Many potentially affected taxpayers have not yet engaged with a major change in tax reporting. Communication is arguably not one of HMRC’s strongest points. While its requests for tax returns are made within the start of the tax year, it is not so prompt in other areas. The latest HMRC performance statistics, issued in January 2026, reveal that between January to November 2025: More than one-in-five pieces of correspondence had not received a reply within 15 working days, and

As the memories of January’s festivities fade behind us, it is time to turn our thoughts to 5 April. The 2024 Budget revised the Chancellor’s fiscal calendar. From now on, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will make only one full assessment a year of the UK’s finances, alongside the Autumn Budget, leaving the Spring Statement (due this year on 3 March) as little more than a minor update. (1) The tax year will still end on 5 April (Easter Sunday in 2026). Normally, ma

The consequences of successive governments freezing income tax personal allowance are beginning to emerge. On 6 April 2016, the new State pension was launched at the rate of £155.65 a week (£8,093.80 a year)(1) and the income tax personal allowance increased by £400 to £11,000.1 If you were about to reach State pension age (SPA) – then 65 for men and 63 for women (2) – you had about £2,900 of headroom above your State pension before you started to pay income tax on any other

The Autumn Budget at the end of November announced important changes to come for individual savings accounts (ISAs) from April 2027, but you may not be affected. (1) Source: HMRC (2) November’s Budget announced a range of changes to ISAs, the full extent of which did not become clear immediately. While the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) managed to publish its primary document before the Chancellor spoke, HMRC and the Treasury were slow in releasing information throug

While reforms to the pension salary sacrifice rules are not scheduled to take effect until April 2029, it is important to understand the implications of the changes now.* Salary sacrifice has become an increasingly common way for employees to make their pension contributions, with most major employers offering schemes. It currently has some important advantages for employees over choosing to pay contributions from the after-tax salary: There are no employee national insurance

The government made a surprise tax announcement in late December when the country’s attention was otherwise engaged. ‘A good day to bury bad news’ is a notorious political phrase that still rings true.(1) More than two decades later, it seems that the UK government’s communication strategies often cloud rather than clarify awkward news. December provided two classic examples. On the 18th, the last day of parliament before recess, the government issued no less than 13 written