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Tax is definitely taxing. One thing tucked away in the November, 2025 budget is the dividend tax rate increase. From the 6th of April, 2026. Those people paying themselves dividends from their companies or on receipt of dividends elsewhere are going to be subject to a higher rate of income tax on those dividends.

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In this podcast, I'm going to discuss what those changes are and to give you options about how to plan ahead and how to mitigate that impact.

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So what's actually happened? Well, the chancellor decided to nudge the tax rates up by two percentage points. Now, 2% might sound like the kind of change you find down the back of the sofa, but you know, tax is tax. Money is money, and the business owners who take their profits as dividends is going to add up pretty quickly.

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Now, from the 6th of April, 2026, if you are what's called a basic rate taxpayer, your dividend tax moves from 8.75% to 10.75%. If you are in the higher rate tax bracket, approximately 50,000 pound a year plus, it jumps from 33.75%, yep, 33.75% to a 35.75% rate. The only people who will get a pass here are what are called additional tax rate payers.

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That rate stays an eye-watering 39.35%. But for the rest of us, the dividend tax rate increase is going to mean the government is taking a slightly bigger slice of your hard earned pie, an extra bite of your ice cream. Now, what's the real world cost? Let's put some meat on the bones with a simple example.

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Let's say you are a shareholder who takes dividends out to the tune of 50,000 pounds a year. Once this dividend tax rate increase kicks in for the 26-27 tax year, you'll be looking at an extra 1000 pounds in tax. That's a thousand pounds that isn't going to go towards any holiday, any money for the household, your kids, or reinvesting in the business.

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Now here's a kicker, the dividend allowance, you still get that very generous, not 500-pound tax free allowance. That hasn't changed at all. The 500 pound still sits in your tax ban is like a guest at a dinner party who doesn't eat anything but still takes up a chair. It can push your other dividends in those higher, more expensive brackets.

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Now, at the end folks, by the way, I will tell you what those bandings are, the basic, the higher and the additional one, so you've got those benchmarked. So how do you plan and how do you avoid? Should you just sit there and take it? Absolutely not. This is why, we at I Hate Numbers love a bit of planning. Now, one option is timing.

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If you have retained profits, which is an absolute must, you might think I'll just pay myself a massive dividend before April, 2026 to beat the height. Now, depending on when you listen to this podcast, it's going to be time to release before the 5th of April, so you've got to act pretty quickly. Now rushing a dividend out can actually backfire on you.

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If that early dividend, that extra dividend, pushes you from the basic into the high rate band, you could end up paying 33.75% now just to avoid paying 10.75% later. So you got to be making sure that you plan correctly, and that's not going to be a win under anyone's imagination. Look at your specific tax band before you press send on the bank transfer.

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Now there is the option to declare a dividend and pay the cash out later, so it's not just literally physical cash transfer. It could be a declared dividend as well. Now for those family companies, you can have a look at what's called alphabet shares. Now this is a great way to spread dividends between family members to use up everyone's allowance and the basic rate bands.

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If your spouse has an unused tax band, why let it go to waste? Another thing to consider is alternative ways to get paid. Now, we should also talk about other ways to get money out of your company. This dividend tax rate increase is a great excuse and reason to look at employer pension contributions. When the company puts money straight into your pension is typically a deductible expense for your business, and you don't pay dividend tax on that at all.

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It can be a double win for your future self. Now, don't forget the paperwork. Many people that I know will neglect the paperwork that underpins transactions in a company. It might sound boring, it might sound tedious, but if you don't have the board minutes and dividend vouchers to back up your planning, HMRC can and typically will make your life very difficult.

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Good paperwork is the shield that protects your profit. And as a heads up folks here, we do have a company secretarial service, where we can act as your company secretary and do all the requisite paperwork, not just for dividends, but for other matters that present themselves to your company. Now, the bottom line is this, the dividend tax rate increase is going to be a reality on the 6th of April, 2026.

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If you do nothing, you'll just pay more tax by default. If you review your levels, your timing, and family structure, you can stay in control. Now if you want us to look at this for you, calmly, properly, without the jargon, head over to the website, ihatenumbers.co.uk and book a call with us. Until next time, plan it, do it and profit.