Cutting tax

I want to reduce the tax exposure of my rental income for the next few years and wanted to explore the possibility of using my existing pension or a new SIPP to do this. I currently am employed full time on a salary of ~£83,500 - and around £53k is being sal-sac'd into my employers Master Trust pension scheme. My net…

Hi all, My Mum passed away a few months ago, leaving an estate worth around £560k (House = £220k, savings = £340k). No IHT was due as all of my Dad’s unused IHT allowance was passed on when he died a few years ago. The estate has been left to me & my brother, who are both executors. We’ve agreed between us that I will…

Some advice please I 'claim' tax free child care to pay for breakfast and after school clubs for my kids. I do the quarterly reassessment as required, last completed in Jan Due to an unexpectedly large bonus due to be paid March this year my 25/26 income will be 100K+ …… each time i filled in the declarations i was honest…

When transferring[hopefully] saye proceeds soon to an ISA, can I first withdraw the original amount paid in, which would not be liable for CGT anyway? this would simplify matters when I later transfer other sharesave to the isa

HMRC has grossly overestimated my savings interest for the currect tax year, and hence for the tax code for next year. Soon I shall need to advise them of the correct figures. How accurate do these need to be? Do I need to include pence, or just whole pounds (and if the latter do I truncate or round)? Should this apply to…

Hello, I am UK resident but I have rental income from abroad, exactly Malta. I earn 15.700 GBP a year (more or less). According to the Maltese Law, I can choose to pay flat rate 15 % on rental income in Malta. But then, is there anyway to reduce what I will have to pay to the UK tax? I am self employed. As far as I know,…

How to claim my backdated Marriage Allowance for previous tax years which I did not receive? I would like to know how to contact HMRC to receive my backdated Marriage Allowance which is sitting in my account for many years, Please. Thank You For Your Help!

I am one of 6 benefiiciaries in a will, where the estate is divided equally between 3 family members and 3 charities in equal shares. Am I right in thinking that the estate will not attract IHT becuase the deceased, ( my relative) was a widow without any children, and has her husbands NRB plus the three charities? The…

Firstly I'll say that I have submitted an online request to HMRC's technical team via an online form, however as they can take 48 hours to reply I thought I'd ask about this here ..... after all, this fiasco could go on for ages. It's the HMRC after all .......... To explain: Today I logged in to submit my self employed…

Hi all, I would just like a sense check of my calcs please. I've laid these out in the same way as the self-assessment calculation. Pay from all employments £ 53,100.00 Interest from UK banks, building societies and securities etc £0.00 Dividends from UK companies £ 11,344.80 Total income received £ 64,444.80…

My mother has inherited £450,000, but wants to gift the money (after a house sell) to my sister and myself. Is there any reason to pursue to cut the IHT due or is it like death, Inevitable….

I will have received about £8k in savings interest in the 2025-26 tax year. I am not getting state pension just yet and have no other income. I have already taken my tax-free lump sum from my pension. I need to decide how much to draw down from my crystallised private pension pot in this tax year, before 5th April. I know…

Hello, I hope somebody can help with this. My father transferred a Scottish Widows PIP (Balanced Growth Life policy) into my name shortly before he passed away in October 2025 - the value was approx £75k at the time and is now valued at £77.7k. When my father transferred this to me, it was to be split 50/50 with my…

I have just received my new tax code and I believe it is over estimating the amount of savings interest I have been receiving. When I checked my personal account at tax.service .gov.uk I noticed that it said I had paid too little tax for the year 2024/2025. On clicking on the details I saw that it said I had received more…

After watching Martin’s programme on claiming marriage allowance transfer I realised that I met the criteria to transfer to my husband. On 26th feb I sent in a form claiming for 4 tax years - 20/21 - 21/22 - 22/23 - 23/24. On 13th march my husband received a letter saying he was due a repayment of income tax for tax year…

Hello, I'm hoping for some advice please, regarding whether it's worth appealing a Council Tax Band change decision via the Valuation Tribunal England route. My partner and I bought a 1930's 3-bedroom, 1 bathroom semi detached house in Bristol in July 2024; it was in Band C. In November we received a letter from the…

Not sure if this should be in this section or the pensions section as it kind of overlaps a bit so feel free to move if it is in the wrong place. I want to max out my pension contributions for this tax year (2025-26) however the problem I have is I get a bonus at the end of March and my bonus amount won't be known until…

Hi all I cannot find a definitive answer to this in google, so I thought this forum might help. (No idea which category to use, sorry, so I used the closest one.) I am 59 and a self-employed sole trader. Due to health and other reasons, I slowed down my work last year and have not worked at all since October 2025. Living…

I asked ChatCPT whether gifts in wills to charity are taken into account for assessing the net estate for RNRB purposes. Say, including a late spouse’s allowance, you leave £2.7m of assets and gift £700k to charity. Does your estate receive all or none of the RNRB? I got two contradictory answers - see below - and was…

Hello, I had an email from HMRC to say my tax code has changed from 1257L to 1247L. I'm now paying more tax per month, the reason given for it changing is: You now get untaxed interest on savings and investments worth £97. I'm not understanding how this now means I pay more tax, is anyone able to provide any further…