Check your PAYE tax code.
HMRC may change your tax code in various circumstances, for example if you start to get income from an additional job or pension or you start or stop getting employee benefits. Your code may include estimated amounts of savings income, based on what you received in an earlier year. Check your PAYE code by signing into your personal tax account at www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account and use the options there to amend any estimated income and correct any other errors.
Transfer some of your unused personal allowance.
Married couples and civil partners can transfer 10% of their personal allowance between them (£1,260 for 2025/26), providing an overall tax saving for the couple if the transferor cannot use the full amount of the allowance. This transfer is not permitted if the recipient pays tax at a rate higher than the basic rate of 20% (higher than the intermediate rate of 21% for Scottish taxpayers). You can backdate a claim for up to four years, so a claim made by 5 April 2026 can include 2021/22.
Example:
Leila receives an annual salary of £45,000. Her husband has no taxable income, so doesn’t use his personal allowance. For 2025/26, they could save tax of £252 (£1,260 at 20%) by transferring 10% of the husband’s personal allowance to Leila.
Check how much NICs you pay.
If you have two or more concurrent jobs you may pay more NICs than you need to. You can reclaim any overpaid NICs from HMRC after the end of the tax year. However, you can prevent the overpayment occurring in the first place by deferring payment of NICs on one of your jobs. To do this, send HMRC a completed form CA72A (either online or by post) by 14 February in the tax year, but ideally earlier.
Top-up your state pension entitlement.
Check your NIC record for your entire working life in your personal tax account at www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account. If there are gaps in that record, such that you will not have 35 qualifying years by the time you reach state pension age, you may not be entitled to the full state pension. You can fill any gaps over the past six years by paying voluntary class 3 NICs. The cost is currently £928.20 per year to fill a gap, but State pension entitlement will then be increased by just over £340 annually (based on the rate for 2025/26).
Chartwell Tip
Based on current rates, you only have to live for a further three years after reaching state pension age to benefit from paying voluntary class 3 NICs to fill gaps in your NIC record.
Minimise the amount of late payment interest paid to HMRC.
HMRC automatically charges interest on late tax payments at a rate of base rate plus 4% – 8.25% from 28 May 2025. This is considerably higher than what you are likely to be receiving on your savings, so it will almost certainly make sense to use savings to make sure tax liabilities are paid on time, or to pay any overdue tax.
When selling a home, be prepared to pay any CGT due within 60 days of the completion date.
If you sell or give away a UK residential property, you must report and pay any CGT due to HMRC within 60 calendar days of the completion date.
This is done via an online UK Property Account, with a separate declaration of the same gain also required if you have to submit a self-assessment tax return. If there is no tax to pay you don’t have to report the sale on the UK Property Account, but you may still need to include it in your tax return. Penalties may be charged for reporting late and/or paying the CGT late.
If you or your partner receive child benefit, check whether you have to pay a tax charge to pay back some of the child benefit received.
Where the higher earner of a couple has income over £60,000, the extra tax charge for that person is equivalent to 1% of the child benefit for every £200 of their income over £60,000. Once income reaches £80,000, the charge is 100%. Therefore, the child benefit claim is effectively reduced to nil. To avoid the tax charge, you can halt your child benefit payments but keep the claim alive to protect the claimant’s state pension entitlement.
If the income of the higher earner has fallen below £60,000, you can ask HMRC to start paying the child benefit again. Don’t delay, as it can take up to 28 days before you get your first payment.
Example:
Anna receives child benefit in respect of her two children and until recently made an annual profit of £80,000 from her self-employment. Some years ago, she asked HMRC to halt her child benefit payments so she didn’t have to pay the tax charge. Anna predicts her net profit will be around £55,000 for 2025/26. Anna can ask HMRC to restart her child benefit, and – provided the request is made early enough – she will receive payments throughout 2025/26.
Plan to minimise tax when selling your trading company by spreading the shareholding between you and your spouse.
If you both meet the 5% shareholding test for two years or more before the sale and are either an officer of the company or employed by it, you should both qualify for the 14% rate of CGT on any gains made when the company is sold. This reduced rate of CGT applies to the first £1 million of gains made on the disposal of qualifying business assets during each person’s lifetime. Be warned that the rate of CGT will increase to 18% from 6 April 2026.
Don’t pay too much income tax on account in July and January.
If your income is reducing, perhaps because you are winding down to retirement, the payments on account of tax due by 31 July and 31 January may be too high as they are based on your taxable income for the previous tax year. You can apply to reduce the payments on account through your personal tax account or on your tax return. If you believe you have paid too much tax on account for 2024/25, then submit your tax return as soon as you can to receive an early tax repayment.
Chartwell Tip
Estimate your income for 2025/26 and if this is likely to be less than £80,000, ask HMRC to restart your child benefit payments.
Personal & Family Tax Planning Checklist
- Check PAYE codes when they are changed, and also check you are not overpaying NICs
- Review whether an unused personal allowance can be transferred between you and your spouse or civil partner
- Check your NIC record if you think there might be recent gaps
- Consider using savings if you are going to have any difficulty making tax payments by the due date
- Review whether you have to pay a tax charge in respect of child benefit received, or whether a halted claim should be restarted
- Make sure that your payments on account are not higher than they need to be
