Personal pension contributions can be used to reduce your taxable income. Basic rate taxpayers receive an extra 20% on their eligible contributions, and it’s 40% for higher rate taxpayer and 45% for additional rate taxpayers. What’s more, investing into a pension may help higher earners bring their income below the additional rate tax threshold of £125,140.

*It is possible to contribute enough to bring income below the higher rate band and relief would not be at the full 40%.

A ‘Saver ISA’ doesn’t exist, but you could be forgiven for thinking it might – after all, ISAs are brilliant methods of tax-efficient saving. There’s plenty of choice when you’re saving into an ISA, and now’s the perfect time to look at your existing ISAs and make sure you are making the most of your money and your annual ISA allowance.

Nobody likes talking about death – and we don’t much like talking about money either. So it’s hardly surprising that none of us relish the thought of estate planning. However, we also don’t want to pay the taxman any more than we have to, and reducing the value of your estate during your lifetime will mean that your family will owe less Inheritance Tax in the future.

It’s true! You pay National Insurance contributions to qualify for certain benefits, including the state pension, so you’ll be eligible for a full State Pension if you’ve made National Insurance contributions for 35 years. At state pension age, you stop paying Class 1 and Class 2 contributions, even if you’re still working. You’ll continue paying Class 4 contributions until the end of the tax year in which you reach state pension age.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/tax-national-insurance-after-state-pension-age/stopping-paying-national-insurance

Saving into an ISA is a great way of being strategic with your savings. You can pay up to £20,000 into an ISA each tax year, and everything you earn from it is free of Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and Dividend Tax – so you won’t pay tax on interest, withdrawals or profits. You can also use Junior ISAS (JISAs) to give the next generation a head start. JISAs have an allowance of £9,000 per child each tax year.

The pension freedoms introduced in April 2015 mean pensions aren’t just a great way to save for retirement – they can be a very useful estate-planning tool too.

When you die, the money you have saved into your pension should fall outside your estate and will not normally be subject to Inheritance Tax (IHT). This means that if you’re worried about IHT, the more money you can pay into your pension, the better. You’ll still have access to it should you need it in your later years, but if you don’t need it, then it can be passed on to your loved ones in a tax-efficient way.

One of the best ways to boost your pension pot before tax-year end is to use your full pension annual allowance if you can. In 2023/24, this is £60,000 or 100% of your salary.

You can also carry forward any unused allowance from the last three years. You will need to use up your current year’s allowance first, but this could be useful if your earnings vary from year to year or if you are self-employed, for example.