Dr James, 49s:

The new financial year is upon us, and the purpose of this podcast today is to recap a lot of the things that are coming reasoning that us dentists need to be aware about, and also some of the things that are upcoming in forthcoming tax years, forthcoming new finale. I'm joined by professional accountant Mr. Matthew Norton from DJE, where we're today to talk about every single tax change that us dentists need to know so we can be prepared and ensure that we're as tax efficient as possible. As ever, you can claim your CPD for this episode within the official Dentists Who Invest Smart Money Members Club. Smart Money Members Club also includes multiple mini courses and webinar series on finance for dentists, including how to become as tax efficient as possible, as well as understanding investing. All this content counts as verifiable CPD, and you can download your certificates there and then on completing each lesson. In addition to this, we also include a whopping 10% discount on your dental indemnity and a 5% discount on lab bills for dental principals, amongst other perks and discounts for members. Please use the link in the description to claim your verifiable CPD for this episode. Matthew, let's talk about what tax changes dentist to be aware of that have just kicked in, given that we're now in new the new financial year, which is of course at the time of recording on this podcast, April the 6th, 2026, up until April the 5th, 2027. So yeah, probably a good place to begin. A little bit of a recap, if you will, because m a lot of people out there will be aware of these things because there'll have been changes that have been implemented at recent budgets. So what will we now see kicking in?

Speaker 1, 2m 35s:

So I think it's important to set the scene, James. So if we think about this time in sort of the autumn after Rachel Reese gave her budget, I think that the line of cap hearing was it wasn't quite as bad as we thought it was going to be. At the time, there was a bit of good news just before the budget was announced. And I think it's important to remember when we look at the budget and we talk about the budget, it's not just a budget for the next 12 months. The idea of the budget is it's working towards sort of longer term goals for the government, usually on a kind of five-year cycle. So some of these sort of lesser tax rates and then sort of the less bad news, if you like, has happened simply because they thought their projections may be a little bit better. Now, obviously, if certain things happen in the environment we're in, such as the Iran crisis at the moment, that can scupper the plans. So the feeling I got last budget, as I said, was it wasn't as bad as we felt it was going to be. But if things carry on as they are, growth in the UK is is struggling. We might see some more tax changes coming up in the next couple of years to be aware of. Now I think look at the big picture as well. Sort of obviously the big one we talk about is sort of the stealth tax rises, if you like. So the stealth tax rises or fiscal drag, as people sometimes refer to it as, or the fact that there's no major changes in income tax, national insurance this year. And some people see that as a good thing, but effectively, with inflation, as people's earnings go up, more and more people are going to be pulled into higher rate of tax, uh, the higher rate tax band of tax at 40%, additional rate tax at 45%, and more commonly as well, with most with most dentists now, they are breaching that £100,000 threshold. And if people are familiar with that, once you breach a £100,000 level of income, you start losing your personal allowance. And also, if you do have kids, you can potentially use as well your tax-free childcare, which could be a real a real benefit. So them freezes themselves are another form of sort of fiscal drag and sort of a negative, really, if you like.

Dr James, 4m 37s:

Yes, can't overstate that enough because it's it's yeah, it needs to uh I ideally it would move uh in accordance with inflation or like the official figures. But you might know this off the top of your head. When was the last time they actually changed those tax rates? Because it's been quite a while, hasn't it?

Speaker 1, 4m 54s:

Yeah, I think it was 2021, it was under the Conservative government. And at the time it was quite a controversial thing if people remember, because every year that this person allowance would generally increase and creep up with inflation slightly. Um, but I think because it happened so long ago now, James, that people are just taking it as the norm and you know, sort of expecting it to happen when you know it's it's frozen now until 2030. But I can't really emphasize enough how much of an impact that's having on people's um tax and reduction in their post-tax earnings.

Dr James, 5m 22s:

And what about, and you'll know more about this than me, but what about national insurance bans as well? Are they also frozen?

