Why the weeks before year-end matter most
Most tax planning opportunities have one thing in common: once your year-end has passed, they're gone. You can't retrospectively make a pension contribution in the tax year that's already closed, or restructure a dividend that's already been paid. That's why we run dedicated pre-year-end planning calls with clients two months before both their company and personal year-ends — it's the last real window to act.
Here's the checklist we work through, so you can see what's worth thinking about before yours arrives.
1. Remuneration mix
Review the balance between salary and dividends for the year. With dividend tax rates having increased for 2026/27 (10.75% basic rate, 35.75% higher rate, above the £500 dividend allowance), it's worth checking whether your current mix is still the most efficient one for your specific income level, rather than assuming last year's approach still holds.
2. Pension contributions
Check how much of your £60,000 annual allowance you've used, whether carry-forward from the last three years is available, and whether an employer contribution before year-end makes sense — it reduces the company's corporation tax bill and avoids National Insurance entirely, unlike salary or bonus.
3. Use your allowances before they reset
- The £500 dividend allowance — unused, it simply disappears at year-end.
- The ISA allowance — £20,000 a year, gone if unused.
- Marriage Allowance, if one spouse is a non-taxpayer and the other a basic rate taxpayer.
- Your Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount, if you're planning to dispose of any assets or investments.
4. Director's loan account
If you've borrowed from the company at any point in the year, check the balance against the £10,000 threshold (above which a benefit-in-kind charge can apply) and make sure it's cleared, or a proper repayment plan is in place, within nine months and one day of your company year-end — otherwise a Section 455 tax charge applies at 35.75%.
5. Capital expenditure and the Annual Investment Allowance
If you're planning to buy equipment, vehicles (for the business, not personal cars — see our separate guide on that) or other capital assets, timing the purchase before or after year-end can affect which accounting period gets the tax relief. Worth planning rather than defaulting to "whenever it happens to come up."
6. Company car and benefits review
If anyone in the business has a company car, or you're considering one, check the current benefit-in-kind rates apply as expected (electric cars sit at a low 4% for 2026/27; most petrol and diesel cars sit up to 37%) — and whether an EV salary sacrifice scheme might now make sense for the wider team.
7. Self Assessment payments on account
If your tax bill is likely to be lower this year than last (or higher), check whether your payments on account need adjusting via form SA303 — reducing them if your income has genuinely dropped avoids overpaying HMRC and waiting for a refund; increasing your planning if it's risen avoids a nasty surprise.
8. VAT scheme check
If your turnover or transaction pattern has changed significantly over the year, it's worth checking whether you're still on the most appropriate VAT scheme (standard, flat rate, cash accounting) for your business as it is now, not as it was when you first registered.
Don't leave it to the last week
Most of the above needs a few weeks of runway to action properly — pension contributions need to clear, dividends need paperwork, loan accounts need repaying. That's exactly why we build the planning call in two months ahead of year-end rather than the week before it.