Personal Tax – Year End Tax Planning 2021/22

If you are considering significant capital or revenue expenditure in the near future, you may wish to consider bringing forward this expenditure and claiming tax relief in the accounts to 31 March 2022 (or your year end if different) to benefit from reduced tax liabilities a year earlier.

Certain types of capital expenditure can qualify for tax relief. 

The Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) was temporarily increased from £200,000 to £1,000,000 on 1 January 2019 and will remain at this level until 31 March 2023.  Transitional rules will apply for financial years that span 31 March 2023.  This limit will apply for partnerships and sole traders.  Qualifying expenditure, for example plant and machinery, up to the Annual Investment Allowance will qualify for 100% relief. 

Currently, there are separate rules for capital allowances on motor cars with tax relief being given at 100%, 18% or 6% depending upon the type of vehicle purchased.  For cars bought from April 2021 the rates are:

• A first year allowance of 100% of the value of the car is available for new and unused electric cars.
• A writing down allowance of 18% is available for new and unused cars with CO2 emissions of 50g/km or less (or car is electric).
• A writing down allowance of 18% is available for second hand cars with CO2 emissions of 50g/km or less (or car is electric).
• A writing down allowance of 6% is available for new or second hand cars with CO2 emissions which are over 50g/km.

As a reminder, ‘new and unused’ means ‘new and not second-hand’.  HMRC will accept, however, that a vehicle is unused and not second-hand even if it has been driven a limited number of miles for the purposes of testing, delivery, test driven by a potential purchaser, or used as a demonstration car.  An ex-demonstrator vehicle, therefore, should be accepted as new and unused for the purposes of capital allowances.

Investing in qualifying expenditure before 31 March 2022 could reduce your tax liabilities for 2021/22 by reducing your taxable profits for the year.  We will be happy to discuss this with you further.

You may wish to consider revaluing stock to reduce this to its current realisable value if you are carrying stock on your balance sheet and the value of the stock is now less than its original cost.  The effect of this is to reduce your trading profit or increase your losses for the year which, in turn, will also reduce your tax liabilities.

As a business owner, you could pay a non-earning spouse/partner or adult child a salary on which you will get tax relief and if paid at a certain level no income tax or National Insurance Contributions would be payable but credit would be given towards the State Pension.  The business can also pay an employer’s pension contribution to your spouse/partner’s pension plan and this would also reduce your tax liability.  The total package of salary, benefits and pension contributions must be justifiable when considering the actual work performed by your partner or adult child.  Please contact us to discuss this further.

If you are a Director or a Shareholder of a close company and have received funds from the company in the form of a loan, the company will incur a 32.5% tax charge if the loan is not repaid within nine months of the end of the company’s accounting period.  Therefore, repaying any loans within the nine month period will avoid the 32.5% tax charge.  This rate will increase to 33.75% for loans made from 6 April 2022. 

Income over £150,000 is taxed at 45% (or 38.1% on dividends) and it may be possible to avoid paying this additional rate by delaying the payment of a bonus or dividend until after 5 April 2022 to avoid exceeding this threshold.  Conversely, if your income is likely to exceed £150,000 in 2022/23 but is below this level in the current tax year, you may wish to consider bringing forward income to avoid the additional rate next year. 

This strategy should also be used to keep your income below £100,000, as once your income reaches this level you will start to lose your personal allowance.  Income falling between £100,000 and £125,140 has an effective tax rate of 60%.  If delaying a bonus or dividend is not an option, then you could consider sacrificing salary to bring your income down below one of these thresholds in exchange for a tax-free employer’s pension contribution.

The Dividend Allowance charges the first £2,000 of dividends received at 0% regardless of your other income.  It is important that you do not miss out on this allowance if you have not already received dividend income of at least £2,000.  For total dividends above £2,000, the rates of tax are 7.5% for basic rate taxpayers, 32.5% for higher rate taxpayers and 38.1% for additional rate taxpayers. 

Income tax on dividends will increase by 1.25% from 6 April 2022 meaning that the basic rate for dividends will increase to 8.75%, the higher rate for dividends will increase to 33.75% and the additional rate for dividends will increase to 39.35%.  You may wish to consider taking dividends before the increased rates will apply by bringing forward dividends to 2021/22.

When bringing forward a bonus or dividend you must also consider the impact that doing so would have on your personal allowance, tax credit and child benefit claims and Student Loan repayments.

If your employer pays for the private fuel used in your company car you can avoid the fuel benefit charge for 2021/22 if you repay your employer in full for all of the private fuel before 6 July 2022.  It may be a worthwhile exercise for you to calculate the amount that you will need to repay to your employer as you may find that the amount to repay is much less than the tax charge arising on the benefit in kind. 