Speaker 1, 5m 28s:

Yeah, they've been frozen again as well. And from last year, if you remember, uh employers' national insurance crept up to 15% as well. So, again, another impact on businesses. Minimum wage has gone up again this year as well. I was gonna touch on that a little bit later, but I'll bring it in now. Again, minimum wage has gone up by about another four or five percent. And sometimes as well, people think minimum wage, they think of just the people who are kind of on that lower level of pay. Well, actually, all of a sudden, if you've got to increase the people at your businesses who are on the lower level of pay, everyone realistically needs to be pushed up to the same level for fairness. So actually, you know, it does impact salaries across across the business.

Dr James, 6m 7s:

Yeah, yeah, 100%. Anyway, not to not to steal the show and derail the conversation, but yes, anyway, you're in full flow there. So income tax brackets, income tax bans, and then other changes that we should be aware of.

Speaker 1, 6m 20s:

Yeah, so I think everyone's sort of aware of this one already, but the big one at the moment as well, that's been in the news over the last few weeks, is is a bit of posity, I suppose. Um the government have announced that they are capping interest rates on class two student loans for this financial year and this academic year. So a little bit of good news there, obviously, with sort of the danger of inflation and interest rates increase there with the with the Iran war. Um that's a little bit of good news for anyone with a with a with a plan two student loan.

Dr James, 6m 48s:

Yeah, absolutely. Because previously, for people who uh don't know this, I believe it's linked to CPI, isn't it?

Speaker 1, 6m 55s:

Yes, it is, yeah. CPI. And as that as that increases, obviously that the interest rate increases, and um you know most people who are coming out of the university will have plan two student loans at a high level, and the level of interest can be can be sizable.

Dr James, 7m 8s:

Can you give us an idea? Maybe you know this off the top of your head, who just what demographic of people are on plan two loans, like what era would that apply to?

Speaker 1, 7m 17s:

Yeah, sure. So is anyone who would have started the studies after 2012?

Dr James, 7m 21s:

Right, I see. So some of the some of the the young I've just missed out on that then because I was 2011. But then I I did get in when the when the when the the uh maximum fees were still three grand a year, so I can't.

Speaker 1, 7m 32s:

I know it it's gone crazy. You know, I see obviously tax returns for my clients, and I've had a situation just to try and get it, kind of show how the how how bad the interest rates are at the moment on these student loans. I had a client contact me because they didn't think that their student loan payments had been transferred from HMRC to the student loans company. So you sent me the student loan statement to have a bit of a look at, and all that had happened is the level of repayment they had made had just simply covered the interest in the year. The actual balance of the student loan hadn't it decreased at all, it just literally covered the interest.

Dr James, 8m 3s:

Oh no.

Speaker 1, 8m 3s:

And this is someone earning over 60,000 pounds a year. So we're not talking about you know small, you know, small earners, we're talking about kind of your most average associate in the first couple of years.

Dr James, 8m 12s:

There we go, crazy. Okay, well, some some positivity in there somewhere.

Speaker 1, 8m 17s:

Definitely. And moving on as well, I think again, you've done podcasts on this previously and things, but uh obviously the big change really that you know, the biggest behavioural shift, if you like, in tax for dentists in in my lifetime at least, is this change to making tax digital. And I know you've done a lot on it already, so I won't sort of go on about it too much, but obviously just make anyone aware anybody whose self-employed turnover was in excess of £50,000 in their 2024-25 tax return, I've been pulled into it. And obviously, we've gone live with it now. Um, effectively, we need to get clients on making tax digital compliance software and make sure that their quarterly returns are being submitted on time.

Dr James, 8m 59s:

Nice, and you know what, just quick opportunity shout out. There's uh we have done content on making tax digital. Uh, however, I'm gonna do a webinar, another webinar very, very, very soon uh with some amazing accountants, which is gonna talk about what you can do if you've missed the boat and also even people who have uh updated their making tax digital or you know who feel like they're on top of it, what to do to ensure that you are compliant and that there's no issues going forwards. So, yeah, shout out that webinar just while we're on the topic. Yeah, I'll announce the details of that in the mailing list in the Facebook group very soon.

