5 Financial “Musts” For March

As we near the end of the tax year, there are some important money jobs you might want to get done. Learn 5 financial “musts” for March.

We’re coming up to the end of the tax year on 5 April 2025, so it’s a good time to take a look at your finances and do some important housekeeping tasks. Getting everything in order in March, before the new tax year starts, could help you keep on top of your money and save more for the future. You might even be able to cut your tax bill too.

Here are five financial “musts” for March.

1. Pay more into your pension to use the Annual Allowance

Paying into your pension is a brilliant way to save for retirement because your employer might pay in too, and you automatically get 20% tax relief from the government on top. This means that putting £100 into your pension only “costs” you £80, and the government pays the other £20. If you’re a higher- or additional-rate taxpayer, that £100 payment would only cost you £60 or £55 because you get more tax relief.

If you don’t make the most of tax relief, you’re missing out on free money in your pension. You can get tax relief on total contributions up to the “Annual Allowance”, which is £60,000 (or 100% of your earnings, whichever is lower) in 2024/25. This allowance resets at the start of a new tax year.

So, you might want to pay as much into your pension as you can before the end of the tax year.

If you have leftover allowance from the last three years, you might be able to carry it over too, if you’ve already used your full Annual Allowance this year. This can get complicated though, so it’s useful to take some professional advice first so you don’t accidentally trigger a big tax charge.

2. Save and invest in your ISAs

If you want to cut your tax bill, ISAs might be the way to go. You don’t pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT), Dividend Tax, or Income Tax on any growth or interest you get on money in an ISA. There’s no tax to pay when you take the savings out, either.

That’s why you might want to put your savings in a Cash ISA or invest using a Stocks and Shares ISA.

You can pay in up to £20,000 across all your ISAs each year, and it’s an individual allowance so if you’re in a couple you could save or invest up to £40,000 tax-free between you. This ISA allowance is very much a use-it-or-lose-it situation because you can’t carry it over to the following year, so make sure to pay in as much as you can.

If you’re ahead of the game and have already used your own ISA allowance, you could pay into a Junior ISA for a child or grandchild instead. You can put in up to £9,000 for each child, on top of your adult ISA allowance, and these accounts offer all the same tax breaks as your own ISAs.

3. Take advantage of your Capital Gains Tax (CGT) Annual Exempt Amount

You might’ve read a lot about CGT in the news recently, given Rachel Reeves increased the rate with immediate effect in her Budget in October last year.

CGT is a tax you pay on profits when you sell certain assets, including:

• Stocks and shares held outside an ISA
• Business assets
• A property that isn’t your main home
• Personal possessions worth more than £6,000 (not including your car).

Luckily, you won’t be taxed on all your profits. In 2024/25, you can make up to £3,000 before paying CGT. This is your “Annual Exempt Amount”. Anything above this is taxed at:

• 18% if you’re a basic-rate taxpayer
• 24% if you’re a higher- or additional-rate taxpayer.

If you’re planning to sell some investments or other assets like a second home, you might want to think about how and when you do it, so you don’t pay more CGT than you need to.

Imagine you bought some shares for £5,000 and sold them for £10,000; that would be a profit of £5,000. The first £3,000 is free from CGT, but you’d still pay CGT on the other £2,000. If you’re a higher-rate taxpayer, that leaves you with a bill of £480.

But, if you sold half before the end of this tax year, and the rest in the following year, you’d split the profits across both years. This means you’d only make £2,500 in each year, and as long as you don’t make any other profits, you wouldn’t use up your Annual Exempt Amount. That means you wouldn’t pay any CGT.

You can also give assets to a spouse or civil partner without paying CGT, so you might be able to split a sale between you and use both your Annual Exempt Amounts to cut your tax bill.

Bear in mind that CGT rules can be complicated, so you might want to take professional advice to make sure you don’t make a mistake and end up paying more tax for no reason. If you have a financial planner, get in touch with them before you sell.

4. Write or update your will

While you’re taking a look at your finances, you might want to think about what happens to your money after you’re gone too. If you pass away without a will, the courts decide who gets what from your estate.

Normally, they’ll follow the “rules of intestacy” meaning that a spouse or civil partner (if you have one) gets most of your estate, and the rest goes to any children. Otherwise, family members like parents or siblings might get everything.

Either way, if you don’t have a will, you don’t get to decide who inherits your money when you’re gone. And if you’re not married, your partner won’t automatically inherit anything. So, you’ll want to put a will in place as soon as you can.

Even if you already have one, it could be useful to check your will and make sure it’s still up to date, especially if your circumstances have changed. If you’ve moved house or had another child, for example, you need to change your will to make sure everyone is included, and you don’t forget any big assets.

5. Start planning for next year

The end of the tax year is a great time to look ahead and start planning for next year. Instead of waiting until March 2026 and rushing to use your allowances and exemptions, you can start using them straight away when they reset on 6 April 2025.

That way, you can spread out your payments into pensions and ISAs over the course of the year, so you don’t need to find a big lump sum right before April. Also, if you pay into a pension or Stocks and Shares ISA at the start of the tax year, your money stays invested for longer, so it could grow more.

Get in touch

Heidi Tresadern is Wealth Planning Director at Benchmark Financial Planning, Maidstone. Heidi has over 30 years’ experience and supports all needs from starting out and building wealth, to wealth preservation for future generations and use of assets to fund long term care.

Please visit our contact page to speak with Heidi and the team.

Approved by Best Practice IFA Group Ltd on 04/02/2025.

Please note

This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at retail clients only.

All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.

Please do not act based on anything you might read in this article. All contents are based on our understanding of HMRC legislation, which is subject to change.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate estate planning, tax planning, or will writing.

A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until 55 (57 from April 2028). The fund value may fluctuate and can go down, which would have an impact on the level of pension benefits available. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

The tax implications of pension withdrawals will be based on your individual circumstances. Thresholds, percentage rates, and tax legislation may change in subsequent Finance Acts.

The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Investments should be considered over the longer term and should fit in with your overall attitude to risk and financial circumstances.