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£9.3bn wasted on tax: can you pay less?
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7. Maximise your personal tax allowances
Around £474m could be clawed back from the taxman if we make full use of personal tax allowances. Non-taxpayers could claim £330m that is automatically deducted from bank and building society accounts.
A further £144m is lost by taxpayers not transferring savings accounts to non-taxpaying spouses, if appropriate, so the tax liability on the savings is lower, or even eliminated.
8. Use your Capital Gains Tax (CGT) allowance
If you hold investments in the stock market or in commercial property, you could be liable to pay CGT.
It may be possible to transfer assets between spouses to make the most of both of your CGT allowances – up to £264m could be saved in this way.
9. Take advantage of employee share plans
£184m is up for grabs for the estimated 600,000 staff currently in Profit-Related Pay schemes. Get professional advice to see if this could mean you pay less tax.
10. Sort out your self-assessment
A further £479m could be saved by people who are asked to complete a self-assessment tax return – if they complete the forms correctly and get them to HMRC by the 31 January deadline.
Self-assessment forms received after the deadline incur penalties of £100, with further penalties and errors adding to the amount of tax being wasted in this way.