Speaker 1, 9m 34s:

Yeah, so so so important. They have they have announced unofficially that there's there's gonna be no sort of penalties this initial year. Um, but obviously people want to get in good habits with it straight away. Um it's not it's no good, you know, going to your accountant the day before the deadline and the submission is due and kind of asking them to kind of register you and and sign you for software, it needs to be done in a timely manner and make sure everyone's got time to do what they need to do. As I said, with making tax digital, it is the biggest behavioural shift in tax for dentists in years. And as James mentioned there, he's got another webinar on it coming up, so it's uh I would steal his line like too much on that one. And I'll I'll I'll move on to something that's probably gonna affect people more than you realise, and that's a change in the dividend tax rates, James.

Dr James, 10m 20s:

Yes, yes. I recall this coming in, but yeah, I'm I'm interested to have a little bit of a recap from you.

Speaker 1, 10m 26s:

Yeah, sure. So what it means is that from the 6th of April, uh basic rate taxpayers are now paying 10.75% on the first 30 uh the first section of basic rate band of dividend income. Historically that was 8.75%. And then your higher rate taxpayers are going to be paid 35.75%, whereas previously they were paying 33.75%. Now, you know, two percentage points doesn't sound like a great jump, but when we're talking of you know sort of tens of thousands of pounds, and in situations where the margins have been squeezed and squeezed over the years on limited companies and the tax efficiency of them, it again just sort of adds to the headaches a little bit, and that sort of classic salary and dividends model is getting squeezed more and more. And I think it's just more and more important to actually making sure that people are having the right conversations with their accountants to make sure that how they're being remunerated is the best is it being done so in the best possible way. In some situations, it might be better to take a higher salary than dividends. I think for the time being, we're still keeping with the main model of paying a director's salary, usually around 12 and a half thousand and topping up that with dividends. But I always say that each case needs to be judged on its merit.

Dr James, 11m 40s:

And yeah, and as you say, it's it's contextually, you know, where how how much is raised over the years. I I even remember, yeah, it was not too long ago, it was seven and seven and a half percent, wasn't it? I believe on the basic rate. And that was only like three years ago, and now we're on ten and a half, and that's yeah. So basically it's actually 50% more if you think about it, right?

Speaker 1, 12m 0s:

Yeah, and the difference allowance as well, you know, years gone by the difference allowance started at £5,000 before you paid any tax, and now that's right down to £500.

Dr James, 12m 9s:

Seriously, I think I had it in my head it was two, was it two recently?

Speaker 1, 12m 13s:

Yeah, I think it went from five to two to one to five hundred pounds, is where we are today. So it brought it down gradually to hope you don't realize as much. Jeez.

Dr James, 12m 21s:

Anyway, okay, well, yeah, let's not dwell on that too much. Moving swiftly on, something I'd rather really not think about.

Speaker 1, 12m 27s:

But anyway, I but I think that I think the main thing people need to look at as well is that with the dividend rates going up, actually, do they need as much money out of the company as they currently are taking? Because, you know, if you're not needing that money out of the company to live off, you know, I'm not saying live off beans and toast for the rest of your life, you know, you need to want to live your lifestyle and be able to go on holiday. But if you can leave more money in the company, you are going to pay less tax on it personally. You know, that money could be then be used for other investments, it could be used to put into private pensions. And we've seen a lot more clients these days actually use things called family investment companies. And family investment companies are where you might have family members who are shareholders, and the main purpose of that company is to make investments and bring kind of family family into it. And what that means is it means that money isn't kind of leaving the company and being taxed on the individual, it's being kept in the company, but being used maybe investments, maybe a buy-to-left property, stocks and shares, investments, and things like that. And that model tends to work quite well where you have maybe a holding company above your trading company, because when you pass dividends from the trading company up to the holding company, that is tax-free because that's tax neutral. But it means the holding company then could maybe loan money to another company or make its own investments.