Additionally, you may wish to consider changing your company car to an electric car or a car with lower carbon dioxide emissions, for example a hybrid car, as this can save tax.  You may also wish to consider giving up your company car altogether and using your own vehicle for business travel and claiming a tax free mileage allowance from your employer instead.  The calculation of the car benefit changed from 6 April 2020 depending on whether the car was registered before or after 6 April 2020.  Additionally, diesel cars attract a 4% supplement unless they are RDE2 compliant.

Pension contributions made on behalf of directors and employees are a tax efficient means of extracting profits from the company.  Unlike personal pension contributions, employer contributions are not limited to 100% of earnings.  It is important to consider the Annual Allowance and to calculate any carried-forward relief when deciding upon the level of pension contribution that your employer should make.  Further information is included in the section “Personal pension contributions to reduce tax” in the Individuals section below.

Under the Tax-Free Childcare scheme eligible families get 20% of their annual childcare costs paid for by the Government.  The way it works is that for every 80p you pay into a Childcare Account, the Government will contribute 20p. This could mean up to £2,000 per child (the scheme assumes a maximum of £10,000 per year childcare costs per child. If you pay more, you won’t get more help).  Crucially, both parents need to be working in order to qualify.  

If you currently receive Employer-Supported Childcare Vouchers then you can continue to do so, but you are not entitled to take part in the Tax-Free Childcare Scheme.  Employer Supported Childcare, often referred to as childcare vouchers, closed to new applicants from 4 October 2018 and parents who wish to remain in Employer-Supported Childcare may continue to do so while their current employer continues to offer the voucher scheme, but you may wish to consider which of these two schemes is the most beneficial for you.  The provision by employers of qualifying childcare vouchers is exempt from income tax and national insurance up to the following limits:

Where the employee joined the scheme before 6 April 2011:

£55 a week per employee

Where the employee joined the scheme on or after 6 April 2011:

£55 a week per week for a basic rate taxpayer
£28 a week per week for a higher rate taxpayer
£25 a week per week for an additional rate taxpayer

The Cycle to Work scheme is a UK Government tax exemption initiative introduced in the Finance Act 1999 to promote healthier journeys to work and to reduce environmental pollution.  It allows employers to loan bicycles and cyclists’ safety equipment to employees as a tax-free benefit provided that at least 50% of the bicycle’s use is for qualifying journeys (which includes home to work cycling).

Although it is not necessary, a salary sacrifice arrangement may be put in place, where the employee agrees to give up part of their pre-tax salary in exchange for the hire of a bicycle to be used as detailed above.  Although the bicycle remains the property of the employer, the salary sacrifice arrangement can save both employers and employees National Insurance as well as employees PAYE.

If, after the salary sacrifice arrangement has finished, the employee wishes to purchase the bicycle from the employer, HMRC has a set range of percentages based on the age and original cost of the bicycle.

A booklet entitled Cycle to Work Scheme – Guidance for Employers may be obtained from Gov.UK by using the following link which will provide you with further information:-

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycle-to-work-scheme-implementation-guidance

If an employer and employee wish to take advantage of the cycle to work scheme via a salary sacrifice arrangement, we suggest that they use one of the many cycle to work scheme providers to ensure the correct paperwork including consumer hire arrangement is correctly recorded.

If an employer does not require a salary sacrifice arrangement to be put into place, they may simply purchase a bicycle for the employee to use.

If you are married or in a civil partnership and one spouse/ civil partner has lower income, you could consider transferring income producing assets to the spouse/ civil partner with the lower income for the following reasons:

• to utilise lower tax rates where one spouse/civil partner pays higher rate (40%/32.5%) or additional higher rate (45%/38.1%) tax
•  to preserve the personal allowance where income for one spouse/civil partner exceeds £100,000
• if Child Benefit is claimed, to reduce the income of the higher earning spouse/partner to mitigate the High Income Child Benefit Charge.

Married couples and civil partners may transfer 10% of their unused basic personal allowance (currently £1,260) to their spouse or civil partner.  Those receiving the marriage allowance must not be a higher rate tax payer and will benefit from a tax reduction of 20% of the transferred amount i.e. £252 (20% of £1,260).  Claims may be made online and can be backdated to include any tax year since 6 April 2017 that you were eligible for Marriage Allowance. 

