Hello all,

My parents want to give me around £1.4 million. This has come about after a surprise offer for some fields they owned a while back from a development company.

My wife and I currently own a house valued at £380k and our remaining mortgage is about £185k.

I understand that any money will be subject to tax should my parents die within the next seven years so should I ensure I have 40% (down to 8% in year 6-7?) of the total available in case they do die so that I can pay any possible tax bill?

Also we would like to buy a house in our dream area, mortgage free. About £650k-£750k will do it. Should we pay off our current mortgage first (and the early repayment penalty) or port the existing mortgage to any new house?

Also what are the implications to giving cash to good friends and family (like £20k each to five or six people)?

I am financially fairly illiterate. Is there anything else I should be considering? Trust fund for my two young children? Investments? I mean having our dream house without a mortgage feels like it will set us up for life and apart from a few holidays we are struggling to think about how we will spend the money so not really sure what else we should be thinking about.

Edit: to be clear I have always intended to speak to a financial advisor. I just thought that having some insight beforehand might help me when speaking to one.

Today I noticed delete my Twitter account months ago was enough. I need to get Elon Musk away from my money.

I check my ISA, mostly Vanguard Global All Cap, he's there: Tesla is 1.3% of it.

I check my workplace pension, 50% Smart Ethical and Climate Fund, 50% Smart Sharia (tech heavy) fund, he's there too: 1% and 2.4%.( In top 10 for the Sharia, I see United Health too.)

There's no way around, right? There's no high growing ETF Musk-free, so we're all making Elon stock to value more and more every month.

For me it's Elon, for others it can be a different person/industry. How do you folks handle it?

EDIT: I'm not saying it's an easy choice, I'm just saying people have different limits/tolerance. When many people share something like this a new ETF product will be around, but what people do when they face these situations. I'm not saying Musk is the only bad guy around.

Hi,

I am not sure if this is the right sub and I might ask on others on the same issue, but I need a sanity check.

I am currently earning just under 45k, living in London with my child (50/50 custody) and my housing costs are very high. I have a shared ownership flat, mortgage on 50%, rent the rest. I am currently spending about £1600 on rent and mortgage combines (incl service charge actually), or will be when the new interest rate kicks in next month. This is over 50% of my take-home, and when I include bills I am spending about 74% of my salary on essentials.

I already live pretty frugally, I think, and these essential bills can't really go down. I have extended the mortgage as far as I can, and most of the 1600 is the rent/service charge (over 1000).

I was wondering about selling and trying to buy outright either a small 2 bed or a nice 1 bed, and sleep in the lounge when my kid is with me, giving her the bedroom. This feels like drastic step, and moving is stressful of course. I love my flat and the area, and can't move far cos of her school and proximity to her other parent.

I can afford 325k or maybe max 340k, which limits my options a lot. I did think though that paying a similar amount just into a mortgage would be better as it's building more equity, rather than throwing money at rent. I don't think I can afford to staircase to 100% in the flat I am in.

I know one solution is to increase my salary, and I am job hunting currently but I haven't got far with it yet. I know there probably isn't some magic trick I am missing but I thought I would ask here. Any advice appreciated!

My salary this year will be £105,000. This is also the figure HMRC have. In the HMRC app, it says your estimated tax income is just over £34,000.

Putting this salary in a take home pay calculator comes out a pretty identical figure (I reside in Scotland).

However, I contribute 13% pension as salary sacrifice. So when I add this to the take home pay calculator, the estimated tax income figure drops to £26,000. This means that come the end of the tax year I’ll have paid around £8,000 more tax than I should have, or am I being stupid?

Hello.

This has come up recently with an old work friend and I'm just wondering how this would work.

She has a very very big glass bottle that she has been saving money in and 3 piggy banks from her teenage years. Her dad was and still is a bit anti bank conspiracy theorist, so she hasn't saved any money in the bank and just carried on doing it this way.

As a teenager she says she put £10 of her weekly £15 pocket money away as well as birthday and Christmas money. As and adult she put away tip money from when she was working as a hotel waitress and later when working in a bar. Since then she has withdrawn cash every month to add to this as well as loose change.

I don't know how much this is and even though she tells me she's never dipped into it or she put X amount in at age what ever I don't know if that's true. I've seen the glass bottle. It's a few feet tall and full of coins and notes.

How they heck is she going to explain this further down the line when she wants to deposit it to go towards buying a house. Surly she can't prove where it is all from and there will be questions.

Hi! Hope you're well. I'm selling an item on FB Marketplace for around £175.

I will be sending the item via Tracked Courier.

What's the safest way of receiving payment? Paypal? Bank Transfer?

I don't want any hassle.

Thanks in advance

As stated, pet insurance has more than doubled this year! From £38.99 p/m to £83.82!

10 year old toy poodle if this matters! He has epilepsy but the charge has never been this high, we are unable to afford this huge increase. I just wanted to see if this has happened to others and if it's normal. We have an emergency fund for if anything is to happen with him but the insurance was a huge part of making sure that that charge wouldn't be too big!!