Dr James, 13m 46s:

Yeah, of course. And again, that's actually something we really need to do a podcast on when the Dennis Who Invest podcast is family investment companies. But yes, good stuff. UK Dennists, Dennis Who Invest now has an official platform where you can learn about finance and obtain UK compliant, verifiable CVD at the same time. The only platform that exists on which you can do both. The Smart Money Members Club has hundreds of hours of mini courses, webinar series, and live day recordings on all things finance slash tax efficiency for UK dentists. This includes complete courses on how tax works for UK dentists, finance so that you can invest and grow your own money, business so you can improve your profitability as an associate or principal, and for those out there that want it, there's also a mini course and how you can responsibly enter the crypto space using measured amounts of capital. I've gathered this content from the best of the best I could find in each respective area so that you know that this is how people at the forefront of each field advise their clients. The Smart Money Members Club also contains discounts on common things that UK dentists need to pay for on a regular basis. This includes a whopping 10% discount on dental indemnity, the offer to beat your income protection deal no matter what you're paying, and for the principals out there, 5% discount on lab bills and 10% discount on practice insurance. These are designed to offer hundreds, if not thousands, in annual savings. The purpose of this members club is to not only boost your monthly income but also manage your outgoings as much as possible and therefore create more profit. To celebrate the launch of the Smart Money Members Club, and given that the CPD deadline is coming up soon, I've decided to offer the first month of this platform entirely for free. This offer will end in the coming weeks as soon as the current CPD cycle is up. To collect your CPD for this podcast episode using the Smart Money Members Club, feel free to use the link in the description of this podcast.

Speaker 1, 15m 45s:

Yeah, and also as well, I think there's still talk of uh another 2% increase in tax for landlords as well, possibly next year. Um so again, if you're able to buy property inside a limited company, you'll be exempt from the extra 2% uh tax as well.

Dr James, 15m 59s:

How would that work? You mean on the income from property on the income, yeah.

Speaker 1, 16m 3s:

So it's it's kind of non-earned income, so possibly savings income and rental income. Um an extra 2% as has been talked about. Interesting.

Dr James, 16m 11s:

Yes, but of course that wouldn't apply. It would be uh it would be corporation tax if it was in a company.

Speaker 1, 16m 17s:

Yes, so you'd be exempt from that, you're paying corporation tax. Yeah. And then as I said, the money's being capped in the company. Maybe family members are shareholders, and you can pass some wealth down uh to other family members as well. Good stuff. And one thing I do find useful as well is we I think we've spoken before about sort of electric cars and company cars. And the the company cars are a great tool because the tax breaks on them are really generous at the moment still. If you're a member of this time last year, James, that originally we we'd call first year allowances on 100% new unused electric cars was going to be scrapped from March 2026. The government did a bit of a U-turn as they as they do in the last budget and pushed that date back until April next year. So anyone who's looking at electric cars, you still have another 12 months to look at company electric cars and get a full 100% first year allowances in that that year of purchase.

Dr James, 17m 11s:

On new and unused electricity. Is there any tax relief on uh secondhand?

Speaker 1, 17m 20s:

Uh secondhand, you'll still get what's called writing down allowance. So writing down allowance as well, again, a bit more negativity has just been reduced. So for a long time, writing down allowance was 18%. And what that effectively means, you get 18% of the value off each year until the value of the vehicle is written down to nil effectively, or more likely you've sold the car. But that rate is now reduced down to 14%.

Dr James, 17m 46s:

Right, understood. So there is there is some level of tax relief on.

Speaker 1, 17m 50s:

Yes, it's still available. But the big tax relief for me is a bit of a stealth tax relief again, in a sense, that because you get that tax relief upfront for everyone to save your corporation tax, but that is then replaced with what's called benefit in kind tax. So anyone out there who's got a company car might be aware of this already, but you'll be paying what's called the benefit in kind tax on the benefit, if you like, of owning a company car and having access to a company car. And that benefit in kind tax is based purely around the list price and the CO2 emissions. So the more the lower the CO2 emissions, so the more sort of friendly the car is to the environment, the less tax you'll pay.

Dr James, 18m 28s:

Interesting. But if that's a if that's an electric car and there's zero emissions, yeah, then there is no benefit in kind tax, right?

