Tax Tips > Personal Tax Planning

• More Tax Relief - Use of Own Car!  If you use your own car for business trips on behalf of your employer, read on! If you are paid a rate per mile which is below the Revenue approved rates you are entitled to make a claim on your tax return.
• Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit.  Don't forget to make a claim if you have children under 16. It will probably be advantageous for all tax payers to make a claim even if disqualified due to high earnings. We would be glad to advise on this complex area.
• Gifts to Charities - Higher rates of tax relief. A payment made to a charity under the Gift Aid regulations is fully deductable for tax purposes. Higher tax rate individuals will therefore save tax at 40% or 50%. If you are married and one partner is a standard rate taxpayer the other a higher rate taxpayer it makes sense for the higher rate tax payer to make the gift.
• Save Capital Gains Tax by claiming Entrepreneurs' Relief, the new way to avoid tax on the sale of chargeable assets. The relief is available for business assets sold after 5 April 2008. The longer you own the asset the more relief you can claim. If a disposal qualifies, lifetime gains up to £10m after 5 April 2011 will only be taxable at an effective rate of 10%.
• Won a lottery prize? Watch out for this one. If you are part of a syndicate, make sure that you have a written agreement setting up how the group will be managed i.e. who buys the tickets and how prize winnings are to be shared out. If not the person who collects the prize and shares it out may be considered to be making gifts for Inheritance Tax purposes!
• Claim the married couples allowance if you are 65 years or older at the beginning of the tax year. The allowance is no longer available to younger taxpayers!
• We can challenge the Inland Revenue when they make an error or mistake regarding your tax affairs, which results in a higher tax bill. Where tax is undercharged, even though you have provided all the correct information, and you really believed that your tax was up-to-date, then the tax may not be collectable, even though you do owe it!
• Call us if you have doubts about the amount of tax requested. The Inland Revenue do make mistakes! So check it out. If you are a prospective client we are more than happy to give an opinion with no obligation.
• Audit of all tax returns will occur at some point in time. The Inland Revenue may be tempted to focus their investigations on taxpayers that are not represented by a professional advisor. Don't be intimidated, take proper advice, it could save you a lot of money.
• Emigrate and you will become non-resident for UK tax purposes. This is the only way to secure offshore tax planning advantages. If you are resident and domiciled in the UK for tax purposes don't be misled by claims made for personal offshore tax shelter arrangements. If discovered by the Inland Revenue such schemes are likely to be considered tax evasion and subject to serious penalties and fines.
• Transfer of income producing assets to your children, particularly shares in the family company, is largely ineffective. The taxman will treat the income as yours. A gift of shares from a grandparent may be the solution.
  

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