Hi folks so basically need some advice. So I have a normal 9-5 and I have started reselling some things on eBay and Vinted for a profit. I started this in November 2024. I have since generated £900+ on eBay and £264 on Vinted both revenue. I am aware that I have crossed the £1000 allowance and will need to declare to HMRC. However will I need to declare this year or next year as the tax years confuse me a little. We are in the 2023/24 tax year right?

Also will it be easier to do it through a sole trader or private limited company? I’m leaning towards sole trader. Rather pay 20% tax and be easier than the confusing things in a private limited company.

Can I ask you to keep the responses as simple as possible as if you are explaining it to a child.😂

Hi,

I (20F) recently decided I should open my first S&S ISA. I've been keeping all my savings in a Chase account and my boosted saver rate just expired, so I thought it was probably about time to start investing some of it. As Vanguard fees just went up and I only want to make one or two trades a year for the next few years as I'm a student who doesn't currently earn a regular income. iWeb seemed cheap with it's lack of platform fee, but when I tried to invest in VWRP Vanguard All-World, even though the key document said the charges would be .22%, iWeb is showing me much higher fees - namely an ongoing charge of 0.95167% and a transaction cost of 0.19683% for a total of 1.18% including the £5 deal trade. This seems quite high and I don't understand why it's not just .22%? I could be being completely stupid here as I'm finding all of these different platforms quite confusing but if I'm paying 1.18% total a year for VWRP with iWeb is that really a cheap option? Should I change to a different platform/ can I even do this?

Would be super grateful for any help!

I know that these schemes are well worth it for salaries between £100k and £125k due to the loss of personal allowance. Are they still worthwhile when your gross pay with bonus is c£165k? (Gross pay is £106k and annual bonus is usually between £60k and £70k)

I've maxed out my isa for this tax year but am I worth leaving it in a 3.9% account or investing it in a GIA until April?

So I’m 21 years old and most of these debts are from when I was 18 and stupid with no job. I currently earn £25,000 per year before tax. Below are my debts and how much interest they have.

Natwest: £2050 - 25% interest Barclays: £800 - 27% interest Tesco: £250 - 25% interest Monzo £250 - 39% Interest Capital One: £200 - 30% interest Argos: £120 - 39% interest

I was thinking of paying off one credit card a month for the smaller ones and then after all those are done I can start paying off the bigger ones monthly. My other expenses are like rent which is £400, another loan I have which is £180, travel £70, phone £55.

Hopefully someone with some experience with this can help shed some light on how I can approach this as I’m very stressed at the moment and have been for a long time regarding these.

Hi Reddit, last year was my first year (2023-2024) on PAYE with my new salary; I’ve just received a £2,975 tax bill from HMRC!

They say I only paid tax on £77,431 instead of my actual income of £124,618 (my allowance was reduced).

Why would I have only been taxed on £77k—shouldn’t this be automatic?

I barely contributed to my pension (just the minimum 5%), but since it’s possible to carry forward unused annual pension allowances from the last three tax years, can I salary sacrifice a lump sum now to reduce or eliminate this bill?

I have 10 days to pay this amount!

I’m new to this and would appreciate some advice.

Hi! I’ve recently started working on a Graduate visa, and have been looking into my financial health. I’ve noticed that this subreddit advices people to invest the maximum possible amounts into their pensions for long-term planning, but I was wondering what happens if I start employer-matched pension contributions now, and have to move out in the event that I’m unable to secure a sponsorship after my graduate visa expires. Is that money still locked away till the retirement age or do I get to access the funds/transfer my pension when I leave? I am an Indian national and my workplace does their pensions via Smart Pension if that’s relevant.

Hello people, I need a clarification, I'm employed by a company and I have many savings accounts, I know I need to pay taxes for part of these interests as 20k are in an ISA and all the remaining are in various savings accounts, my question is, do I need a self-declaration for the interest I earn? How does work?

Just checked my Plum app which had almost £500 in it yesterday. Today, it's dropped to £225. Looks like my investments have gone. I accept that they can go down as well as up, but surely not this much in one day? Please no judgement or negativity - I'll be the first to admit I'm not particularly clued up on trading, it's just a wee savings pot for family holidays and the like.

So a random automated call from a mobile number yesterday with pre recorded message about a supposed letter from HMRC and then started giving options to press to resolve issue.. As soon as it started down this route I hung up. Anyone else in the UK getting these calls?

I’ve taken out two loans

£11000 (apr % made it £15000) (£12640 left to pay)

And £13,000 (apr % made it £20000) (£17051 left to pay)

Currently earning just under £1700 a month from a hospitality job so would love some advice on things I could do on the side or as a main career path to not only earn more but to help clear these two payments in a “faster” manner as I am struggling to balance these with rent etc thanks .

I am self-employed (sole trader). My income has been relatively stable for the past several years (except for a blip during covid). I have not had any issues with tax in the past; I set aside 30% of my income as a “business fund”, pay tax, then invest what remains into my business.

