For You Personally
Tax Planning
Most clients come to us for compliance (filing returns, completing accounts, hitting deadlines). But what often saves them the most money is what we do between the deadlines. That’s tax planning.
In a nutshell: Tax planning is the process of making decisions before the tax bill is finalised. We look at where you are now, where you’re heading, and what HMRC will charge you under each route. Then we help you move forward in the most cost-effective way without putting you in difficulty.
When tax planning earns its fee
The moments that usually trigger a worthwhile planning conversation:
- You’re approaching or sitting in the £100,000 income band (where the personal allowance taper creates an effective 60% tax rate)
- You’re a company director deciding how to draw income personally: salary, dividends, pension, benefits-in-kind
- You’re considering moving from sole trader to limited company.
- You’re selling a business, shares in a business, or a second property.
- You’re gifting wealth to your family, or thinking about inheritance.
- You’re approaching retirement and weighing up pension drawdown decisions.
- You’ve inherited assets and need to understand what to do with them.
Each of these has tax consequences. Planning in advance, sometimes years in advance, usually saves significantly more than it costs.
The conversations we have most often
For higher-rate and additional-rate taxpayers, the planning conversations tend to cluster around a handful of issues.
The £100k cliff edge. An income between £100,000 and £125,140 is where the personal allowance tapers away: effectively a 60% marginal tax rate on that slice of income. The personal allowance reduces by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000. Pension contributions, charitable giving, and salary sacrifice all reduce taxable income and can dramatically change the tax position.
Capital Gains Tax. Timing matters more than people realise. The annual exempt amount, Business Asset Disposal Relief on qualifying business disposals, and gift relief on family transfers all reward planning ahead.
Inheritance Tax. The nil-rate band, the residence nil-rate band, and the seven-year rule on lifetime gifts interact in ways that punish anyone who doesn’t think about them until it’s too late. We work with clients on lifetime gifting, business relief on qualifying assets, and life insurance into trust arrangements where they fit.
Pensions. The annual allowance, carry-forward, and the tapered allowance for high earners all create real opportunities to reduce tax bills. Pension contributions are often the single biggest planning opportunity available to higher earners.
Tax-advantaged investments. ISAs, and EIS and SEIS schemes - which offer income tax and CGT reliefs for those comfortable with the risk profile. We don’t sell investments, but we’ll review the tax treatment of anything you’re considering before you commit.
Are you a business owner or director?
If you run a limited company, the company-side tax planning conversations (director remuneration, R&D claims, capital allowances, sale and succession, share schemes for staff) live on our Company Tax page. Personal and company tax planning interact: how you take money out of the company shapes your personal position, and the two are usually best discussed together. We do that as one conversation for clients who use us for both.
If you’re moving from sole trader to limited company, that question is covered alongside the compliance work on our Sole Trader Accounts page.
How we work
Tax planning is a conversation, not a deliverable. The shape of the work depends on what you need.
For clients we already handle compliance for, planning conversations happen at year-end and ahead of significant decisions. We map out the position, talk through the options, and write up the plan in plain English so you can see what you’re agreeing to.
For new clients, we usually start with a single conversation about the issue at hand: a sale, a move, or a structural question. If it makes sense to stay in touch, we do.
Who we look after
The clients who get most from tax planning tend to fall into one or more of these groups:
- Directors and shareholders of owner-managed limited companies
- Higher-rate taxpayers with income above £50,000
- Additional-rate taxpayers and anyone sitting in the £100k–£125k taper band
- Landlords with property portfolios
- People approaching retirement with pensions, savings, and assets to think about
- People selling, gifting, or inheriting assets of meaningful value.
Whichever group you’re in, the conversation usually starts the same way: tell us what’s on the horizon, and we’ll tell you what’s worth thinking about.
Why clients stay with us
We’ve been working with individuals and business owners across Yorkshire since Stacey McVeighty FCCA founded the practice in 2014. Today, we look after around 800 clients from our York office. We’re ACCA-accredited, and we hold 39 five-star reviews on Google, most from clients who’ve been with us for years.
Fixed fees. Plain English. Long memories. We keep records of past conversations so this year’s planning starts where last year’s left off.
Frequently asked questions
Earlier than feels necessary. Most useful planning happens months or years before the tax event itself. If you’re already mid-way through a sale, a divorce, a property disposal, or a retirement decision, planning options shrink quickly. Drop us a message as soon as the question is on the horizon. If it isn’t worth a conversation yet, we’ll tell you that.
No. Tax planning uses the reliefs, allowances, and structures Parliament has put in place for the purposes for which they were designed: pensions, ISAs, capital allowances, R&D credits, and gift exemptions. Tax avoidance is contrived schemes designed to sidestep the spirit of the law, and we don’t go near them. The difference matters. Ask anyone who has been on the wrong side of an HMRC investigation.
Yes. Plenty of our planning clients use someone else for day-to-day compliance and come to us when they need answers to bigger questions. We’ll work alongside your existing accountant or take over both pieces of work, whichever suits.
We do the foundations: lifetime gifting strategies, the seven-year rule, the residence nil-rate band, business relief on qualifying assets. For the more complex end of estate planning (trusts, family investment companies, cross-border structures) we work alongside specialist solicitors and tax advisors, and bring them in when the structure needs legal drafting rather than tax advice.
We can’t give investment advice, but from a tax-only perspective, probably. The personal allowance taper between £100,000 and £125,140 means every £1 of income in that band costs roughly 60p in tax once the lost allowance is factored in. A pension contribution reduces your taxable income, restores some or all of the personal allowance, and attracts 40% tax relief on the contribution itself. The maths usually works out very favourably. We model your exact position before recommending an amount.
Ready to talk about your tax position?
Three ways to start. Whichever’s easiest.
If you’re not sure whether you’ve got enough to talk about, drop us a line anyway. The first conversation is about what you’re trying to achieve, not about selling you a package.
You may also like...
2 December 2025
2025 Budget UpdateSummary of the UK 2025 Budget - covering issues for individual and businesses.
Read More