If your investment income is at a level where you will lose your personal allowance, or pay tax at 45%, it may be worth considering investing in an insurance backed investment bond instead.  This type of investment can be relatively secure and has the added tax advantage that 5% of the original capital investment can be withdrawn each year tax-free.  Withdrawals which exceed this amount are taxable however, as are the gains arising on surrender. 

Income received from ISAs is tax free.  There are strict limits as to how much you can invest into ISAs in a tax year and for 2021/22 the maximum allowance is £20,000. 

If you haven’t utilised the maximum amount allowable for 2021/22 now could be the time to make your investment so that you do not lose out.  Your 2021/22 investment allowance must be used by 5 April 2022 or it will be lost. 

As a reminder, your ISA investment for the year of up to £20,000can be held in cash, or investments, or a mixture of the two.

Interest rates are currently at a very low level, so sheltering interest from tax may not seem to be all that beneficial currently.  However, don’t forget that you are sheltering the interest from tax now and in future years and interest rates may increase at some stage.  ISAs remain an excellent investment choice for higher and additional rate taxpayers.

Help to Buy ISAs, the government scheme designed to help you to save for a mortgage deposit to buy a home, closed to new applications on 30 November 2019.  If you opened your Help to Buy ISA before this date you can keep saving into your account until 30 November 2029.  There is no minimum monthly deposit and you can save up to £200 per month and the Government will add a 25% cash bonus on any savings that you make, up to a maximum bonus of £3,000, and this must be claimed by 1 December 2030.

You can use a Lifetime ISA to buy your first home or save for later life.  You must be 18 or over but under 40 to open a Lifetime ISA.  You can save up to £4,000 each year into your Lifetime ISA until the age of 50 and the Government will add a 25% bonus to your savings, up to £1,000 per year. 

You can withdraw from a Lifetime ISA if you are buying your first home, if you are aged 60 or over, or in the event that you are ill with less than 12 months to live.  If you make a withdrawal for any other reason (which is known as an ‘unauthorised withdrawal’) you will incur a withdrawal charge penalty of 25% of the amount withdrawn. 

A withdrawal charge may arise if you intend to use a LISA to purchase your first home if you have at some time owned or inherited a property.  If you think that this might apply to your situation, then we will be happy to discuss this with you.

Income Tax relief at 50% is obtainable when investing in qualifying SEIS start-up companies up to the annual limit of £100,000.  These are considered to be high risk investments. 

Investing in EIS qualifying companies attracts income tax relief at 30% on a maximum annual investment of up to £1million (rising to £2million provided £1million of this is invested in knowledge-intensive companies, which are companies engaged in technological or scientific innovation) for qualifying individuals.  Again these are considered to be high risk investments. 

The SEIS and EIS income tax relief may be given in the year that the investment is made or the previous tax year.  

Capital gains Tax deferral relief is also available for qualifying EIS investments enabling gains in the previous 36 months or following 12 months to be reinvested in EIS shares.

Both SEIS and EIS shares are normally exempt from Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax.

Should you be considering making either a SEIS or an EIS investment, then please contact us further to discuss this.

As we approach the end of the 2021/22 tax year you should review your pension contributions made since 6 April 2021 and consider whether or not you should make a further one-off personal pension contribution before 5 April 2022.  This could help you to save tax and to utilise and carry-forward relief from 2018/19 which will be lost if not used by then.  Tax relief is available on personal pension contributions up to 100% of relevant earnings or £3,600 (whichever is the highest), though this figure may be restricted by the annual allowance and any available carried-forward relief.

The tax relief on a personal pension contribution will be at least 20%, rising to 40% and 45% for higher rate and additional rate taxpayers and even 60% for those whose income exceeds £100,000 where the personal allowance is withdrawn. 

For those with earnings over £50,000 who are either claiming Child Benefit or have a partner living with them who claims Child Benefit (whether married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting) up to 100% of the Child Benefit is reclaimed via the High Income Child Benefit Charge.  Pension contributions are an effective way of mitigating this tax charge by reducing earnings for the purposes of this charge. 

The annual limit for pension contributions on which tax relief may be obtained is £40,000.  It is possible to carry forward unused annual allowances for a maximum of three years to offset against a contribution of more than £40,000.  Therefore, any unused allowance for the year ending before 6 April 2019 will be lost after 5 April 2022.  Don’t forget though that the limits on tax relief are linked to your earnings, with tax relief being restricted to the lower of 100% of your earnings or £40,000 plus any unused allowances brought forward.  Limiting your contributions to amounts that qualify for at least 40% tax relief will give you the most benefit. 