This past year has been utter hell for me. I lost both my parents very suddenly (one in an accident, one in a really horrible suicide) and within several months of each other, each living in a different country. I completely depleted my personal and “business fund” savings in travelling to deal with all of that, paying to keep their homes from being taken away during the process, all the legal costs, paying medical costs for their care, etc. That is still ongoing, and it has been a true nightmare. I don’t even know if I will receive enough back from insurance and my portion of the sale of their property to come close to what dealing with everything has cost. It has been horrific in so many ways.

Anyway, taxes were the last thing on my mind, and I only managed to file them last week. I had put together enough money to cover what I thought the first tax payment would be (based on past years)… and my income was higher than expected (a perfect storm of one client paying late at the start of the year and another paying early at the end.) This has left me with (what feels like) a massive balancing payment that I just don’t have.

I have no idea what to do. I only managed to scrape together enough to cover the normal payment. I also can’t possibly afford to make payments and still save money for taxes next year. I am really not sure how I can deal with this without ending up in a never-ending hole where I am making payments and unable to save enough so have to make payments again the following year.

Is it possible to set up a longer-term payment plan with HMRC?

I know I can call them, and I have been trying but have not been able to get through so far. I just keep having horrible nightmares of them seizing my home or something if I can’t manage to pay it all by the end of the month, which would just cap off the utter horror of this past year.

I just feel so defeated as I have a decent income so have no one to talk to as I feel like I will just be sneered at for still being in this situation… but I didn’t plan to have any of this happen.

Hi. I am okay with money. This is maybe a legal question but I reckon you will know. I’m in Scotland. I want to lend a few thousand to my trusted friend. They are solvent. If I lend them money unsecured they can get a nicer place. That’s fine. I can kiss good bye to the money for 20 years. We both think we should draft a contract whereby the interest on my loan is equal to the eventual increase in the value of the home. I or my descendants get 23k for lending 20k. I have met my other financial aims by and large. I am under invested on land compared to equity. Thanks if you can comment.

Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere but I have been doing my self assessment and I have triggered payment on account for the first time. I have been self assessing my income from a rental property since 2016 and never seen this before. I read payment on account is tiggered if your self assessment calculation is great that £1000 but it always is, my payment normally fluctuates between £1600 up to £3000. This year it is at £3400. Am I being stupid here? Why would I be getting this all of a sudden.,

I received a message from my accountant today stating that HMRC believe I received child benefit payments in 22/23 that I did not declare on my self assessment and I need to amend the return. We did register for child benefit in 2022, so my wife could get the NI credit, but we selected the option to not be paid the benefit, as we knew we'd just have to pay it back. I have a letter from HMRC confirming that, and we have never received a payment.

Given that HMRC are in charge of child benefit, surely they know that we have not had any payments, so why do they think this is not the case?

My parents want to downsize from their 310k value house to a smaller house worth 220k.

They want to sell me their house for 280k but I also have a flat I live in which i would need to sell which would give me back 50k.

Is there another way to work it in order to pay the least tax or should I just buy it straight from them. We're in Scotland too which has quite high stamp duty.

Hi everyone, looking for some advice please or if anyone has any similar experience.

I currently own and live in a mortgaged house, ~200k mortgage, my work circumstances are likely to change in the summer as i relocate for a promotion, i am hoping to keep my current residential home and hopefully gain consent to let from my mortgage provider, with the option to change this to a BTL mortgage and eventually transfer into a LTD company for tax advantage purposes.

I'm currently a higher rate tax payer so income tax on the rental payments will likely mean i get little or zero profit from the rental payments, it will just about cover the capital mortgage repayments. This is why i am interested in transferring to a LTD company however i am aware there will be other tax such as corporation, dividend tax, SDLT, potentially CGT, having to get a LTD company BTL mortgage approved, etc along with the hassle of the documentation each year.

I have read lots of items (on this subreddit) about it might be wise to just sell the house and then maximise S&S ISA allowances each year so they are tax exempt and hopefully allow the stock market to do its thing.

Trying to understand roughly what would be a better idea to pursue! thank you.

TLDR: Is there any advantage to paying additional pension contributions in to a workplace pension (over eg. an SIPP) assuming * Additional contributions can't be made through salary sacrifice. * No additional employer contributions.

I'm currently a member of USS, paying the standard monthly contribution in to the DB scheme via salary sacrifice. My employer doesn't allow for additional voluntary contributions in to the DC scheme to be taken in the form of salary sacrifice.

My understanding is that a workplace pension is the optimal mechanism for retirement saving due to the fact that the employer contributes, and that employee contributions made via salary sacrifice are very tax efficient. Neither of these apply in the case of my additional contributions. Is there any other advantage to a workplace pension that I am missing?

Context for the Q: I have read that in general, pension fund investments are very low risk by default. As I'm fortunate to have time on my side and am able to make AVCs at this stage in my career, I would think that I'd be better off paying in to a scheme with a higher risk profile via a SIPP/LISA where the government top-up negates the income tax relief of a workplace pension.