Everything you ever wanted to know about tax but were too afraid to ask!
The Martin Lewis Podcast
BBC
4.4 • 929 Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With the self-assessment deadline less than a fortnight away, Martin Lewis answers your questions on everything tax, with the help of two tax gurus, including: tax returns, inheritance tax, making tax digital, capital gains tax, PAYE, savings tax, and more. Plus, Mastermind this week is all about gift cards, and Martin speaks to Harriet from the Traitors. If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!). So, if you’ve always wanted to know his favourite fruit, if he can say the alphabet backwards, or have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to MartinLewisPodcast@bbc.co.uk.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.4 | Legally, it is the individual's responsibility to ensure that their tax code is correct. |
| 0:13.7 | Sometimes HMRC might not know about some sources of income. |
| 0:17.4 | I mean, Strugly, yes, it does have to go in by the 31st of January. I totally get what |
| 0:22.2 | happened because I get very into my subject too. Hello, I'm Martin Lewis and this is the cunningly |
| 0:28.1 | named the Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. Now, usually much of it |
| 0:33.4 | comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles, but there's also bonus money-saving |
| 0:37.8 | tips for you lucky, lucky podcast listeners. And today with the tax return deadline less than two |
| 0:42.9 | weeks away, it's a tax special with a pair of tax specialists. So in today's pod, we'll be |
| 0:49.5 | talking about who has to do self-assessment. P-A-Y-E and your tax code, it's legally your responsibility to make sure that it's right. |
| 0:57.0 | Making tax digital. Saving tax, inheritance tax with my five things everybody should know about inheritance tax. |
| 1:05.0 | Capital gains tax, pensions tax and more. Then in Mastermind, it's all about gift vouchers. |
| 1:12.3 | What are your rights when they expire, which they commonly do? |
| 1:15.5 | And? |
| 1:17.9 | Nothing to do with money, but I was asked to butt in on a traitor's interview with Harriet, |
| 1:22.0 | as I'm an avid viewer and Adrian isn't. |
| 1:24.7 | So we'll tag that to the end too. |
| 1:26.3 | But for now, play our theme tune. |
| 1:43.5 | Okay, tax then. What's our approach going to be today? So we're going to make sure everybody is. Okay, tax then. |
| 1:45.3 | What's our approach going to be today? |
| 1:47.2 | So we're going to go through sort of section by section, and we're going to start with the most pressing one, which is the tax return deadline, if you like, the self-assessment deadline, the 31st of January. |
| 1:59.0 | If you miss it, you risk £100 fine, crucially, seven and three quarter percent interest, a heavy rate of interest, that's an annual rate of interest, but applied for each day that you're late to pay the actual tax. So, I mean, there is an argument to say, even if you can't get your tax return done, if you roughly know how much tax you need to pay and you owe that tax, then pay the rough amount of taxing because that would minimize the interest cost. |
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