There will be a tapered reduction in your annual allowance from £40,000 to £4,000 if your income (including the value of any pension contributions) exceeds £240,000 and if your income (excluding the value of any pension contributions) exceeds £200,000.  For these purposes, a minimum allowance of £4,000 will apply should your income be £312,000 or more. 

If you have flexibly accessed your pension benefits, and withdrawn more than the 25% tax free cash, then you will have a reduced annual allowance of just £4,000.  This is known as the Money Purchase Annual Allowance.  There is no brought forward relief available.

In most circumstances you will make your personal pension contributions net of basic rate tax.  If, for example, you wished to utilise £10,000 of your available pension relief, you will need to make a net contribution to your pension scheme for £8,000.  Your pension scheme will then reclaim the £2,000 tax credit from HM Revenue & Customs on your behalf, adding this to your pension savings to give you a gross contribution of £10,000.  If you are a higher rate taxpayer, you may claim an additional £2,000 of tax relief from HM Revenue & Customs and your £10,000 pension contribution will have cost you £6,000. 

Should your total pension contributions for the tax year exceed your annual allowance plus any available brought forward relief from earlier years you will incur an Annual Allowance Charge.  If the charge is more than £2,000, and this has arisen because your pension contributions exceeded £40,000, you can ask your pension provider to pay HM Revenue & Customs for you out of your pension pot, but you must tell them to do so before 31 July in the year following the year in which the tax year to which the annual allowance charge relates ended.  Put simply, for the 2021/22 charge, you have until 31 July 2023 to notify the scheme.   If the charge has arisen because your pension contributions did not exceed £40,000 but, instead, exceeded the tapered annual allowance or the money purchase annual allowance you may still ask the pension scheme to pay the charge for you voluntarily out of the pension pot, but they do not have to do this and the scheme may have its own deadline for you to request this (possibly as early as 31 July following the end of the tax year).

You could consider making a pension contribution for a non-earning spouse/civil partner or child before the end of the tax year.  The maximum net payment that may be made will be £2,880 and HM Revenue & Customs will increase this to £3,600.

Finally, you must not forget that the Lifetime Allowance for pension savings is currently £1,073,100 (frozen until April 2026).  A tax charge will arise on savings in excess of this amount. 

Currently, pension savers aged 55 or older may flexibly access their pension savings, though the government has confirmed plans to increase the minimum pension age to 57 from 6 April 2028.  Currently, 25% of the savings may be received free of tax with the rest being treated as taxable income subject to income tax at your marginal rate.  It is possible to take the entire savings pension as a lump sum or draw down on the savings over a number of years.  Care must be taken and you should always consider the effect that drawing on your pension will have on your tax position and the ability to make future pension contributions.

Did you know that you can get tax relief for any gifts to charity if you make a Gift Aid declaration?  You make your gift to the charity out of taxed income and the charity is able to claim back basic rate tax on the value of the gift.  Higher rate and additional rate taxpayers are also able to obtain higher rate or additional rate tax relief on the gift, therefore, you should ensure that the donation is made by the spouse/civil partner who pays the highest rate of tax.  

You should keep a record of all Gift Aid donations that you make but remember that you should only use Gift Aid when giving to charity if you are a taxpayer.  If you are not a taxpayer, you should consider stopping making charitable donations using Gift Aid as this will give you a tax liability.  You should instead make your donation without Gift Aid.

Gifts to charity are made free of Inheritance Tax, so remembering a charity in your Will can reduce the IHT that will be paid on your estate.

It is a good idea to consider your Capital Gains Tax position before the end of the tax year.

Each individual has an annual exemption for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) purposes.  For 2021/22 the exemption is £12,300 and this is the amount of gains that may be made tax free this year.  If you have not already used your annual exemption for the tax year, you may wish to consider doing so now.  You should review your chargeable assets (for example, stocks and shares) and consider making disposals before 6 April 2022 to realise capital gains and utilise the annual exemption for the tax year before it is lost.

It is not possible to “bed and breakfast” shares by selling shares at a gain and immediately buying the shares back, as there are rules to prevent this from being effective.  Instead, you could consider buying the shares back after 30 days, or immediately repurchasing the shares by your spouse/ civil partner or within your ISA. 

As the end of the tax year approaches, this may also be a good time for us to review your Capital Gains Tax position for the year as you may wish to know if you have a Capital Gains Tax liability arising on disposals made since 6 April 2021.  This will give you an opportunity to consider taking action by 5 April 2022 to reduce any charge to Capital Gains Tax that may arise, for instance, by selling further assets which are standing at a loss.

A husband and wife, or civil partners, each have their own annual exemptions, therefore, transferring assets to your spouse or civil partner may mean that you can each make gains of £12,300 tax free for 2021/22.  Ideally, you should leave as much time as possible between making the transfer and the sale.

