Scrimping for postgraduate study

Procrastinator333

sc1ence wrote: »

Hi,

I have offers to study for masters programs at Imperial, Oxford and Cambridge. However, it is unlikely I will be able to afford to go.

I am trying to save desperately. I earn about £35,000, but have to save up to £20,000 in 4 months. I am trying to explore several options to help me bolster the amount I can save. I have already applied for an ISA and looked at NS&I accounts.

Is anyone an accountant, and do they know whether there are any methods by which I can pay less tax? If it does not exist, I would have thought that there should be some government scheme that gives tax relief to those who are saving, especially if they are saving towards education.

I know that in using an ISA, you do not get taxed on your interest, but this is not quite the same as tax relief on the money you save.

Not tax saving so much, but keep in mind that if you stop work in 4 months and have worked from April -Sept, you have worked 6 months of the tax year. You will therefore have paid too much tax if you don't work again. If you have earnt £17.5k up to Sept, you will have paid £2,750 in PAYE. However that is only correct on the assumption you earn another £17.5k in the rest of the tax year. If you don't work again you have in fact overpaid PAYE. PAYE on £17.5k for the full tax year should only be £2k. So you will be due a £750 tax refund.

Other than that, you can going to earn little to no interest and that timeframe is not sufficient for investing. So basically, you will have however much you can save up.

sc1ence

That is a good point about me not working for the majority of the year. I think I will only be able to save £10,000, so I will actually be due back the majority of the tax I pay (tax free threshold is £7,475). Although, like you say, I can only get this back in April. Will be a nice little mid year boost though. If only there was a way that you could indicate to the government that you will be in study from a certain point onwards in the year and so therefore not working. Is there? I would imagine they would not allow this, as, supposing you do work, the government will have to claim the money off of the individual. The system is set up so that it's usually the employee and not the government chasing monies owed.