How can I avoid tax

lyeping

Hi Lisyloo, thanks for the advice. we're now seriously looking at private pension for hubby as his company do not have a pension scheme.

Reaper

• Pension
• ISAs
• EIS/VCT (have been doing some reading on this)
• transfer savings into wifes name (we did it this weekend - just not letting her know the PIN number )
• Salary sacrifice scheme

Just to complete the list there is one more way of stopping the taxman getting his hands on your money - giving to charity. Any charity will be happy to give you the the paperwork needed for them to reclaim the tax on your gift. Much better than putting money in a collecting tin as you are making the taxman stick some in too!

cloud_dog

There is another way to reduce your tax / NI deductions with PAYE.

The government introduced a new scheme for allowing employees to buy shares in their company before the deduction of tax, not sure if it reduces NI. Not sure if this replaced the old SAYE scheme or was in addition to it.

Basically your company offers you the abilitty to buy shares (on a monthly basis) in an cheap way (they cover the costs of buyingthe shares - Halifax is my compnaies provider) and you then decide to invest a certain amount each month. You can increase / reduce / stop / start what you pay.

This money is taken from your salary before your tax is calculated. Suppose you decide on £100 pm, the idea is that because you are saving the tax on £100 (i.e. £40 for a high rate tax payer and £22 for basic) you are in essence buying your shares at a discounted rate (either -40% or -22%).

There are tax inplications for selling the shares, basically I think you need to hold them for 5 years.

cloud_dog