Your 2025/26 tax year end checklist
With the end of the 2025/26 tax year almost here, it’s time to think about using your ISA and pension allowances if you haven’t already. Here are the key points to help you make the most of the opportunities.
The tax year end deadline
The last day of the UK tax year is 5th April. This is the final day that you can use most annual tax allowances because, with the odd exception, you can’t carry them over from one tax year to the next. This year, tax year end falls on Easter Sunday, which can make it a little tricker for those leaving it until the last minute. With a bank holiday the Friday before, you don’t want to find you’ve missed the boat – so acting sooner rather than later is probably wise.
What are this year’s annual allowances?
ISAs
The annual ISA allowance is £20,000 for UK residents over the age of 18. This is the total you can pay into any ISAs you hold – Cash ISA, Stocks & Shares ISA, Lifetime ISA or Innovative Finance ISA – during the tax year. If you want, you can currently pay the whole £20,000 into all these except the Lifetime ISA, which works differently. But, from 6th April 2027, the Cash ISA allowance is reducing to £12,000 for everyone under the age of 65. This is to encourage more people to consider investing rather than saving in cash.
How do Lifetime ISAs work?
Lifetime ISAs are to help people save for their first home or as an extra fund for retirement. Each tax year, you can pay up to £4,000 into a Lifetime ISA. The Government will add another 25% to your contribution so if you add £4,000, they’ll give you another £1,000 on top of this. Foresters Lifetime ISA >
Junior ISAs
Children get an annual £9,000 ISA allowance which can be used across Junior Stocks & Shares ISAs and Junior Cash ISAs.
You can't carry ISA allowances over
A key point to know about ISA allowances is that you can’t carry them over from one tax year to the next. This means that anything you don’t use by midnight on 5th April will be lost.
Pension allowances
Annual pension allowances work differently to ISA allowances. You can generally pay as much as you earn up to a maximum of £60,000 into pensions in a tax year and get tax relief. Your allowance includes any contributions you make as well as any from your employer, and any tax relief that is added.
Other allowances
Some other allowances are available, including:
Personal savings allowance - basic-rate taxpayers can usually earn up to £1,000 in interest on cash savings without paying tax. For higher-rate taxpayers, this reduces to £500.
Dividend allowance - if you receive dividends from investments outside an ISA or pension, the first £500 is tax free each tax year.
Next steps – what to do by 5th April
If you already have an ISA or pension and want to use more of this year’s allowances, make sure you contribute by 5th April. But remember, tax year end is on Easter Sunday so it might be better to act earlier.
With Foresters, it’s easy to log in to your account and make a one-off contribution or amend or set-up a Direct Debit.
If you don’t have an ISA or pension yet, or want to set up a new one, it’s quick and easy to do this with Foresters.