With the tax year end approaching on April 5, Britons are running out of time to utilise some of the tools available to them before the deadline passes. Jason Hollands, Managing Director at Bestinvest, offered some last-minute tax tactics to deploy before the financial year-end.

Use annual pensions allowances

Mr Hollands urged Britons to make the most of the tax relief they can get on their pension contributions and use any unused allowances before the end of the tax year.

He said: “Nothing beats pensions when it comes to tax perks, with contributions attracting tax relief at your marginal income tax rate.

“This means a 40 percent income taxpayer can get £10,000 of pension at a net cost of just £6,000, once the tax reliefs are factored in.

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Mr Hollands explained that even if someone does not use all of their annual allowance in a given year, they may still be able to use it later.

He said: “You can also carry forward unused annual allowances from the last three tax years, to add an even larger lump sum into your pot.”

However, it is important to note the total contributions made over a tax year cannot exceed someone’s annual gross earnings.

Mr Hollands continued: “Currently you are about to lose the option of using unused allowance from the tax year 2018/19.

“The Junior ISA allowance is a generous £9,000 a year.

“Moreover, even those who are not paying tax are entitled to tax relief on pension contributions of £2,880 a year.”

The top-up then takes this to £3,600, the so-called ‘basic amount’.

“This means a pension with tax benefits can be opened for a child of any age – or indeed a non-earning spouse,” Mr Hollands concluded.