Christmas time might seem rather premature for a spring clean. But as Gordon Gekko famously declared in Wall Street: "money never sleeps, pal," and this is not the time to let financial decisions drift too far into the New Year. January 31 is the deadline for online self-assessment tax returns for the year ending april 5 2013 - as well as being the deadline for any balancing payments due to hmrC for 2012-2013 and the first self assessment payment for 2013-14. Since the taxman started imposing £100 for late tax returns, plus a daily £10 for each subsequent day late, even when no tax was due, late penalties issued dropped from 1.16m for 2010-11 to 915,000 in 2011-12, a 21 per cent reduction.
No sooner are your tax affairs from 2012-2013 out of the way, then deadlines and decisions for various allowances for 2013-14 start to loom - the most common being your isa allowance. This year you can put £11,520 in stocks and shares, or £5,640 cash into cash or a combination of the two. There was talk that the British chancellor's autumn statement might set a cap for a lifetime allowance of around £100,000. Fortunately, that proved to be just a rumour. The coalition government - and previous governments - continue to send us mixed messages. We are all encouraged to save for the future, pensions and well as isa's. Yet, the pension lifetime cap is coming down from £1.5 million to £1.25m - and the value of that pension pot is becoming less as we live longer.
What is not in doubt is that hmrC wants to know more and more about your personal financial affairs. The rules are tightening and the taxman is getting tougher. Last month the taxman admitted that inspectors are using the pictures taken by Google Earth and street View to assess whether a taxpayer's property and lifestyle are consistent with the level of declared earning.
Big Brother is alive, well and thriving. In one case, the street View picture suggested the children of the house were being educated at a private school. The taxman has spotted a sign advertising the school fete in the garden and wanted answers. the poster has actually been on the neighbours' side of the fence.
We used to enjoy a certain amount of financial privacy. All families have priorities for their spending. Many scrimp and save as much as they can to provide the best for their children, perhaps including a private education if that is their choice.
Others don't mind living in a small house or flat so they can enjoy some of the finer things of life, designer clothes, cars or an extravagant lifestyle. That surely must be a personal choice.
Now it's wise to run those decisions by your financial adviser so they can explain the potential implications of certain choices. It's not that they agree with hmrC's behaviour or policies - they will just tell you how it is. Part of the problem is that most of the regulations designed to trap and catch the guilty few, impact everyone. You may have been a customer at the local branch of your bank for years - but you will still need your passport/driving licence to prove who you are to someone who has been serving you regularly all that time if you want to make a change.
We were all brought up with the presumption that justice meant "we are innocent until proved guilty" - not any more. You have to prove your innocence everyday that you are not up to no good. Often, taking more than a few hundred pounds out of your account will bring the enquiry about what's the money for. When you point out that it's your money and you foolishly imagined you could do with it what you liked, you are put in your place by "money Laundering regulations". According to the Office of Fair trading: "money laundering is the process by which criminally obtained money or other assets (criminal property) are exchanged for money or assets with no obvious link to their criminal origins. It also covers money, however come by, which is used to fund terrorism. The money Laundering regulations aim to detect, deter and disrupt money laundering." i would image (and hope) that 99 per cent of us have no contact with criminals - and 99.9 per cent with terrorists. Yet these regulations impact on nearly every one of us nearly every day, frustrating and stressing us.
Now, because of politicians abusing their expenses and "flipping" homes, Osborne's autumn statement tried to address this problem. If a second property was declared as main residence at any stage, there was no Capital Gains tax to pay on any gain in its value during the final three years of ownership.
Under the new rules, only the gain in the final 18 months will be exempt. Quite right, you say. But why not address the problem the other way. Make it a minimum of six months of residence before any property can become a main residence - not just a few weeks. Unfortunately, the chancellor's way means, once again, the innocent are caught in the net and going to suffer. Those couples who have divorced, separated, homeowners who have had to downsize or rent because of the recession or can't sell their property, now have something else to worry about. Something that's going to hit them in the pocket.
Leaving your home because of a change in circumstances is upsetting at the best of times. Now Osborne's ticking clock adds even more pressure to an emotional situation. There is always financial help at hand; and a key to it working is not to leave matters too late. These aren't problems that are going to go away. This complicated financial lifestyle is here to stay. At worst, make it your New Year's resolution - "sort out your self-assessment - and speak to your financial adviser about your isa's."
* Darren McKeever (dmckeever@wwfp.net) is Northern Ireland adviser of Worldwide Financial Planning, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. For a free, no obligation initial chat about your individual finances, call 028 68632692, e-mail info@ wwfp.net or click on www.wwfp.net. Follow us on Twitter: @ WorldwideFP.