Capital Gains Tax for 2021/22 is payable on 31 January 2023.  You could delay a significant disposal until after 5 April 2022 to delay paying the tax liability on the gain by 12 months (but not a disposal of residential property – see below). 

Since 6 April 2020, a UK resident taxpayer is required to make a return and payment of Capital Gains Tax within 30 days following the completion of a disposal of a residential property in the UK or overseas.  The time limit was extended to 60 days for property disposals completing on or after 27 October 2021.  These new reporting requirements will not apply, however, where the gain on disposal is not chargeable to CGT, for example where the gains are covered by private residence relief. 

Non-UK resident taxpayers are required to report any capital gains arising on disposals of all UK land and property (not just residential property) within 60 days even if there is no Capital Gains Tax to pay.  If tax is due, this should also be paid within 60 days.

Sometimes shares and assets that you own become worthless.  Should this occur, you can crystallise the loss without disposing of the asset by making a negligible value claim.  In some circumstances, you can backdate the loss claim to either of the two tax years before the one in which the claim is made to offset the loss against gains arising in that earlier year.

Currently, Capital Gains Tax is charged at a rate of 10% or 20% (18% or 28% on residential property) depending upon your level of income.

Please contact us if you would like us to review your Capital Gains Tax position.

Inheritance Tax is the tax charge that arises on certain lifetime gifts, on the value of your estate when you die, and on certain transfers in and out of trusts.  IHT is currently payable at 40% on assets exceeding the nil rate band, currently £325,000, subject to any available exemptions.  The nil rate band has been frozen at this level for many years and is not due to increase until 2026. 

The unused percentage of a deceased spouse’s nil rate band is transferable on the death of the second spouse.  This could, potentially, give £650,000 of nil rate band before IHT becomes due.  

A main residence nil rate band has been available since 6 April 2017 where a residence is left to a direct lineal descendant.  Currently the main residence nil rate band is £175,000.  For couples, this will give an additional allowance of £350,000.  For estates with a net value that exceeds £2 million the main residence nil rate band will be tapered away. 

It is important that your Will is reviewed carefully to make sure that your estate will be entitled to the main residence nil rate band, which could be worth up to £140,000 in Inheritance Tax savings, as there are a number of qualifying conditions which must be satisfied to qualify for this additional relief.  In order to qualify, your estate on death must leave a residential property to lineal descendants which you must have lived in at some point during the period of ownership.  Where someone has sold or given away their home, or downsized to a smaller property, they may still be able to get this relief.  If, on death, you have left your estate including the property to a trust arrangement, your estate may not qualify for this relief.

If you own your own home and have some savings and other assets then your estate could be liable to IHT when you die.  You should plan well ahead to minimise your liability to IHT. 

A simple measure that you can use to reduce your potential IHT liability is to ensure that you fully utilise the annual exemption each year for gifts.  For 2021/22 the annual exemption is £3,000 and, if you have not used your exemption for the preceding year, this amount doubles to £6,000.  Additionally, any number of small gifts of up to £250 per recipient may also be made each year and gifts made in consideration of marriage or civil partnership up to certain limits are also exempt from IHT.  Although these limits are reasonably modest, they do add up over time.  Other gifts made which exceed these amounts could, potentially, be chargeable to IHT should you not survive the gifts for a full 7 years. 

Gifts to charities are exempt from Inheritance Tax.

Gifts made as part of your ‘normal expenditure out of income’ (not capital) are also exempt from IHT and we would be happy to advise you further on this.

You could consider introducing a programme of lifetime gifts to reduce the potential IHT liability on your estate.  To completely escape a charge to IHT you will need to survive the gift by seven years and no longer continue to benefit from the gift yourself.  The tax charge is tapered down where gifts exceed the nil rate band and are made between three and seven years before death. 

Lifetime gifts are one way that you may be able to significantly reduce your IHT liability with the added advantage that you can see the benefit that the gift has made in your lifetime. 

You could also consider taking out a policy of life assurance to cover any potential IHT liability arising on your death.  The policy should be written into trust in order that the proceeds do not form part of your estate when you die.

Please contact us if you would like us to review your potential liability to IHT and how best you may be able to plan to reduce this.

You should also review your Will to ensure that it is tax efficient, up to date and continues to reflect your wishes.  We would be delighted to review your Will for you to ensure that it is tax efficient and we also offer a will drafting service to assist you in updating your Will.  If you have not made a Will, then we would be happy to draft one for you.  Please contact us if this is of interest to you.