The 5 April tax year-end is closer than it might feel. With it comes a window of opportunity that millions of people let pass without taking advantage of it.
The start of a new tax year on 6 April brings a fresh set of allowances. The earlier you can put them to work, the harder they’ll work for you. So, whether you’re thinking about the final weeks of 2025/26 or planning for 2026/27, now’s a good time to take stock.
Being tax-efficient doesn’t mean doing anything complicated or unusual. It means making sure you use the allowances and reliefs that are already available to you, which you’re perfectly entitled to, but will disappear if you don’t use them in time.
With that in mind, here are five practical steps to help you make your finances more tax-efficient in 2026.
Review how your pensions, ISAs and other assets are performing
Before making any decisions, it’s worth taking stock of where everything stands.
The final months of the tax year are a good prompt to check in on your finances, not just to see how things are performing, but also to make sure your money is still working as hard as it could be.
Start with your pension statements.
Are your funds performing reasonably well compared to similar options?
Does your current investment mix still reflect your appetite for risk and how far away you are from retirement?
It’s easy to set up a pension, pick a default fund and never look at it again. But a fund that was appropriate ten years ago might not be right for where you are now.
Do the same with your ISAs and any other investments. Check what you’re paying in fees, because even small differences in charges can have a significant impact over time. Look at whether the balance between cash and stocks and shares still makes sense, and whether you could move any older ISAs with previous providers to somewhere that offers better rates or lower costs.
You don’t need to do an exhaustive audit. But going into the final weeks of the tax year without a basic picture of where you stand makes it harder to act on the opportunities available to you, and some of those opportunities have a hard deadline.
Make the most of your pension contributions before 5 April
Pensions are one of the most tax-efficient ways to save. The run-up to the tax year-end is the time to make sure you’re not leaving anything on the table.
Most people can contribute up to £60,000 into their pension in the 2025/26 tax year, or 100% of their earnings if that’s lower. The tax relief available on these contributions is why this limit matters so much. Basic rate taxpayers effectively pay £80 to put £100 into their pension, with the Government topping up the rest in tax relief. Higher-rate taxpayers can claim further relief through their Self-Assessment tax return, potentially bringing the real cost of a £100 pension contribution down to just £60. Additional rate taxpayers can reduce that further still.
So, if you haven’t used your full annual allowance this year, it’s worth checking whether carry forward might apply to you. This allows you to use unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years, provided you were a member of a registered pension scheme during that time. It’s particularly useful if you’ve had a stronger financial year, received a bonus or want to make a one-off contribution before retirement.
The first step is straightforward. Check how much you’ve contributed to your pension so far this year. If there’s room to contribute more before 5 April, it’s worth a conversation with your financial adviser about whether doing so makes sense for your situation. The tax relief alone often makes this one of the most valuable things you can do before the tax year closes.
Use your full ISA allowance
Every adult in the UK can put up to £20,000 into an ISA each tax year. Everything inside (growth, interest and dividends) is completely free of Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax. The important thing to understand is that this allowance is ‘use it or lose it’. Once 5 April passes, that year’s allowance is gone permanently. You can’t carry it forward.
If you have a spouse or civil partner, you can shelter up to £40,000 between you each tax year (although you each have your own £20,000 allowance, they can’t be combined), which can add up considerably over time. And if you have children, a Junior ISA allows you to save up to £9,000 per child per year in a tax-free wrapper that they can access when they turn 18.
The choice between a cash ISA and a stocks and shares ISA is worth thinking about. Cash ISAs are straightforward and low risk. But over the long term, stocks and shares ISAs have historically offered stronger growth potential, albeit with more short-term ups and downs. Many people hold both, using cash for funds they might need to access in the near term, and a stocks and shares ISA for longer-term savings.
If you’re not sure how much of your allowance you’ve used this tax year, check with your provider. If there’s room to add more before 5 April, it’s one of the simplest ways to shield your money from future tax.
Gifts and giving from excess income
Gifting is a practical tool for reducing a potential Inheritance Tax (IHT) bill.
It doesn’t have to involve large sums of money.
Every individual has an annual gift exemption of £3,000. This is the amount you can give away each tax year completely free of IHT. If you didn’t use last year’s exemption, you can carry it forward once, meaning a couple could potentially give away up to £12,000 this tax year without any IHT implications.
There’s also a lesser-known rule worth being aware of, called the normal expenditure out of income exemption. This allows you to make regular gifts from your surplus income (the money left over after covering your usual living costs) and have those gifts fall outside of your estate for IHT purposes. It could mean helping a child with their rent, contributing regularly to a grandchild’s savings, or any other pattern of regular giving from your income rather than your capital.
The key requirement is that the gifts are regular, made from income (not savings), and don’t affect your own standard of living. Keeping a simple record of these payments is sensible, as it makes things much clearer for your estate if it ever needs to be demonstrated.
If supporting family members is something you’re already doing, or thinking about doing, it’s worth a conversation with your adviser about how to structure it in the most tax-efficient way.
Talk to your adviser about Capital Gains Tax and other liabilities
Capital Gains Tax is an area where the landscape has shifted considerably in recent years. Taking advice before the tax year end, rather than after, can make a real difference.
The annual CGT exempt amount has been reduced significantly. In 2025/26, it stands at just £3,000 per individual, down from £12,300 only a few years ago. That means more gains are now taxable than they once were, and more people are finding themselves with a CGT liability they hadn’t anticipated.
So, if you hold assets outside of your pensions and ISAs, such as investments, a second property or shares, it’s worth reviewing whether any gains could be managed more tax-efficiently before 5 April.
One option is to offset these gains against any losses you’ve made on other assets. Another is to consider whether transferring these assets between spouses or civil partners makes sense, as each individual has their own annual exempt amount.
In some cases, it might be worth crystallising your gains across two tax years rather than all at once, to make better use of your available exemptions. There may also be specific reliefs or deferral options that apply to your situation.
In short, if you have assets outside of tax-protected wrappers, it’s worth a conversation with your adviser before the end of the tax year, while there’s still time to act.
How can Glenrose Financial Planners help?
The five steps in this checklist are all achievable in 2026.
Whether it’s reviewing your pension and ISA performance, making additional contributions, thinking about gifting or getting a clearer picture of any CGT liabilities, acting now will give you the time and flexibility to make informed decisions rather than rushed ones.
At Glenrose, we help clients across Derby and the East Midlands make the most of the tax reliefs and allowances available to them. Our advisers will look at your overall financial picture and identify where there are opportunities to improve your tax position in 2026 and beyond.
Book a consultation today to make sure you’re not leaving any money on the table this year.