Why not give yourself a Christmas present?

Lights are going up, trees are appearing, and adverts are competing for our attention – it must mean only one thing – Christmas is on its way! However, with all the excitement, don’t forget Christmas is soon followed by the 31 January Self Assessment deadline.

So, alongside the Christmas preparations, make sure you don’t forget your tax return!

If Kreston Reeves prepare your tax return and you have not yet sent in your 2018/19 tax information to us, please do so as soon as possible. If you are still missing some of the documentation we will need, please contact the third parties concerned as soon as possible.

If your tax affairs keep getting pushed to the bottom of the list because you are worried about what your 31 January 2020 liability may be, it may not be too late to reduce it if you are a higher rate or additional rate taxpayer.

Any gift aid donations that you have made between 6 April 2019 and the date on which your 2018/19 tax return is submitted can be treated as made in the 2018/19 tax year and tax relief can be claimed based on your 2018/19 circumstances. This may be particularly useful if your top rate of tax is higher for 2018/19 compared to 2019/20. This obviously means you won’t receive relief on the gift aid payment in 2019/20 (HMRC are not that generous). But it does result in tax relief being received sooner that it may otherwise have been and, as described above, it may be at a higher rate.

So not only may your impending tax liability reduce, through making charitable donations, the charity will benefit during this season of giving!

The impending Self-Assessment deadline is also a timely reminder that the end of the 2019/20 tax year is approaching on 5 April 2020. Once all the festivities are over, it is the perfect time to consider what you could be doing to reduce your 2019/20 tax liabilities, be it for example, making personal pension contributions, utilising your ISA allowance, selling assets to use your Capital Gains Tax annual exemption, making annual gifts for Inheritance Tax purposes, ensuring you equalise your income with your husband, wife or civil partner. The list goes on.

For further information please speak with your usual Kreston Reeves adviser here or Anneka Griffiths here or on +44 (0)330 124 1399.