9/3/26
Your Must-Do's Before the Tax Year Ends on 5th April
You've got one month to protect your money from tax, grow your wealth faster, and set yourself up for the long term.
You've got one month. One month until April 5th.
And when it hits, your ISA allowance for this tax year disappears along with your dividend, savings and capital gains tax allowances for the year.
No extensions. No grace period.
No "I'll do it next week." Just gone - reset to zero, and this year's opportunity lost for good.
The frustrating part?
Most people don't miss out because they can't afford to act.
They miss out because nobody told them the deadline was coming.
So this is your reminder: The tax year ends on 5th April 2026, and the next few weeks are genuinely one of the best opportunities you have all year to protect your money from tax, grow your wealth faster, and set yourself up for the long term.
You don't need to be an expert.
You don't need a lot of money.
You just need to know what to do and do it before the clock runs out.
Let's get into it.
Your ISA: £20,000 of completely tax-free growth
Your ISA allowance this tax year is £20,000.
That means every penny you invest inside an ISA grows completely tax-free — no tax on your gains, no tax on dividends, nothing to pay when you take the money out.
The catch? They expire.
Every year, on the 5th April, a stack of allowances reset.
And anything you didn't use when it comes to your ISA? Gone forever.
On 6th April, you get a fresh £20,000 — but this year's is gone.
You can split your allowance across different ISA types — cash, stocks & shares, LISA — what ever works for you but your total across all of them can't go over £20,000.
Heads up:
From April 2027, you'll only be able to put £12,000 into a Cash ISA (if you're under 65). The overall £20,000 limit stays — but part of it will have to go into a Stocks and Shares ISA. This tax year and next are your last two years of full flexibility. Use them.
Got kids? Here’s what you should do
Children under 18 can have their own Junior ISA (JISA) set up by a parent or guardian with a £9,000 allowance per child, per year.
That's completely on top of your own £20,000. It doesn't touch it.
And just like yours, if you don't use it, you lose it.
Two kids? That's potentially £18,000 in extra tax-free space sitting right there.
The money is locked until they turn 18, which honestly is the whole point. It just quietly grows, tax-free, for years.
The compunding element is real:
£200 a month into a JISA from birth could grow to over £70,000 by the time your child turns 18. All of it tax-free. That's the kind of head start that changes lives.
Your pension: the government literally gives you free money
This one doesn't get talked about enough.
When you pay into a pension, the government adds tax relief on top. If you're a basic rate taxpayer, for every £80 you put in, the government tops it up to £100. That's free money automatically added.
Higher rate or additional rate taxpayer? You can claim even more back through your tax return.
People leave this unclaimed all the time.
Don't be one of them.
The annual allowance for personal contributions in the current tax year, 2025/26, is £60,000 (or 100% of your earnings, whichever is lower).
And here's the bit most people miss: you can carry forward unused pension allowances from the last three years (but you are still restricted to the above rule on how much you can add in any one tax year!).
The 2022/23 allowances expires at the end of this tax year (April 5th).
After that, they're gone and you can no longer carry these forward.
The savings interest you might not know is tax-free
Not everything has to live in an ISA to avoid tax.
Everyone in the UK gets a Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) — meaning a chunk of the interest you earn on savings is tax-free, no matter where it's sitting.
Here's how it breaks down for 2025/26:
- Earning under £50,270? Up to £1,000 of savings interest is tax-free
- Earning £50,271–£125,140? Up to £500 is tax-free
- Earning above £125,140? No allowance — all your savings interest is taxed
With interest rates still decent on a lot of savings accounts, it's worth checking what you've actually earned this year.
You might have more tax-free room left than you think.
Here's what to actually do:
Check your interest earned this year. Log into your bank or savings account and look at how much interest you've received since April 2025. You might have more tax-free room left than you think.
Move money to a higher-interest account before 5th April. If you haven't used your full allowance, shifting money into a better-paying savings account now means you could earn more interest before the tax year closes — and it still counts towards this year's allowance.
Consider splitting across accounts. If you're likely to go over your allowance, moving some savings into a Cash ISA means that interest becomes completely tax-free — it won't even touch your PSA.
If you're a couple, check your partner's allowance too. If one of you is a basic rate taxpayer and the other is higher rate, it could make sense to hold more savings in the lower taxpayer's name — maximising the tax-free interest you keep between you.
Finally, you could also utilise your Premium Bond allowance of £50k (this is a one time allowance!) to park your cash in a tax free government savings account.
Dividends: the rules have changed, and they're about to get worse
If you hold shares or funds that pay dividends outside of an ISA, you need to know this.
Your dividend allowance — the amount you can receive tax-free — is now just £500 for 2025/26. It was £2,000 just a couple of years ago.
If you haven't used it yet, check if any of your holdings have ex-dividend dates coming up before 5th April. You could still capture a dividend while it's tax-free.