FAQs Business planning Personal and tax planning Investment and retirement planning Estate planning VAT

Personal and Tax Planning I'm selling my house - an enquiry about stamp duty. If I give to charity what does the government add to my contribution? Why do I pay so much tax? I haven't filed my tax return - am I in trouble? I have a loan from my employer - what are the tax consequences? Are gambling or National Lottery gains taxed? I want to give some money to charity but I don't pay much tax. Can I still make a Gift Aid donation, so the charity gets some tax back? My job is about to take me overseas for about two and a half years. I am very worried because I have read that the 'foreign earnings deduction' has been abolished. Does this mean I will have to suffer PAYE while I am abroad? My wife and I recently separated. Can I get a tax allowance for maintenance payments? I am on PAYE, and yet I always seem to have under-paid or over-paid tax by the end of the tax year. I thought PAYE was supposed to take care of all of this? Is there any tax advantage in paying a salary to my spouse for work done for my business?

The National Lottery always appears to be in the news. Is it true that Lottery and other gambling winnings are tax free?

Unless your winnings are connected with your business e.g. if you are, yourself, a bookmaker or you run a casino, all gambling winnings are tax free. The downside is that you cannot claim tax relief for gambling losses, even if you are a professional gambler.

A word of warning - the Inland Revenue will often, in the course of an Enquiry, ask for explanations of large deposits into your bank account, and may be sceptical if these are all described as 'gambling winnings'. Keep the paperwork to prove the point.

Are Premium Bonds worth buying?

Like Lottery winnings, the regular prizes from Premium Bonds are tax free. If you are lucky enough to win, your prize will be part of a 'return' which actually represents a fair gross rate for higher rate taxpayers - of about 7%.

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