Personal and family tax planning Check your PAYE tax code HMRC may change your tax code in various circumstances, for example if you start to get income from an additional job or pension or you start or stop getting employee benefits. Your code may include estimated amounts of savings income, based on what you received in an earlier year. Check your PAYE code by signing into your personal tax account at www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account and use the options there to amend any estimated income and correct any other errors. Married couples and civil partners can transfer 10% of their personal allowance between them Transfer some of your unused personal allowance Married couples and civil partners can transfer 10% of their personal allowance between them (£1,260 for 2026/27), providing a small overall tax saving for the couple if the transferor cannot use the full amount of the allowance. This transfer is not permitted if the recipient pays tax at a rate higher than the basic rate of 20% (higher than the intermediate rate of 21% for Scottish taxpayers). You can backdate a claim for up to four years, so a claim made by 5 April 2027 can include 2022/23. EXAMPLE Leila receives an annual salary of £45,000. Her husband has no taxable income, so doesn’t use his personal allowance. For 2026/27, they could save tax of £252 (£1,260 at 20%) by transferring 10% of the husband’s personal allowance to Leila. Check how much NICs you pay If you have two or more concurrent jobs you may pay more NICs than you need to. You can reclaim any overpaid NICs from HMRC after the end of the tax year. However, you can prevent the overpayment occurring in the first place by deferring payment of NICs on one of your jobs. To do this, send HMRC a completed form CA72A (either online or by post) by 14 February in the tax year, but ideally earlier.
Top-up your state pension entitlement Check your NIC record for your entire working life in your personal tax account at www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account. If there are gaps in that record, such that you will not have 35 qualifying years by the time you reach state pension age, you may not be entitled to the full state pension. You can fill any gaps over the past six years by paying voluntary class 3 NICs. The cost is currently £956.80 per year to fill a gap, but State pension entitlement will then be increased by just over £358 annually (based on the rate for 2026/27). From 6 April 2026, you cannot pay voluntary NICs if you go abroad unless you have previously lived in the UK for ten continuous years or paid NICs in the UK for ten years or more. TIP Based on current rates, you only have to live for a further three years after reaching state pension age to benefit from paying voluntary class 3 NICs to fill gaps in your NIC record. Minimise the amount of late payment interest paid to HMRC HMRC automatically charges interest on late tax payments at a rate of base rate plus 4% – 7.75% from 9 January 2026. This is considerably higher than what you are likely to be receiving on your savings, so it will almost certainly make sense to use savings to make sure tax liabilities are paid on time, or to pay any overdue tax. When selling a home, be prepared to pay any CGT due within 60 days of the completion date If you sell or give away a UK residential property, you must report and pay any CGT due to HMRC within 60 calendar days of the completion date. This is done via an online UK Property Account, with a separate declaration of the same gain also required if you have to submit a self-assessment tax return. If there is no tax to pay you don’t have to report the sale on the UK Property Account, but you may still need to include it in your tax return. Penalties may be charged for reporting late and/or paying the CGT late.
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