Mirandus Accountants is an expert accounting and chartered tax advisory practice based in London and Edinburgh. We specialise in meeting the needs of private clients and their businesses.
Visit our Mirandus Wealth site for your financial planning. If you have pension, investment, protection or mortgage needs, we can help.
Have you used your full ISA allowance (£20,000)?
Have you maximized your pension contributions (up to £60,000 annual allowance, subject to earnings)?
Have you considered gifting to use your annual IHT exemption (£3,000 per donor)?
Have you realized gains up to your Capital Gains Tax (CGT) annual exemption (£3,000 for 2025/26)?
Have you reviewed your dividend and savings allowances?
Have you checked your tax code for accuracy?
Have you extracted profits tax-efficiently (salary/dividends/bonuses)?
Have you made use of annual investment allowances for capital purchases?
Have you reviewed director’s loan accounts?
Have you considered R&D tax credits or other reliefs?
Have you claimed all allowable expenses on rental properties?
Have you reviewed your mortgage interest relief position?
Have you considered the impact of property sales on CGT?
Have you reviewed your will and powers of attorney?
Have you checked your life insurance is written in trust?
Have you considered the impact of the 2027 pension rule change on your estate?
Annual pension contribution allowance remains at £60,000 (gross). You may be able to carry forward unused allowances from the previous 3 tax years.
No Lifetime Allowance – scrapped in April 2024. You can now build up pension pots without an overall cap, though Lump Sum and Death Benefit limits still apply.
Pension withdrawals after age 55 (rising to 57 from 2028) remain 25% tax-free, with the rest taxed at your marginal rate.
Employer contributions are usually free of Income Tax and National Insurance.
The CGT annual exemption for individuals is now just £3,000 (cut from £6,000 in 2023/24).
Basic rate taxpayers pay 10% CGT (or 18% on residential property). Higher/additional rate taxpayers pay 20% (or 24% on residential property).
Consider "bed and ISA" strategy or gifting to a spouse to reduce gains.
Losses can be carried forward to offset future gains.
The nil-rate band remains at £325,000, and the residence nil-rate band at £175,000.
Annual gift exemption of £3,000 per person remains – gifts within this limit are immediately outside your estate.
Small gift exemption of £250 per recipient per tax year (cannot combine with the £3,000 gift).
Gifts to spouses, civil partners, or charities are usually exempt.
The dividend allowance has been reduced to £500 for 2025/26.
Tax rates on dividend income:
Basic rate: 8.75%
Higher rate: 33.75%
Additional rate: 39.35%
Consider taking dividends before year-end to use remaining allowance.
Company owners may save tax by balancing salary vs dividends and minimising NICs.
EIS is designed so that your company can raise money to help grow your business via high net worth individual investments.
There are tax incentives for both individuals and the investor(s), who buy new shares in your company.
Under EIS, you can raise up to £5 million each year, and a maximum of £12 million in your company’s lifetime. This also includes amounts received from other venture capital schemes.
Tax benefits:
Investors can receive initial tax relief of 50% on investments up to £100,000 on the SEIS shares. If the shares are disposed of at a loss, you can elect that the loss be set against any income tax of that year or of the previous year.
Any gain is Capital Gains Tax (CGT) free if the investment is held for at least three years. 50% of capital gains are exempt from CGT if it is re-invested in a SEIS-qualifying company.
An investment in an SEIS-qualifying company should benefit from 100% relief from inheritance tax, provided the investment is held for two years and at the time of death.
