Helping you prosper
The start of the 2026/27 tax year brings a wave of important changes to UK taxation and financial planning. With Easter falling on 6 April, the new tax year coincides with the latest phase of Making Tax Digital (MTD), extending digital reporting requirements to self-employed individuals and landlords for the first time.
One of the biggest decisions we all must make involves ensuring an adequate income when we are no longer working. Annuities, once a cornerstone of retirement planning, fell out of favour following the pension reforms of 2014.
However, the attraction of a guaranteed income, paired with improved interest rates, has meant sales of annuities have recovered and are at their highest in ten years. While there is only one chance to decide which type of annuity to buy, including one in your retirement planning could give you more flexibility than you think. It can be incorporated as part of your income, leaving a ‘reserve fund’ to access as and when you need it.
If you are a higher-rate taxpayer you are entitled to an additional 20% tax relief on pension contributions (on top of the 20% relief granted to all basic-rate taxpayers), and additional-rate taxpayers’ extra relief is worth 25%. Some employers will calculate this when allocating money to pension schemes, but not all, so if you are in this earning category you will be entitled to your share of the millions in tax relief held by HMRC.
Download our Spring 2026 Financial Planning Review for a deeper look at what these changes mean for you.
