Nothing on this page is clever. It is the allowances you already have, used properly and in the right order.
An ISA allowance not used by 5 April is gone for good. Higher-rate relief goes unclaimed. Gifting exemptions reset every April and nobody touches them. Gains get taken in one lump when splitting them over two tax years would have cost less. Couples hold things in the wrong name.
All of it is worth real money, and most of it is an afternoon's work once a year.
Almost all of this is driven by the tax year, and almost all of the value is lost by leaving it until March.
Look at contributions and allowances while there is still time to act on what you find.
Pension and ISA decisions made with months still to run.
Use the gifting exemptions deliberately, and keep a record of what went where.
Work out the capital gains position before you sell.
Your accountant knows what has happened and the adviser is planning what happens next, and the saving is usually in the overlap. Buzz has its own accountants and we work alongside other firms' just as readily.
What we do not advise on is anything artificial. Arrangements that depend on a favourable interpretation surviving an HMRC challenge leave the client carrying the risk long after the promoter has moved on.
No. Using an ISA, contributing to a pension or gifting within HMRC's stated exemptions is using the system as Parliament designed it.
For most clients the best arrangement is that we plan and an accountant files, with the two talking to each other. Buzz Accounting can do the filing if you want it in one place.
Yes. Moving holdings into ISAs over time, using the annual exempt amount, sequencing disposals and considering which spouse holds what can all reduce the ongoing drag without changing the underlying investment strategy.
Every year at least. Allowances, thresholds and reliefs move at Budgets, and some of the most significant recent changes only matter if somebody is watching for them. That is part of what an ongoing advice relationship is for.
Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and on current rules, both of which can change. The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax advice.
What your estate would pay as things stand, and which bands you can use.
Longer answers to the questions that come up most on this subject.
Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write. We will tell you honestly whether we can help.