6 things to do before the end of the tax year

The current tax year ends on 5 April, meaning you have just under a month to make the most of your 2024-25 allowances. 

In this article, we identify six steps you can take to get the most out of your money before the deadline – from using your Isa allowance to topping up your state pension.

1. Use your Isa allowance

Isas allow you to save or invest up to £20,000 a year without paying tax on the interest you earn. 

You can split your allowance across different types of Isas, and new rules introduced last year mean you can now open more than one Isa of the same type. 

Your allowance doesn’t carry over to the new tax year, so savers and investors should make the most of their 2024-25 allowance before it’s too late. 

Flexible Isas allow you to withdraw funds and replace them in the same tax year without affecting your allowance. So if you’ve withdrawn money from your Isa this year, you may want to replace the funds before 5 April to maximise your tax-free gains. Not all providers allow flexible withdrawals, so check the terms of your account.

• Find out more: best cash Isas 2025

2. Make the most of your capital gains allowance – and check whether you owe tax this year

Capital gains tax (CGT) is payable on profits you make from selling valuable items or properties aside from your main home and car.

Your CGT allowance is the amount of profit you can make before you need to pay tax. In 2024-25, this is £3,000.

The allowance can’t be carried forward to the new tax year, so spreading the sale of valuable items across tax years can help you make the most of it. 

This year, CGT rates were increased, and the tax-free allowance was reduced. This means more people may have a tax bill to pay, and some could face bigger bills than before.

• Find out more: capital gains tax

3. Plan as a family

If you’re married or in a civil partnership, there are various ways you can make the most of your tax-free allowances as a couple.

Isas

Adults have an Isa allowance of £20,000, and parents can invest up to £9,000 per year in a junior Isa for each child.

This means a family of four could save up to £58,000 per year tax-free using their Isa allowances. 

Any money put into a junior Isa belongs to the child and can only be accessed by them when they turn 18.

Personal savings allowance

How much tax you pay on interest earned from savings depends on your income. 

Basic-rate taxpayers have a personal savings allowance of £1,000, meaning they can earn up to £1,000 of interest on savings before they need to pay tax. This reduces to £500 for higher-rate taxpayers. 

If you’re married or in a civil partnership, you could split your savings with your spouse to make full use of your combined tax-free allowances.

Capital gains tax allowance

If your assets are jointly owned, you can use both of your allowances, meaning you could make up to £6,000 profit before CGT is due. 

You can also transfer assets to your spouse without incurring CGT, which could help you make full use of each partner’s tax-free allowance.

Marriage allowance

Marriage allowance is a tax perk that reduces the amount of tax the higher-earning spouse pays. 

You can backdate marriage allowance claims for up to four years, meaning 5 April 2025 is the deadline for claiming for the 2020-2021 tax year. 

• Find out more: ​tax-free income and allowances

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4. Check your tax code – and claim a refund if you’ve overpaid

Your tax code determines how much income tax is deducted from your wages or pension, and it’s your responsibility to make sure you're on the correct code. 

You might receive a tax code notice from HMRC if your tax code is changing, but you can also find it on your payslip,  P60,  P45 or as part of your personal information if you have the HMRC app.  

If you think your tax code is wrong, you should contact HMRC, as you may be eligible for a refund. You have up to four years to claim refunds for overpaid tax.

• Find out more: tax codes explained

5. Consider topping up your state pension – and make the most of your pension allowance

How much state pension you will receive when you reach pension age depends on how many years of National Insurance (NI) contributions you’ve made. 

If you have gaps in your NI record, you can buy voluntary top-ups. 

Normally, it’s only possible to fill in gaps in your NI record for the past six years.  However, since 2013 the government has allowed people transitioning to the new state pension system to backdate their NI records all the way back to 2006. 

5 April this year is the final deadline for filling these gaps, so it’s worth considering whether voluntary contributions could boost your pension.

You may also wish to consider paying into your pension, as the government pays tax relief on pension contributions. 

You can put up to £60,000 per year into your pension – your pensions annual allowance – and you can carry forward allowances from the previous three years as long as you were a member of a pension scheme during that time. 

• Find out more: topping up your state pension

6. Use your gift allowance

Most gifts that you make to other people while you're alive are tax-free as long as you survive for seven years after making the gift. 

However, you can also give away up to £3,000 per year without any inheritance tax being due on it after your death. This is known as the annual exemption. 

Unused annual exemption can be carried forward to the next tax year – but only for one tax year. 

This means 5 April this year is the deadline for using any unused annual exemption from 2023-24.

• Find out more: inheritance tax planning and tax-free gifts