Proactive Tax Planning UK —
Year-Round Strategy, Not Year-End Panic
Year-round tax planning that identifies saving opportunities before the tax year ends — not after. We review your position quarterly, model scenarios, advise on timing and implement strategies that legally reduce your tax bill year after year. ACCA qualified.
Proactive Tax Planning — Why Timing Is Everything
Most accountants prepare your tax return after the year has ended — when most planning opportunities have already closed. Proactive tax planning means working with you throughout the year to identify opportunities before they disappear. Many of the most valuable tax reliefs are use-it-or-lose-it: the pension annual allowance, the CGT annual exempt amount, the IHT annual gift exemption, the ISA allowance — all reset on 5 April, and any unused allowance is gone forever.
Our proactive tax planning service begins at the start of each tax year with a planning meeting — reviewing your expected income, planned investments, anticipated disposals and personal circumstances for the coming year. We identify the key opportunities and risks, model the tax impact of different decisions and agree a planning action list.
We then hold quarterly check-ins — reviewing your actual year-to-date position against our projections, updating the plan as circumstances change and implementing any time-sensitive strategies before the opportunity closes. By the time 5 April arrives, every available relief has been claimed and every planning opportunity has been actioned.
Typical planning actions include: pension contributions to use annual allowance and carry-forward, ISA maximisation for tax-free investment growth, timing of business disposals to use CGT annual exempt amounts in the most efficient year, gift planning to use IHT exemptions, salary sacrifice restructuring and dividend timing across years to manage marginal rates.
✅ What’s Included
- ✓ Annual tax planning meeting
- ✓ Quarterly review meetings
- ✓ Tax year-end review (March/April)
- ✓ Pension allowance planning
- ✓ Carry-forward allowance calculation
- ✓ CGT annual exempt amount strategy
- ✓ ISA and investment planning
- ✓ IHT gifting strategy
- ✓ Salary/dividend optimisation
- ✓ Capital expenditure timing
- ✓ Loss harvesting and relief
- ✓ 5 April checklist — use-it-or-lose-it
Our Process — Structured & Proactive
Is This Service Right for You?
Business Owners & Directors
Limited company directors, sole traders and partnerships benefit most from proactive planning — the intersection of personal and corporate tax creates the most planning opportunities.
Higher & Additional Rate Taxpayers
Individuals paying 40-45% income tax have the most to gain from proactive planning — every pound moved from the higher rate band into a pension or tax-efficient wrapper saves 20-25p in tax.
Property Investors & Landlords
Property investors face CGT on disposal, Section 24 on income and SDLT on acquisition — proactive planning across all three significantly reduces the lifetime tax cost of a property portfolio.
International & Mobile Taxpayers
Individuals with international tax exposure — non-residents, non-domiciliaries, those with overseas assets — benefit from specialist planning to minimise UK and overseas tax efficiently.
Proactive Tax Planning — Common Questions
The most important use-it-or-lose-it reliefs that reset on 5 April include: ISA allowance (£20,000 per adult), pension annual allowance (£60,000 — unused amounts can be carried forward 3 years), CGT annual exempt amount (£3,000 — cannot be carried forward), IHT annual gift exemption (£3,000 — one year’s unused amount can be carried forward), Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) relief, and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) relief. We review all applicable allowances for every client before 5 April.
The saving depends entirely on your income, assets and circumstances — but a structured planning approach consistently finds opportunities that reactive tax filing misses. Common savings include: pension carry-forward claims worth £5,000–£20,000+ in income tax relief, BADR timing savings of £20,000–£100,000+ on business disposals, IHT gifting strategies saving £12,000–£40,000+ per year on large estates, and salary/dividend restructuring saving £2,000–£10,000+ annually for directors. Most clients save significantly more in tax than our planning fees.
Now — regardless of when you’re reading this. Tax planning is most effective when started early in the tax year (April-June), giving maximum time to implement strategies before 5 April. However, even planning started in January or February can identify significant opportunities — pension contributions, gift planning, ISA contributions and some disposal timing strategies can all be implemented in the final weeks of the tax year. The worst time to think about tax planning is after 5 April, when the opportunities for that year have closed.
Pension carry-forward allows you to use unused pension annual allowance from the three previous tax years — on top of the current year’s £60,000 allowance. If you were a pension scheme member in previous years but contributed below the annual allowance, you can carry forward the unused amounts and contribute more in the current year. For higher earners, this can allow a single large pension contribution that generates 40-45% tax relief. We calculate your available carry-forward for every client and advise on the optimal contribution.
Yes — reducing your adjusted net income below £100,000 restores the full personal allowance (£12,570 in 2024/25), saving up to £5,028 in income tax. The most effective ways to reduce adjusted net income below £100,000 include making additional pension contributions (personal or employer), making Gift Aid donations, or timing income-generating events to a different tax year. For every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000, £1 of personal allowance is lost — making contributions in this range attract effective 60% tax relief.
Fixed Fees — Agreed Upfront
All packages include: ACCA qualified adviser · HMRC agent · client portal · 2-hour response guarantee. Book a free consultation →
Complete Your Tax Planning Package
Tax Planning — Start Now, Not After 5 April
Book a free consultation and we’ll review your current position — identifying every planning opportunity for the current tax year before the 5 April deadline closes them.