I was recently reading an article which complained how the rich were able to get away with paying so little tax because they could afford to pay for tax advice. But a quick Google shows you just how much free advice is on the wonderful web. Moreover, you can get plenty of advice by joining the various blogs /forums where individuals are free to put their queries forward and advice will be fed back from a wide variety of opinionated users and, more importantly, advisors in the relevant industry.

So ‘doing my bit for mankind’ I have decided to do a series of 3 blogs giving free tax advice that everyone can take advantage of.

My first looks at two things to consider before we reach the end of the tax year:-

The giving gift – Charitable donations are eligible for higher rate tax relief and the relief is not restricted to just monetary donations, items which are donated to charity and then sold on are also eligible. Nowadays most of the high street charity shops are set up to take your details so they can write and tell you how much they’ve made from selling your donations. Also, if you make regular contributions each year, be sure to get it included in your PAYE code now as it will save you having to make the claim for relief at the end of the year.

One for the Pros – If you pay professional subscription/membership fees yourself and they are necessary or helpful to your job then you can claim to relieve the cost against the relevant income source. More details can be found on HMRC’s website here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-subs.htm

If you hurry and inform HMRC before 5 April you can claim relief for expenses incurred in years as far back as 2009/10.

More freebies to follow next week!