To ask for ideas on how to pay less tax

[FleetwoodMacNCheese]

I earn £55k. Don't live in London. My take home is less than £40k per annum.

I've got a huge mortgage, long drive to work therefore spend a fortune on fuel. Is there a legal way I can reduce my tax as I really need to start saving for retirement. Could I ask for part of my salary to be paid in dividends as I've heard less tax is/NIC are paid on these?

Any ideas much appreciated.

So you don't want to pay tax or use your assets to pay for your own care needs? Fab

Don't mention it, op. Thanks for proving mine :)

I want, if possible, to pay less tax. And I've said the home we live in now could be used to pay for care if ever needed. But you'd know that if you'd read the thread. Fab.

I did read the thread actually, the thing with money is that it eventually runs out. What if your house sale doesn't cover it? I'm guessing you'll just expect the council aka tax payer the fund it but your trying to get away with not paying as much tax as you should on your salary. Do you really not see why people would have an opinion on that?

You will see, panda, that people are suggesting tax efficient pension contributions which are neither illegal or unethical. Likewise inheritance tax planning. Presumably you take advantage of these?

Fleetwood
have you ever lived in a "low tax" national economy ?
its shit
as in there is shit everywhere
as taxes pay for sewers
remember that

Ta1k - so you're saying you don't take advantage of tax breaks or advise your clients accordingly?

nope

have you ever lived in a "low tax" national economy?

Isle of Man, Switzerland, Gibraltar - lots of civilised tax havens.

I think the OP is getting a ridiculously hard time here. She has asked about tax efficiency (albeit in a rather naive and somewhat provocative way).

OP there are various things you can do which are tax efficient. You can pay more into a pension, you can have an offset mortgage to save tax on savings - although this isn't as important any more, you can potentially take advantage of salary sacrifice schemes your company might run such as childcare vouchers etc.

But at the end of the day there is no magic wand. As Talk has said, most tax planning is for those who own their own businesses or who are genuinely self employed. That's because everyone else has to pay their taxes through PAYE.

I think you might think you're missing a trick somewhere and are missing out massively. I can assure you you're not. Now that there have been changes to the way in which dividends are taxed, most people with their own companies are a fair bit worse off than they were previously and are paying more tax. There are still tax efficient ways they can withdraw their money (eg putting their money into pensions or not paying themselves much in any particular tax year but keeping the money in the business and paying themselves dividends for longer) but even these are relatively limited.

I'm an employment lawyer - you cannot pretend to be self employed to save tax/ni. You cannot receive dividends without being a shareholder.

All in all you have very limited options and need to look at pensions and cutting your costs in other ways.

Monaco ...

Kazzy
BVI is a tax haven
not much use to the folks who are not in the finance industry and have had their houses destroyed

hence why I said "national" economy - Gibraltar and Isle of Man are not "natons"

Monaco is not technically a tax haven - they don't charge income tax to residents but instead raise revenue by charging up to 33% corporation tax and 20% VAT.

It's not a low tax country but a no income tax country. With only 40,000 people they don't need to raise much tax so have no need to raise income tax.

Most low income tax countries who have good services are tiny.