Taxable income: When is an allowance not an allowance?

It's not unreasonable for clients to expect that tax allowances reduce taxable income. However, the new allowances (or should that be tax bands) being introduced by HMRC from 6 April 2016 don't automatically fall into this category. So exactly what are these allowances, how do they work and what should you look out for on behalf of your clients? Well let's start at the beginning. As most people will be aware, in the UK tax system, the personal allowance (£11,000 in 2016/17) is the income threshold above which income tax is levied on an individual's income, at different tax rates, d...