Services
Tax advice, planned in advance.
Tax planning advice from Chartered Tax Advisors: income tax, residence, capital gains tax, business exits and inheritance tax, for decisions where getting the structure right first matters more than reporting it afterwards.
Advice before you act.
Tax advice is most useful before a transaction, while the options are still open.
Selling a business or property, restructuring a company, passing on wealth, moving country: each has a window for planning. As Chartered Tax Advisors we help you use it, and explain the trade-offs clearly, without jargon.
Advisory work is priced as a fixed project fee, agreed in writing before we start.
Where we advise.
Income tax and restructuring
How your income is paid, when it arises and who receives it, planned around the rates and bands that apply to you.
Profit extraction02The 62% tax trap
Income between £100,000 and £125,140 loses the personal allowance. Pension contributions, Gift Aid and timing can bring it back below the line.
High earners03Tax residence and moving country
Your residence status decides what the UK can tax. We plan arrival and departure dates and how your overseas income and assets are treated.
International tax04Capital gains and business exits
Selling shares, a business or property: timing, reliefs, the order of disposals and the reporting that follows.
Succession planning05Property
Ownership structure, incorporation, stamp duty and the rules on finance costs for landlords and investors.
Property tax06Inheritance tax and succession
Gifts, trusts and wills, business and agricultural property relief, and pensions coming into the estate from 6 April 2027.
Inheritance tax planningAlready have advice or a structure in place? We also give second opinions on existing plans.
Recent changes worth revisiting.
Source: AP Tax Advisors 2026/27 tax rates card, reviewed against GOV.UK on 2 August 2026.
What does a Chartered Tax Advisor do?
Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA) is the leading UK tax qualification, awarded by the CIOT. A CTA specialises in tax law and planning, rather than general accountancy, and is bound by the profession's standards of conduct.
At AP Tax Advisors we are Chartered Tax Advisors and Chartered Accountants, so advice takes account of both the law and your numbers, and we help you put it into effect.
Income tax planning and restructuring.
Income tax depends on the type of income, when it arises and who receives it. Earnings, dividends, savings and property income are taxed at different rates, and those rates are moving: dividend tax rose by 2 percentage points in April 2026, and savings and property income rates rise by 2 points from 6 April 2027.
For company owners, the balance between salary, dividends and employer pension contributions usually matters most. Restructuring, such as moving a business or property portfolio into a company or sharing ownership with a spouse, can change the overall bill, but each step has its own capital gains tax, stamp duty and anti-avoidance points to check first, including HMRC's settlements rules where income is shared.
The 62% tax trap.
Between £100,000 and £125,140 of income, the personal allowance is withdrawn, creating an effective 62% rate on earnings once National Insurance is included (60% from income tax alone). Pension contributions and Gift Aid can bring income back below the line.
Tax residence and moving country.
Your residence status under the Statutory Residence Test decides what the UK can tax. Since 6 April 2025, people arriving after 10 tax years of non-residence can claim relief on foreign income and gains for their first four tax years of UK residence, and inheritance tax now follows long-term UK residence rather than domicile.
The date of a move, the split year rules and the ties you keep in each country can all change the result, so the planning is best done before the move.
Capital gains tax advice & Business Asset Disposal Relief.
Capital gains tax is charged at 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it, after a £3,000 annual exempt amount. If you are UK resident and have CGT to pay on a UK residential property, you must report and pay it within 60 days of completion.
Business Asset Disposal Relief taxes qualifying gains on selling a business, or shares in your trading company, at 18% from 6 April 2026, on up to £1 million of lifetime gains. For shares, you broadly need to have held at least 5% of the company and been an officer or employee for two years before the sale. Those conditions are easy to fail by accident, which is why planning starts well before a deal.
Read: Business Asset Disposal Relief 2026/27: rates, rules and planning →
Inheritance tax planning.
How inheritance tax works: tax is charged at 40% on the value of an estate above the available thresholds. Everyone has a £325,000 nil rate band, plus a £175,000 residence nil rate band when a home passes to children or grandchildren. Unused bands pass to a surviving spouse or civil partner, so a couple can pass on up to £1 million, although the residence band tapers away on estates above £2 million. Both thresholds are frozen until April 2031.
Reducing inheritance tax legitimately usually combines lifetime gifts, gifts out of surplus income, the right use of pensions and trusts, business and agricultural property relief, and charitable giving, planned together with your solicitor and financial planner. As inheritance tax specialists, we model the whole estate before recommending any single step.
