Three Money Saving New Year’s Resolutions

As you ease yourself back into work, have a quick skim through our top three money saving New Year’s resolutions. They are easy to do, don’t take a lot of time and may help you start off 2020 with a little more money in your bank account.

And if you’ve already done them all, you get the satisfaction of ticking off an entire list before you really get back into things. Nice.

Check your direct debits

Take a few moments to look through your direct debits and standing orders (business and personal). Firstly, make sure you know what they all are. Secondly, check you should be still be paying them all. Have you actually finished paying off your student loan? Are you paying a subscription fee for something you no longer use or receive? You know, that gym membership, or industry magazine you cancelled months ago.

If you’re still paying for something that should be cancelled, call the company to check their terms and conditions. If you discover you’ve overpaid, find out how to get that money back.

At the same time you can use our free money guides and calculators to review any personal loans, credits cards, residential mortgages and much more.

Check your tax code

Yes, it does mean something and it is important. Your tax code defines how much income tax you pay to HMRC. So if it’s incorrect, you are either paying too much or not enough tax. Read our tax code guide to make sense of yours. Remember, it will change at the start of the new tax year at the beginning of April. This is because the Personal Allowance amount usually goes up, (this is represented by the numbers in your tax code.)

See if you are eligible for any tax relief

There are still thousands of taxpayers not claiming the work expenses allowances and tax reliefs that they are entitled to. It’s as good a time as any to investigate your work situation. One major misconception that we regularly dispel is that they are not just for the self employed or companies.

There are a whole host of tax reliefs and allowances that apply to PAYE taxpayers. Such as an allowance for cleaning your work uniform, tax relief on tools bought for work and mileage. It’s important to dig into the nitty gritty of each one and how it applies to you. For example, if your employer only pays some of your mileage allowance you can claim the difference from HMRC.

Your employer is not involved in any way and does not have to pay your tax rebate. That comes straight from HMRC’s bank account, where it’s been waiting for you. It also doesn’t matter if you’ve changed jobs, have more than one job, work full time or part time, or are both employed and self employed at the same time.

If you’re wondering whether it’s really worth your time, put your numbers into our most appropriate tax rebate calculator and get a personalised estimate of how much you could claim. They are totally free to use and do not collect your details.

Bonus Extra: as you’re looking through your diary for the year, get HMRC’s deadlines put in there now. Also wise to decide your own deadlines for the preparations. If it’s in the diary, it will happen. And you won’t overload yourself with something else on ‘get stuff together for tax return’ week.

Hope that’s been a positive little step into the New Year for you.

Finally we’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and thank all of our client’s for their continued support.

Raising a glass to your health, wealth and happiness in 2020.

 

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