2025 tax year end: five words from a wealth manager

The 2025 tax year end is on Saturday 5 April 2025. This means you have until the Friday afternoon to max out your allowances and make the right arrangements. Here’s a handy list that will hopefully make this process simpler and easier.

Last minute rush no more

Whatever happened to that mad rush at the end of the tax year?

Have we all got better at planning throughout the year? It’s what we encourage clients to do.

Industry data says March isn’t a particularly special month for fund investments. April is – but maybe that’s people investing at the start of the new tax year, not in the end of the last one?

That said, the deadline still matters because it’s when all sorts of allowances finish and new ones come in. So here are five ideas to think about.

Investments

Think about putting as much money as you reasonably can into your:

• Pension. You can put in £60,000 a year and obtain tax relief on it. There are tax benefits available above this limit, but the rules start getting a little complicated.
• Individual savings account(s). The limit is £20,000 per person, per year. You can spread this across different types of ISA. In addition, you can put £9,000 a year into a junior ISA for children under 18.

Incentives

There are also certain investments that enable you to shield more money from tax. They are complex and risky, because you must invest in the smallest companies. They are:

• Venture capital trust. Invest up to £200,000 a year, with 30% income tax relief (though you must invest for five years), and both capital gains and dividends tax-free.
• Enterprise investment scheme. You receive 30% income tax relief on your contribution. You can contribute up to £1 million (and in some cases more).

2025 tax year end reliefs

Several reliefs are available, but they are changing – and fast. Here’s a quick summary of the main ones.

• Business assets disposal relief. Sell all or part of your business and pay just 10% capital gains tax. From 6 April 2025 that rate goes up to 14%. Terms and conditions apply.
• Investors relief. Sell unlisted shares in a business and get the same benefits.
• Agricultural property relief. You can still get 50-100% inheritance tax relief on gifts of agricultural land and buildings, until 5 April 2026. After that point you have a limit of £1 million.
• Business property relief. The same rules apply as with agricultural property relief.

Insurance

This is of course national insurance. You have until the end of the tax year to make up for any gaps in your national insurance record.

Filling in such gaps will make sure you qualify for the full state pension. At time of writing, it’s £221.20 a week – about £11,500 a year – and is not to be sniffed at.

Charity

Giving to deserving causes, namely registered charities (or community amateur sports clubs), is a handy way to get your tax bill down.

For example, and here I quote the HMRC web page, if you ‘re a higher-rate tax payer and donate £100 to charity, they may claim Gift Aid to make your donation £125. You pay 40% tax so you can personally claim back £25.00 (£125 x 20%).

Moreover, if you donate land, property or shares and you get relief on income tax and capital gains tax.

These are just five ideas of the many we discuss with our clients. If you’re approaching the end of the tax year, and haven’t yet arranged things to your satisfaction, we can definitely help.

Please get in touch on hello@firstwealth.co.uk or call 020 7467 2700.

This document is marketing material for a retail audience and does not constitute advice or recommendations. Past performance is not a guide to future performance and may not be repeated. The value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amount originally invested.