Personal tax planning

We offer a specialist personal tax planning service tailored to your individual needs that includes:

  • Advice on minimising tax liability for all personal taxes, including:
    • Income tax
    • Capital gains tax (CGT)
    • Inheritance tax (IHT)
    • Non-domiciliary taxes
  • Completion and filing of relevant returns
  • Advice on what payments are due and when
  • Advice on trusts and estates

We can offer you personal tax planning advice from one of the highly qualified and experienced members of our tax department.

They will help you optimise your tax position and ensure you meet all the compliance requirements.

Your personal Tax Adviser will also be available to advise on issues such as:

  • How best to handle benefits such as company cars and accommodation
  • Whether directors should be paid by salary or dividend
  • How to minimise CGT liability on disposal of assets
  • How to optimise your tax position when living or working abroad

With the complex nature of tax and finances today, we also encourage our clients to develop a comprehensive personal finance plan that, in addition to general tax planning, covers:

  • Provision for education costs
  • Mortgage planning
  • Savings & investments
  • Insurance planning
  • Healthcare provision
  • Retirement planning
  • Estate planning

Decisions made in any of these areas are likely to affect one or more of the others, which is why we recommend working within an overall plan. We see all these as part of the overall wealth management plan for our clients. Our approach here is to ensure that we never lose sight of our client's overall wealth objectives and ensure that everything we do is consistent with this plan.

These days, with increasing life expectancy and advances in healthcare it is not uncommon for people to live for twenty to thirty years after they retire. This can be more than half the time they spent working!

Ensuring adequate income for life in these circumstances requires careful planning across a wide area:

  • More and more people are supplementing their pension provision with other sources of retirement income, such as savings products, investments, and even property acquisition. The tax and financial implications of such decisions are complex and require timely and expert advice.
  • Then there are the questions of when you should plan to retire and how you will leave your business - whether you will pass it on to others in the family or sell it and cash out. It is wise to prepare your exit strategy well in advance and to be sure you optimise your tax position while you still have flexible options.
  • Finally there are matters of life assurance provision, long-term care, and medical insurance to consider if you are concerned to maintain a good quality of life throughout your retirement.

The three keys to successful retirement planning are:

  1. Plan well ahead - It is never too early to start retirement planning. The earlier you start the greater your chances of achieving your objectives
  2. Maintain balance & flexibility - It is especially important to achieve an appropriate balance between high and low risk exposures, and to maintain flexible options with regard to instruments such as pensions, savings, investments, and insurance.
  3. Seek professional advice - This very complex and continuously changing area, and we strongly recommend you seek skilled, professional advice at every step.