Budget: Planning for the end of the 50% rate

The announcement of the cut in the 50% rate from April 2013 was of course welcome news for top rate taxpayers. However the 50% rate will be with us for a further year and it is therefore worth considering how taxpayers can minimise the amount of their income which is taxed at 50% between now and then.

The good news is that a number of simple steps can be taken to achieve this goal without the need to resort to ‘morally repugnant’ aggressive tax avoidance. As one might expect most of these revolve around the deferral of income into the 2012/13 tax year – relying on the fact that many high earners are able to influence the form and timing of...