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Cutting Tax: Discussions that will help you
To help you find the Cutting Tax threads quicker and easier we're collating our previous sticky/pinned threads into one single post. Cutting Tax board: Tax instructions - please read Useful Websites TaxCalc alternative? How does the Taxman Know? Inheritance Tax Planning Useful Tools to Help With Taxes Washing Uniform at…
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How To Claim Backdated Marriage Allowance
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!
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Tax on savings and pension drawdown
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…
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Ignorant question about savings interest and tax returns
Having always worked in the public sector, for a modest salary, I have never done a tax return in my life until very recently, when it became necessary due to becoming an accidental landlord. Most of my income is occupational pension taxed at source. If I have money in savings accounts on which I earn interest, am I…
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Inheritance Tax
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….
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Scottish Widows Personal Investment plan - gifted by late father, tax implications?
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…
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Milage rates applicable for a private and company car
I have received conflicting guidance and would be grateful for advice. Current situation: - I get paid a car allowance from my work (in addition to my salary) and this is taxed. - I use my privately owned car for travel demanded of by my job (I’m not including commuting to my place of work in this). - It is an electric car…
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Querying HMRC savings interest and money owed from previous years
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…
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Tax on state pension in first year - again!
I submitted my SA online earlier this month and HMRC have
sent a letter stating they have changed the SP figure (increased by one week of
pension income) for the year based on their (presumably DWP provided) records.
Consequently they have increased the tax
due by Jan 31st (also increasing the tax on account for next…
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How to reduce tax as much possible on rental income abroad?
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,…
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Marriage allowance transfer
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…
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Council Tax Band Tribunal - is it worth appealing?
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…
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Ad-hoc manual pension contributions to workplace pension and tax relief
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…
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Self-employed & taking a break from work - do I tell HMRC?
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…
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Is RNRB tapering calculated before or after gifts to charity?
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…
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Change to tax code
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…
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Gift Aid on memberships
In certain cases a charity is able to reclaim at least some tax on membership subscriptions, even though part of the membership fee gives some benefit to the subscriber. Possibly the best known case is the National Trust. But it also applies to much smaller charities such as the choir in which I sing. Where the subscriber…
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Estate planning with overseas child
This might be a 'take professional advice' issue, but in case it is straightforward I am posting it. Spouse and I plan to update our wills. Everything will go to the surviving spouse and then to our two children. Possibly importantly, given the French context, they are my wife's children from her earlier marriage so are my…
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SA and Simple Assessment interaction
I submitted a Self Assessment for 2024/25 on 24 January 2026 (I’m not normally in SA but filed to ensure correct figures after the Zopa reporting error involving ISA interest). Despite this, HMRC issued a Simple Assessment on 10 February 2026 based on the incorrect Zopa data. It’s showing on my account with a 16 May…
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Claiming 40% relief on pension contributions
I'm on self assessment because of dividends, retired with a SIPP funded at the max of £3600 a year for unearned income. In the past the 3600 has always been added to my personal allowance for PAYE on my pension. This year the SIPP allowance has been decreased to 3462. After some head scratching I worked out personal…
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Tax on Savings
As a non tax payer does anyone know why HMRC are taking "untaxed interest on savings and investments" into account on my tax codes? £578 last year and £758 next year? This reduces my standard 1275 allowance each year. I thought that i would pay no tax on interest under £1000 and the bulk is in ISA's anyway!