Speaker 1, 18m 37s:

So there'll be a small benefit in kind. I think the rate this year is to now four percent on the less price of the car.

Dr James, 18m 42s:

Right.

Speaker 1, 18m 43s:

Yeah, but as the CO2 emissions increase, that percentage increases. So by the time you get to a uh an ice and ice big gas cruzzling range where you would say, yeah, you could be paying benefit in kind tax and maybe 40-45% on the on the original value of the car when it was new. Sure. And at that point, it doesn't tend to be tax efficient to have a company car.

Dr James, 19m 1s:

That was literally the next thing I was going to say, because it's uh from what the accountants tell me, you know, everybody's obsessed with putting things through their business, right? But actually, there comes a point where in certain situations you're better off just buying it in a personal name and a personal name. Same with assets as well, like owning, I believe it's uh watches and art, they're known as chassels. Is that correct? Yes, yeah. Yeah. And if you own them in a personal name and you sell them on, there's no CGT.

Speaker 1, 19m 26s:

Yeah, it's correct. As earners wasting shuttles, where effectively you've got a sort of lifespan, if you like, um, where kind of investments would have no lifespan and there's a capital gain on it. Things that are kind of like racehorses, for example, are another one that's classes a wasting shuttle. Um, and then effectively, because it's got a smaller lifespan, um, there's no capital gain stacks on them items.

Dr James, 19m 46s:

That's why, and not to get into sort of uh too too too far down this rabbit hole, but extremely wealthy people always buy art, right? Because you're converting your money into a tax-free asset, which is hopefully going to appreciate with time, and there's no CGT lab, or especially if you have the money in a personal name. But yeah, that's that's why that happens, and that's why that's kind of a a thing. Uh that's why it's sort of uh people people talk about that, don't they? Or it's like a recurring theme in TV shows that rich people do that. And I learned that recently, or well, you know, over the like maybe a few years ago, I learned that I was like, oh, so that's why that happens. But anyway, that brings us nicely on to the next thing we plan to talk about, which was CGT and B A D R.

Speaker 1, 20m 26s:

Yeah. So again, this is a really big one. I think again, it's been in the news, people are aware of it. I think they're actually less aware of it this time. So if we roll the clock back again two years, uh people might remember it was previously called Entrepreneurs Relief for a long time. It basically got changed to business asset disposal relief, but it was the same relief really, which was renamed. And for a long time, that rate was 10%. So that was on any gains you would make on the sale of businesses. So shares generally, if you've sold your business or you've sold a shares in a business, you would pay business assets disposal relief rates up to the first million pounds of gain you made. Uh and for a long time that was 10%. And two years ago they announced it was going to go up to 14%. Uh and they did that, and it would have been October, November 2024. And there was a real panic amongst people because I think it came off the blue a little bit to try and make sure that the businesses were sold and things were done before the 5th of April 2025. Now the same level of increase has happened again as we've just passed the tax year, so it's now gone from 14% to 18%. There didn't seem to be quite the same urgency about it as there was 12 months ago. Don't get me wrong, I spoke to a lot of solicitors and they'll tell me they worked a lot of late nights to make sure them deals went over the line before the 5th of April. Um, and that's fantastic. But what what was interesting actually, a conversation I had with it with a few colleagues and a couple of solicitors actually was that people were very driven by the fact that they wanted to make sure they got like got that 4% saving from the BADR. And I completely understand that, you know, 4% on a million pounds you know, it's a lot of money. So actually, you know, if that if that deal is going to drift into the new tax year, you're able to maybe make profits of another month or two. And then don't forget as well, once you creep into this tax year, you've then delayed the payment of the capital gains tax by 12 months. So if you have made managed to make an extra bit of profit from the business within them two first two months, you make good gain on the sale of the business, and that money's been sat in an investment fund or a bank account, then you know it will attract interest. And actually, by having access to that money in an ICER or an investment account for twelve more months, the level of interest and returns you get on that might pretty much cover the extra tax you're paying in capital gains tax. So I think it's not quite as bad as people maybe thought of if anyone missed that fifth of April deadline, you know, I I don't think you need to to overly panic.

