Reduce taxable income

chrismac1

Correct as stated. And whilst hating to disagree directly with a previous poster, in my view anyone who voluntarily signs up for self-assessment should at the same time certify himself or herself to be mentally insane.

This is purely and simply because you are entering a shambles. Mixed records, fines for no valid reason, punitive fines for late submission, 20 minutes hanging on the phone only to be then told "Sorry we can't be arrrsed" and then the phone goes click.

Who in their right mind would sign up for this mess? As for CGT, you get a tax-free allowance of nearly £11k per year of gains, only someone who can reasonably expect to be showing this sort of profit should be entering SA just to record their share transactions. Plus you have 6 years in which to notify HMRC of transactions which did not give rise to a CGT bill, for example disposals at a loss.

I really wish the SA system was run by efficient and professional people. But it's a million miles away from that, there are more ways to go wrong than right. So keep out of higher rate tax and keep your head down!

chrismac1

Incidentally, thanks to the Labour Party's prime electoral asset George Osborne, there will be an explosion of people with incomes just under £50,000 in the UK in the next few years. This is because all taxpayers with kids and income over £50k will begin to lose a bit of child benefit. So you won't be alone in some strategic shifting.

chrismac1

"Dividend before tax credit" - to be absolutely clear about this, if the dividend is 9,000 and the tax credit is 1,000 it is the GROSS 10,000 (before deduction of tax credit) that counts.