Inheritance tax on pensions from 2027.
From 6 April 2027, unused pension funds and most pension death benefits count towards your estate for inheritance tax. Death in service benefits are excluded, and your executors are responsible for reporting and paying any tax. For many families that reverses long-standing advice about which assets to spend first and which to pass on.
Plans written with pensions outside the estate should be reviewed now. That includes the order in which you draw on pensions and other savings, the nomination forms held by each scheme, and any gifts or life cover arranged around the estate. Pension funds left to a spouse or civil partner remain exempt from inheritance tax, but funds left to children or others may be taxed twice: inheritance tax on the estate, and income tax when they draw the money if death occurs at 75 or over. Modelling the combined effect now leaves time to change course before April 2027.
How our engagement works.
First conversation
A confidential call or meeting, usually 30 to 45 minutes, about the decision in front of you, your timing and what matters to you and your family. We tell you straight away whether we can help and what the work would involve.
Scope and fee
We confirm in writing what we will look at, what we need from you and the fixed fee. Work starts once you have signed the engagement letter and we have completed our identity and anti-money laundering checks.
Advice
We gather the facts, check the legislation and HMRC guidance, and model the options with your own figures. You receive a written report with our recommendation, the risks and the steps to take, and we talk it through with you.
Implementation and review
We work with your solicitor, financial planner or other advisors to put the plan in place, then review it as your circumstances and the rules change, for example after a Budget.
Tax Advisory, answered.
About tax advisory
Tax advisory is advice on how tax will apply to a decision before you make it, such as selling a business, gifting property, restructuring a company or moving abroad. It is different from tax compliance, which is preparing and filing returns for what has already happened. Most clients need both, and advice is most useful early, while the options are still open.
A tax advisor works out how the law applies to your situation, sets out the options with the tax cost of each, and helps you put the chosen route in place. They can also deal with HMRC on your behalf, for example during an enquiry or a disclosure. A Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA) has passed the CIOT's examinations and is bound by its professional conduct rules.
An accountant usually prepares accounts and tax returns from records of what has already happened. A tax advisor specialises in the tax law behind those figures and in planning ahead. Neither title on its own guarantees a qualification in the UK, so look for letters such as CTA. We are Chartered Tax Advisors and Chartered Accountants, so we do both.
Not everyone does. If all your income is taxed through PAYE and you have no other income or gains, you may never need one. Advice is worth taking when a decision has tax consequences that are hard to undo, such as selling a business or property, giving away assets, moving abroad or restructuring a company, or when your income passes £100,000.
Look for a recognised tax qualification, such as Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA) from the CIOT or the ATT qualification, and membership of a professional body with conduct rules and a requirement to hold professional indemnity insurance. Anyone advising on tax in the course of business must also be supervised for anti-money laundering.
Timing and the rules
Before you commit, ideally when a sale, gift, restructure or move is first being considered. Once a contract is signed or an asset has changed hands, most of the options have gone.
Yes. Using reliefs and allowances in the way Parliament intended, such as pension contributions, ISAs, Gift Aid or Business Asset Disposal Relief, is legal and expected. Tax avoidance is different: HMRC describes it as bending the rules to gain a tax advantage Parliament never intended, and it challenges such arrangements. Tax evasion is illegal. We do not promote or use avoidance schemes.
Working with us
It depends on the scope and complexity of the work. After the first conversation we quote a fixed project fee in writing, before any work starts, so you know the full cost upfront. If the scope changes, we agree any extra fee with you first.
Yes. Once you authorise us as your agent, HMRC can deal with us directly about your tax, including letters, enquiries and disclosures. You remain responsible for your own tax affairs, so we keep you informed at each stage.
A short summary of the decision you are facing and your timescale, your latest tax return or tax calculation if you have one, and any documents linked to the decision, such as a sale offer, a will or a letter from HMRC. If you do not have everything, we can still talk it through and tell you what we would need.
Related pages.
Google review
“I have received excellent personal and corporate tax support from AP Tax Advisors. The advice is clear, thorough, and tailored to my circumstances. Everything is explained carefully, and I feel confident knowing my tax affairs are being handled properly and proactively.”
Start with a conversation.
Everything starts with a consultation. It is confidential and there is no obligation.