Dr James, 22m 46s:

Yeah, a hundred percent. I would agree. I would agree with that. Absolutely. So yeah, that is a little bit of a recap onto uh recent changes in BD VIDR which have just kicked in. And I know there's no more upcoming changes planned on that front, is there? Not anything we have to be aware of.

Speaker 1, 23m 2s:

Not that I'm aware of. To be honest, one of the things that they have touched businesses a lot recently. So I think they'll probably hopefully leave businesses alone. But you know, as most accountants do, we do a lot of tax plan, James. And one thing I'm always conscious of is that we we do tax planning based on today's rates.

Dr James, 23m 16s:

Yeah.

Speaker 1, 23m 16s:

And we come up with a really good plan that'll save loads of money to maybe sell the business in 10 or 15 years' time. But as you know, you know, as them rates move over the years, something like business asset disposal relief could be could be up for discussion to get in the future.

Dr James, 23m 30s:

Well, to put things in context, when it was entrepreneurs relief, I believe it was only 10% tax on the first 10 million, right? Well, that's correct, yeah. So it's really, really and now it's 18% tax on the first 1 million. So it's it's only only up to the first one million. And then CGT kicks in afterwards, which again segues us very nicely onto CGT, which we also wanted to talk about.

Speaker 1, 23m 54s:

Yeah, exactly. And that 18% rate is now just aligned with the basic rate of capital gains tax as well. So anyone who's a basic rate taxpayer, they would pay 18% capital gains tax. Anyone who's a higher rate taxpayer is now paying 24% capital gains tax, and that's where business asset disposal relief doesn't apply.

Dr James, 24m 14s:

Interesting. So there's only really a 6% saving there. It is, yeah. I say really like that's you know completely ignorable. Like that's obviously a reasonably that's that can amount to a lot of money, especially when it's a business sale on the table, right? But it's like it's not like a million miles away at the same time, right?

Speaker 1, 24m 31s:

So it's all relative, isn't it? You know, if you're making small gains on some stocks and shares, then six percent is not very much. But if you're a successful practice owner and you're selling your business and you've got a million pound gain, then six percent, you know, it's it's six thousand pounds.

Dr James, 24m 44s:

Sure, 100%, 100%. But that's why that's why we like our pensions and our ISIS, right? Because it obviously shelters it from all of this business and your dividends tax as well. Matthew, have we done a great job of summarising all the changes that have kicked in?

Speaker 1, 24m 57s:

Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, I don't think we've covered most of the main ones there. I'm trying to think of anything else really I wanted to kind of discuss. Uh there's a couple of upcoming changes I was going to mention for next year.

Dr James, 25m 6s:

Well, that's that's what I was gonna say. If we've covered all of this year's changes, then definitely we want to cast our cast our cast our conversation onto the future so that people know what they need to be aware of in the next tax year.

Speaker 1, 25m 17s:

Yeah, definitely. So, you know, as as tax rates change from 6th of April 2027, any kind of planning needs to be done in advance of that. So I think it's really important just to be aware of a couple of the changes coming up. So the first one I was going to talk about was the ISA limit changing. Yes, because this was mentioned in the budget, and it was very unclear really what was going to happen in terms of how they would limit things. It was always planned they were going to make a bit of an adjustment to the to the rules, but at the time it wasn't 100% clear. So you know, we can bring a bit of clarity to that now. So from April 2027, the cash ICE limit is going down from £20,000 to £12,000. Well, that is only affecting people under the age of £65. So if you're a of pension age, you can still put more into your cash ICEs, it's just for those under £65. But the overall ICE for allowance is still £20,000. So what that would mean is that of that £20,000, £12,000 can be put into a cash ICE, which would mean that you'd have to put £8,000 into a stocks and shares ICE. And the idea of that was that the government think that encouraging people to put money into stocks and shares is going to help drive the economy forward. And as well, it's a little bit softer. I think the original plan was to really reduce that cash ICE limit. So I think they have been a little bit softer on this. And again, this is just for people under the age of 65 as well. So if you have sold a business or you've got pensions being paid out, you can still use your full £20,000 cash ISA limit if you're above the age of 65.

