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The end of the 2025/26 tax year is fast approaching. With the UK tax burden at a record high and significant changes to savings and pension rules on the horizon, there has never been a more important time to get your finances in order.
Here’s your step-by-step checklist for the actions you should take before midnight on 5 April.
What’s on this page?
You can shelter up to £20,000 in an individual savings account (ISA) this tax year, ensuring all future income and capital gains are completely tax-free.
You can’t backdate this allowance – if you don’t use it by 5 April, it’s gone forever. Note that some providers will insist your account is opened well in advance of 5 April in order for your contributions to count for this tax year, so don’t delay.
From April 2027, the rules are changing. If you’re under 65, your cash ISA limit will be capped at £12,000 a year, though your overall ISA limit will remain £20,000 (the rest can only be used for stocks and shares). For those aged 65 and over, the full £20,000 cash ISA allowance remains intact.
A stocks and shares ISA will typically deliver greater returns over time compared with a cash ISA, although you need to understand that the value of your investment can go down as well as up. Investing via a stocks and shares ISA means that you won’t have to pay dividend tax or capital gains tax.
Alice Haine, personal finance analyst at Best Invest, says: “The end of the 2025/26 tax year at midnight on 5 April is approaching fast and at a time when tax efficiency has rarely mattered more, savers and investors should ensure they do not miss out on valuable tax-free allowances.”
Action: Open a new ISA or top up your existing account.
Topping up your pension not only builds your retirement pot but immediately slashes your income tax bill. For most people, the maximum you can pay into a pension this tax year is the lower of £60,000 or 100% of your qualifying earnings.
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, says: “Tax relief is a real hidden hero of pensions and means a £100 pension contribution only costs a basic rate taxpayer £80.” Higher and additional-rate taxpayers can claim back tax relief at the highest rate of tax they pay (including the Scottish rates if you pay income tax in Scotland).
Any contributions you make into your pension by 5 April will help to reduce your tax bill for this year. If you want to pay in more than your allowance this tax year, you can potentially make use of unused capacity from the last three years.
Action:
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Everyone has an annual CGT allowance, which means you can make a certain amount of profit before paying CGT. For this current tax year and next, your allowance is £3,000, which means you won’t pay tax on the first £3,000 of profit. If you exceed your allowance and have to pay CGT, the rate is 18% for basic-rate taxpayers and 24% for higher or additional rate taxpayers.
To reduce a CGT bill, you could sell investments like shares either side of a tax year change to make the most of the allowance in both years.
Some of the key gifting allowances, such as the £3,000 rule, are based on each tax year. They can be carried forward for just one year if you don’t use them.
Clare Stinton, senior personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, explains: “Inheritance tax (IHT) looks set to deliver another record-breaking payday for the Treasury. Figures from the OBR expect receipts to hit £8.7 billion this tax year. And the numbers are only heading in one direction – up.”
She adds that inheritance tax will hit even more families once pensions come into its scope from April 2027. “Given that pensions can be among our largest assets, it’s understandable that people will be thinking about what they can do now to save their families a tax bill in the future.”
Action:
Use your annual gifting allowances before they reset on at midnight on 5 April:
If you are married or in a civil partnership, transferring assets between you can reduce tax.
If you have shares, you may receive dividends. There’s a dividend allowance each year before dividend tax is due. In the current tax year, the allowance is £500. Transferring assets between you can mean you both benefit from the allowance, and might mean the tax is paid at a lower rate, if one of you pays tax at a lower rate than the other.
Transferring assets between you can also help you both to maximise capital gains tax allowances, and if you’re transferring to a lower-rate taxpayer, can reduce the rate at which tax is paid.
If you have children in your life, helping them to save can be tax-efficient too. Children can have up to £9,000 a year added into a Junior ISA (JISA).
Children can have a pension too. You can contribute up to £2,880 a year into a junior pension, which the government tops up to £3,600 with basic-rate tax relief.
Action:
Regularly giving away your spare cash can help with inheritance tax planning, but there are strict rules to follow.
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Understand the latest ISA rules and how they affect your savings.
Capital gains tax is no longer just a tax for the wealthy. Discover simple steps you can take to keep more of your money.
With our Stocks & Shares ISA and General Investment Accounts. Capital at risk.
