Review your life assurance arrangements

Pull out the documents and see how much you are covered for and for how long. You may find a policy is coming to its end and you can ask us to check the cost to ensure you are not overpaying for your life assurance. The Uni-Sex insurance directive that came into force at the end of 2012 has brought about various changes in the costs of life assurance – some good and some bad!

Be aware of your Tax Allowances

Be aware of your Tax Allowances and take advantage of them and ensure your spouse does so as well - if you are married.


                                                       2012/13                                          2013/14

Personal Tax Allowance                   £8,105                                           £9,440

For those aged 65/74                       £10,500                                         £10,500 (no change)

For those 75 and over                      £10,660                                         £10,660 (no change)


Note: The Age Related Allowances above are only available to those whose total income is less than £25,400 in the current Tax Year and £26,100 in the new Tax Year.

The end of the Tax Year

We are approaching the end of the Tax Year and it is a good time to ensure we are all taking advantage of all of the tax allowances available, including the Personal Tax Allowance, the ISA (Individual Savings Account) allowance, the Capital Gains Tax allowance, etc.


Use your Capital Gains Tax Allowance if you have investments that have gone up in value. You can realise tax-free profits of up to £10,600. As with your ISA allowance, you cannot carry this forward. Use it or lose it!

Maximise your pension contributions where possible. In the current Tax Year you can put a maximum of £50,000 into your pension, and even more if you have not used up your pension payment allowance in the preceding three years. In the new Tax Year this maximum reduces to £40,000. We would be pleased to assist.

Review all of your cash deposit accounts

We are approaching the end of the Tax Year and it is a good time to ensure we are all taking advantage of all of the tax allowances available, including the Personal Tax Allowance, the ISA (Individual Savings Account) allowance, the Capital Gains Tax allowance, etc.


Review all of your cash deposit accounts. Find out what interest rate you are receiving. You may be shocked to find interest rates of 0.10% for monies held in a savings account with the glorified name of “Gold” or “Platinum” savings account. Look for better rates.

Use your Cash ISA allowance

Cash savings will almost always do better in a Cash ISA. Generally the interest rates are better and, of course, you get the interest free of tax. Since you can arrange to have immediate access to the cash in an ISA, it makes virtually no sense not to have as much of your cash savings as possible in Cash ISAs. In this Tax Year (2012/13) each individual can put up to £5,640 into a Cash ISA. If you do not use this year’s ISA allowance, you lose it. It cannot be carried forward.

Workplace Pensions

If you are an employer, or even a one-man limited company, you will need to find out when you have to implement the Compulsory Enrolment Workplace Pension, then give yourself 12 months to prepare for it. If you leave it until the last minute, it may be difficult to find someone available to assist you, as there are likely to be thousands or even tens of thousands of businesses looking for help and advice at the same time. This is not a matter to ignore, as there are significant penalties if you do not meet the timetable of requirements. Contact us on 01342 313302 or email us at info@sovereignfinance.org

Workplace Pensions – Important

The bad news is that all employers (even if you have only one employee) will be required to set up a Workplace Pension with the automatic enrolment of the their employees, and they will also be required to make payments into their employees' policies.

The good news is that if you have 40 employees or less, you will not be required to set up your Workplace Pension until some time in 2015. The Workplace Pension is being phased in over 6 years in stages with the largest employers who had to begin it in 2012.

For further information and to establish your exact “Staging Date”, go online to www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/automatic-employment

Tom Shuster
Partner