Dr James, 26m 51s:

You know, as much as we like to give the government stick, I uh can actually see the logic in that one a lot. And I actually don't think that's a horrendous idea, basically, because I think that cash houses do have their place, but I think that people lean on them and rely on them a lot more than they should do. Whereas if they had the right know-how when it comes to investing, how to select a good fund, etc., they really when they knew that and they made decisions through that lens, they'd probably, as a general rule of thumb, be putting a lot more into the stocks and shares ISIS anyway.

Speaker, 27m 27s:

Yeah, I agree 100%.

Speaker 1, 27m 29s:

I think when you look at kind of the growth of sort of stocks and shares versus just inflation, then stocks and shares have always kind of overachieved and beat kind of inflation, really. So it is a kind of sensible long-term investment, but that generally speaking it needs to be a long-term investment as well. It can't be something you kind of dip in out dip in and out of.

Dr James, 27m 50s:

100%, 100%. But yes, anyway, that was that's that's definitely something to be aware of.

Speaker 1, 27m 57s:

And the other one I really want to touch on, really, again, was um there's been a lot of talk around sort of inheritance tax changes. Um and the one that might affect a lot of dentists in particular is that historically pension funds weren't part of inheritance tax calculations. So a lot of sort of IFAs were it would encourage clients to put money into the private pension, you know, just to ring fence it, if nothing else, from inheritance tax. Now, the the good news, I suppose, is that generally speaking, the NHS um pension will be kept separate to this rule change. So we've got NHS dentists out there, there's no need to kind of get with a complete panic at the moment, but it will affect people who have got private pensions. So, as you know, James, private dentistry over the last few years has just took off massively. And that has meant that people have had to set up private pensions um to replace their NHS pensions. So there'll be a lot of a lot of listeners out there who will have sizable private pension funds and they will get pulled into possibly inheritance tax from April 2027. So it's really important to make sure they're getting the correct financial advice on that, and if nothing else, it's literally just something to have a conversation with their with their financial advisor about.

unknown, 29m 11s:

Yeah.

Dr James, 29m 11s:

And make sure they're doing the best pension planning plan. They weren't previously part of your estate, right? But now they are. But it just shows you, right, the the the thing uh that can sometimes you're you're when your money is in the pension, it's in the pension, right? And it's kind of at the behest of the government if they want to change the rules. Like another one, another one is um there is presently no lifetime allowance, right? But yeah I would wager a great deal of money that that's gonna come back in our lifetime at some stage, right? And we're talking on those time frames, which is lifetime, because a pension is for life and it's long term. Uh so whilst I definitely don't, you know, there's there's definitely a time and a place for a really good pension, of course. Uh it's also just important to remember that these things can be honey traps a little bit sometimes. So just the more you know, the better, right? The more educated you are, the better decisions you can make.

Speaker 1, 30m 1s:

And that's it. And sometimes it's it's just making sure. I like to tell people if I give you an awareness of something, it triggers a conversation. If you have no awareness of it, you wouldn't think to maybe ask the question in the first place.

Dr James, 30m 11s:

Exactly. And that's literally the whole point of this podcast, etc. Any other changes we need to be aware of?

Speaker 1, 30m 17s:

So they're probably the main ones uh for the time being that are affecting affecting dentists, if I'm totally honest. Um, I'm sure there'll be things in this of the next budget that will have an impact from April 2027 as well.

Dr James, 30m 29s:

Sure. Okay, well, on that note, then we like to keep these podcasts powerful, impactful, and punchy. So maybe now is a good time. Matthew, if you want to shout yourself out, it's completely okay to do that because you've been so generous with your time and knowledge. If anybody wants to pick up a conversation with Matthew about anything they've heard today, Matthew, where are they best off finding you?

Speaker 1, 30m 47s:

So they can drop me an email at Matthew.nawson at DJ H dotco.uk. Uh, if you want to find out more information about myself and our services at our company, um go to our website DJH and you can get in touch with us from there as well.