Partner Article

Top 5 tips to minimise tax bills ahead of April

With the end of the tax year on 5 April 2014 right around the corner, a York solicitor is advising how to keep tax bills to a minimum.

Eleanor Milner, part of the Private Client team at Langleys Solicitors, has compiled five top tips to help make the most of the available reliefs and exemptions before tax year-end:

1. Make sure you have used your Inheritance Tax exemption - £3,000 per person per tax year, carried over for one year. So if your 2012/13 exemption hasn’t been used you need to do so before 5 April.

2.Realise any gains on property or shares to use up Capital Gains Tax Exemption - £10,900 for 2013/14. This could involve giving away part of a property, with further parts being given away in subsequent tax years.

3. Planning on selling a property that was once your home but no longer qualifies for Private Residence Relief? If you exchange contracts before 5 April (to complete at a later date), you qualify for final 36-month exemption from Capital Gains Tax rather than final 18-month.

4. Ensure you have used your annual ISA allowance – the current limit is £11,520, up to half (£5,760) of which can be invested in cash.

5. Calculate whether you have any excess income at the end of the tax year – total income, less tax and living expenses – this can be given away without any inheritance tax implications if it is part of a ‘pattern of giving’.

Eleanor Milner advises on Wills, Trusts, Administration of Estates, Inheritance Tax planning and Court of Protection matters. As a member of the Association of Taxation Technicians she also provides personal tax advice and was awarded the Association’s Kimmer Medal for her results in the Inheritance Tax, Trusts & Estates examination.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Langleys Solicitors .