relief.

For limited companies, there’s also an extra relief allowing the full cost of new (not second-hand) equipment to be deducted from profits, with no limit on spending.

If you buy equipment through a hire purchase agreement, you can still claim capital allowances on the full cost of the item—as long as you start using it before the end of your accounting period.

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) Planning

If you plan to sell assets that will be taxed, you might want to sell before 6 April 2025 to use your £3,000 CGT exemption for the 2024/25 tax year.

Voluntary National Insurance (NI) contributions

To get the full state pension, you need 35 qualifying years of NI contributions. If you have gaps, you may be able to top them up by paying voluntary Class 3 NI contributions at £17.45 per week (£17.75 from April 2025).

Normally, you can only pay for the last six years, but until 5 April 2025, you can go as far back as 2006. If you have gaps, this could be a valuable opportunity.

Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL)

The tax benefits for Furnished Holiday Lets will end on 6 April 2025. If you own an FHL, you might want to:

• Consider ending your FHL trade before April 2025 to preserve Business Asset Disposal Relief (which can apply for three years after stopping).
• Bring forward any planned renovations before April 2025 to still claim capital allowances.