Ndubuisi Egwim breaks down ten tax changes hitting UK doctors hard: the dividend allowance dropped to £500, capital gains tax exemption fell to £3,000, and income thresholds are frozen until 2031. Without a strategy update, high earners and private practitioners are quietly losing money to higher tax bands.
Look, if it feels like you're working harder, earning more, but somehow keeping less, you're not imagining it. The UK tax system has dramatically changed over the last 10 years, and I'd be surprised if most doctors could name all of these. Most doctors don't even realize it's happening. Here are 10 UK tax changes you may have missed. 1, the dividend allowance fell from £5,000 to just £500. 2, the capital gains tax annual exemption fell from £12,300 to just £3,000. 3. Capital gains tax rates went up. Yeah, the main rates are now 18% for basic rate taxpayers and 24% for higher rate taxpayers. 4. Key income tax thresholds have been frozen for years and are now set to remain frozen until April 2031. That means pay rises can quietly drag more of your income into higher tax bands. 5. One bit of good news. The standard pension annual allowance increased from £40,000 to £60,000. 6. Dividend tax went up again this April. So the basic rate The basic rate increased to 10.75%, and higher rates went up to 35.75%. 7. The inheritance tax nil rate band has also remained frozen at £325,000. There can be an additional residential nil rate band of up to £175,000 if you have a qualifying home you are passing to descendants. Some rules apply. 8. Employer National Insurance increased from 13.8% to 15%. That particularly matters if you employ staff or run a practice or company. 9. From April 2027, most unused pension funds, especially in personal pensions, will start being included in estates for inheritance tax purposes. And 10. April 2027, if you're under 65, the amount you can put into a Cash ISA will go from £20,000 down to £12,000. Now, these changes didn't all happen at once, and it feels a bit like a frog being boiled, and they don't hit you the same way. But if you don't have an up-to-date tax strategy, you could be losing money simply because the system has changed and you weren't aware. If you want to properly check where you may be leaking taxes. I'm running a doctor's tax-free workshop next week just for 30 UK doctors. Comment X-ray and I'll send you the details.
