Tax planning

What tax planning advice actually involves

Tax planning has a reputation problem. It sounds like something aggressive, or something only the very wealthy do. In practice, for most of our clients, it is the unglamorous work of using allowances that Parliament has already granted and putting the right assets in the right places.

The starting point is always the same. We map what you hold, what it produces, and how each part is taxed now. That alone usually surfaces something: an ISA allowance unused since March, a spouse in a lower band holding none of the income-producing assets, pension contributions well below what relief would allow, or a portfolio sitting outside any wrapper at all.

Where we usually find something

• Unused allowances. The ISA allowance, the pension annual allowance, the capital gains exemption and the dividend allowance all reset and none of them carry forward indefinitely. Missing one is a permanent loss.
• Assets held in the wrong name. Where one spouse or civil partner pays a higher rate than the other, who owns what matters a great deal.
• Income tax on money you are not spending. Interest and dividends taxed year after year on capital you have no intention of drawing.
• Cliff edges. The personal allowance taper above £100,000, the High Income Child Benefit Charge, and the point at which the residence nil rate band starts to disappear. Crossing one of these is expensive and often avoidable with timing.
• Capital gains realised badly. Selling in one tax year rather than two, or without using the annual exemption, costs money for no reason.

How this connects to everything else

Tax is rarely a standalone problem. Reducing income tax now sometimes increases inheritance tax later. Drawing less from a pension helps your income tax position but, from April 2027, may leave more inside your estate. Salary sacrifice affects your pension, your take-home pay and your entitlement to certain benefits at the same time.

This is the main argument for looking at tax alongside retirement planning, inheritance tax and investments, because a saving in one place can create a larger cost in another.

Who we do this for

Employed professionals with income near a threshold, business owners deciding how to take profit, people who have just sold something, retirees drawing from several sources at once, and families where assets are spread across two people in different tax positions.

We do not do tax return preparation and we are not accountants. Where you have one, we would rather work alongside them than around them.