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Key Ways To Reduce Your Capital Gains Tax Bill

Key Ways To Reduce Your Capital Gains Tax Bill

There are certain provisions in the tax laws that are admittedly difficult to understand unless you have a good background of the law. And the adjustments or amendments that are made to the laws from time to time make the situation even more complicated for most people. As TaxMedics in Kennewick, WA observes, changes to pension rules that reduce the amount a person can save for their retirement is a key example here.

We are talking about Capital Gains Tax (CGT), a tax that may be levied on the profit or gains realized from the proceeds of selling, transferring, gifting, disposing of or exchanging an asset.

Assets include your home, land or any personal belongings. If any of these is sold for less than £6,000 however, they are exempt from the Capital Gains Tax. This is simply to say that not all sales of assets are subject to the levy. But of course you cannot know everything as a person. That is what tax professionals such as TaxMedics in Kennewick, WA are out in the market for. As long as you do not understand an aspect of taxation, simply find a tax professional to help.

As soon as you find a tax professional, you will be able to realize just how much you can save on your capital gains tax bill. TaxMedics in Kennewick, WA advises that there are assets such as collective investments, shares, and second assets that generate a capital gain and are generally subject to CGT.

Nonetheless, there are various ways through which you can reduce the burden imposed on you by the capital gains tax. You only need to know them. Here is some help.

Utilize your Capital Gains Tax allowance

Chances are that you haven’t learnt about it, but there is an annual CGT allowance allocation for every individual. This includes you. This allowance currently lets you make gains on up to £11,000 investments free of tax.

This allowance cannot be carried forward to the subsequent tax year if unused. TaxMedics in Kennewick, WA therefore recommends that you use this tax-free allowance every year in order to benefit from reduced risk of incurring a sizeable CGT bill in succeeding years.

Make losses work for you

It is advisable that you sell some of your assets at a loss if your overall gain from the transaction in the tax year surpasses the twelve-monthly allowance.

Gains and losses realized within the same tax year are normally offset against each other. As such, the amount of gain that is subject to tax will reduce if you sell the assets at a loss where the overall gain surpasses the annual allowance for that tax year. Losses must be registered however with HMRC within a period of four years starting from the end of the tax year during which the loss occurs.

Contribute to a pension

One can enjoy a capital gains tax reduction of up to 18 percent down from 28 percent when they make a pension contribution. This applies where the person has net relevant earnings.

In essence, the pension contribution extends the person’s income tax band upper limit by the amount of their gross contribution.

Transfer assets to a civil partner or your spouse

Capital Gains Tax is currently not applied to transfers between spouses. If you give to your husband, wife or civil partner any of your assets that are originally subject to CGT therefore, you save yourself from the tax burden. The CGT allowance is doubled in this regard for married couples and civil partners, but it has to be genuine.

Give shares to charity

Giving out your qualifying shares, land or property to a charity makes you qualify for an income tax relief and Capital Gains Tax relief. The same privileges are available when you sell the assets to charity at a price less than the market value.

Claim a hold over relief

One can claim a hold over relief on particular assets. The chargeable gain will typically be postponed in the event that a hold over relief is claimed. This may usually hold until the transferee relinquishes the assets.

According to TaxMedics  in Kennewick, WA, you can claim a hold over relief for business asset gifts, gifts of unlisted shares in trading companies, agricultural land gifts, gifts that are chargeable transfers for purposes of inheritance tax and certain types of gifts which are specifically exempted from IHT.

Shannel Reed
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