A checklist for tax year end

Tax year end is the perfect moment to take a step back and work out whether your investments and savings still align with your goals. For instance, you could ask yourself if your attitude to risk has changed or whether you can afford to pay more into your investments.

What to do: Even small adjustments can help keep your investments aligned with your short, medium and long-term plans.

Remember investment values may fall as well as rise and you may get back less than was put in. Your tax is based on your personal circumstances and tax rules may change.

If you have an Individual Savings Account (ISA) you can put up to £20,000 in each tax year. And you can split this allowance across different types of ISA, including:

• Stocks and Shares ISAs
• Cash ISAs
• Lifetime ISAs
• Innovative Finance ISAs

In the 2025 Autumn Budget, the government announced that from April 2027 the Cash ISA allowance for under‑65s will fall to £12,000. 

Although the official deadline for using your ISA allowance is 5 April, many providers have their own, earlier cut‑off dates to allow time for paperwork or bank transfers to go through. These can be as early as mid‑March, so leaving things too late could mean missing out on using your full allowance.

What to do: Check your provider’s deadlines and aim to make contributions well before 5 April so they’re processed in time.

Paying into your pension is one of the most tax-efficient ways to save for the future, so it’s well worth using your full annual allowance if you can. When you pay into your pension you'll normally receive a top-up from the government, known as pension tax relief.

For every £100 you pay into your pension, you’ll receive £25 in tax relief, giving a total contribution of £125. Higher and additional‑rate taxpayers can claim extra tax relief through their self assessment tax return, or by making a claim to HMRC. You can usually contribute up to £60,000 to your pension each tax year before a tax charge may apply, so it’s well worth maximising your annual allowance to boost your retirement savings.

You can also carry forward any unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years. However, if your adjusted income is more than £260,000, the tapered annual allowance may apply, reducing the amount you can contribute. You may also have a lower allowance if you've started taking money from your pensions. This lower allowance is called the Money Purchase Annual Allowance and is currently £10,000.  And remember, the value of your pension can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invested.

Your provider needs to receive your pension contributions by 5 April to count for this tax year. If you’re opening a new Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) it’s a good idea to allow a few days for applications and payments to go through, so you might want to give yourself an earlier annual deadline.

What to do: Review how much of your annual allowance you’ve already used and whether tapering or carry‑forward rules apply to you. Make sure to submit your contributions ahead of 5 April, ideally by late March.

If you have a workplace pension, tax year end is a good time to check you’re getting the most out of it. Your employer’s contributions count towards your annual pension allowance, and many will match what you pay in up to a certain level. Increasing your own contributions, especially if your employer offers salary sacrifice, could boost your pension while reducing your income tax and National Insurance.

The government confirmed in the 2025 Autumn Budget that the National Insurance exemption on pension salary sacrifice will change from April 2029. Currently, full National Insurance relief applies to the total amount you sacrifice, but from 2029 this will be capped at £2,000 a tax year. Any pension contributions made via salary sacrifice above this level will incur employer and employee National Insurance at normal rates.

So, you may want to make the most of the current salary sacrifice rules on your workplace pension before they change on 5 April 2029. Of course, when making any big financial decision, you should think about speaking to a financial adviser if you’re not sure about anything.

What to do: Check if your pension is on track and pay more in via salary sacrifice or personal top-ups if needed before 5 April.

If you’re under 40 and saving for your first home or retirement, you might want to think about opening a Lifetime ISA (LISA). It’s a tax-free savings scheme for 18- to 39-year-olds that allows you to put in up to £4,000 each tax year and the government adds a 25% bonus, up to £1,000.

It counts as part of your overall £20,000 ISA limit and resets at tax year end, so it’s worth using up your allowance if you can as it won’t get carried over.

Plus, if you have children, you can invest up to £9,000 per child each year into a Junior ISA, without impacting your personal ISA allowance.

What to do: If you’re eligible, consider opening and topping up a LISA before 5 April to get your full bonus from the government.

For any other investments you might have, it’s worth thinking about whether you’ve used up your allowances before tax year end. This includes capital gains tax, which applies to the profit you make on any assests you’ve sold or gifted to someone. In a tax year, you can earn £3,000  from gains on disposals of assets before you need to pay tax.

And then there’s dividends, the percentage of a company’s profits you sometimes receive as a shareholder when you invest your money in stocks. You can currently earn £500 tax-free in dividends, From 6 April, tax rates on dividends will rise by 2% for both basic and higher rate taxpayers.

What to do: When you sell any investments or get dividends payments, think about how you can use your allowances tax-efficiently before 5 April.

1. Start early to avoid any last‑minute stress or delays from your provider.
2. Keep track of your allowances across ISAs, SIPPs, workplace pensions and any other investments.
3. Speak to a financial adviser if you’re not sure about any tax rules, especially with tapering or carry‑forward calculations.