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Do I pay tax on the uplift in my TallyMoney Account?

When you put money in a traditional savings account, you expect to get interest. When you earn that interest, HMRC expects to get a slice.

But what if your savings grew in value through allocated physical gold ownership – and you had more control over when, and if, you paid tax on them?

That’s where TallyMoney’s digital gold currency approach comes in.

 By holding your everyday account balance in physical gold (measured as 1 tally = 1 milligram of physical gold), your account’s GBP value moves with the live wholesale bullion price. Over time, gold has historically risen in value against the pound, which means your savings can grow without the same tax treatment as a bank deposit.

And that’s the key difference: in a bank, your growth is “interest” (taxable income), but in TallyMoney, it’s an “uplift” in asset value (potential capital gain).

Let’s unpack why that matters and how it could mean more money stays in your pocket.

Income Tax vs. Capital Gains Tax – The Big Difference

If you earn interest from a bank account, it’s counted as income. That means:

  • Basic rate taxpayers (20% income tax) get the first £1,000 interest tax-free.
  • Higher rate taxpayers (40% income tax) get just £500 tax-free.
  • Anything above that is taxed at your income tax rate.

So, if you’re a higher-rate taxpayer with a 5% fixed-term deposit on £50,000, you’d earn £2,500 in interest. After the £500 allowance, you’d be taxed 40% on the remaining £2,000  –  that’s £800 straight to HMRC before you even touch the money.

With TallyMoney, any increase in your GBP balance comes from the value of the gold you own. That increase isn’t income, it’s a capital gain.

Capital gains have their own rules:

  • Everyone gets a £3,000 CGT-free allowance each year.
  • Additionally, higher-rate taxpayers pay 24% on gains from physical assets, such as gold, while basic-rate taxpayers pay 18%.

Crucially, you only pay CGT when you realise the gain, in other words, when you spend your tally or transfer it out of your account.

Flashback: last year’s CGT shake-up​​

Put any significant money into a standard personal savings account with a traditional bank and you soon run into a problem. Tax.

If you’re in the higher brackets, save anything near £10,000 or more and the interest you earn will start being taxed. And, as it’s considered additional income, it’s likely to be taxed at the highest rate.

The personal savings allowance is meagre, anyway you look at it: £1,000 for basic-rate taxpayers, £500 for higher-rate taxpayers, and nothing for additional-rate taxpayers. Not great, right?

It’s another way a TallyMoney account offers those with a large amount of savings an interesting alternative to a traditional bank. Gains you make are classed as capital gains  –  not savings interest.

Yes, the capital gains allowance was halved last year (down to £3,000 for an individual, £6,000 for a couple), but it still gives you far more tax-free headroom than the PSA. And even when you do go over, the CGT rate is much lower than income tax on interest.

In the right circumstances, you could make the much-moaned-about CGT work in your favour.

Why Uplift in TallyMoney is Treated Differently

Think of your TallyMoney account as a basket holding gold. The market value of that gold moves daily against the pound.

  • If the value goes up while the gold is still in your account, you’re looking at an unrealised gain, no tax due yet.
  • When you spend some of your tally or convert it back to pounds, that’s when the gain becomes realised, and only then does CGT apply (and only if your gains exceed £3,000 in the year).

This means your account could grow for months or years without triggering a tax bill, giving you far more flexibility over when you pay tax and how much.

Compare that to a bank account, interest is taxed in the year it’s earned, whether you spend it or not. You can’t “defer” income tax on bank interest; it’s taken when it’s due.

Side-by-Side Example: Bank vs. TallyMoney

Let’s put this into a simple worked example.

Scenario: Higher-rate taxpayer deposits £50,000 for one year.

Bank Fixed-Term Deposit (5% p.a.)

  • Interest earned: £2,500
  • Tax-free allowance: £500
  • Taxable amount: £2,000
  • Income tax at 40%: £800
  • Net gain after tax: £1,700

TallyMoney Account (10% uplift in GBP value from gold growth)

  • Uplift: £5,000
  • Tax-free CGT allowance: £3,000
  • Taxable gain: £2,000 (only if spent or withdrawn)
  • CGT at 24%: £480
  • Net gain after tax: £4,520

     

That’s a £2,820 difference in your favour, and that’s before you factor in that with TallyMoney, you could choose not to realise the gain that year, potentially paying nothing at all.

Want the full picture on Capital Gains Tax?

We’re putting together the Complete Guide to Capital Gains Tax for UK Savers – breaking down allowances, rates, and simple strategies to keep more of what you earn.

Sign up below and we’ll send you the guide as soon as it’s published.

The Real Win – Tax Timing Control

One of TallyMoney’s biggest advantages is that you control the timing of your tax bill.

Say you had that £5,000 uplift, but you didn’t need to spend your tally right away. You could leave it in your account, let it keep tracking gold’s value, and pay no CGT this year.

Later, you might decide to realise gains in a year when you have fewer other capital gains, keeping you under the £3,000 threshold, meaning you pay no tax.

That’s impossible with a bank deposit. As soon as interest hits your account, HMRC counts it towards your annual income, no matter what else you’ve earned.

Why This Matters for Savvy Savers

Financially aware, busy professionals who keep an eye on economic trends already know the pound buys less over time. You’ve probably seen gold prices in the headlines and wondered if it’s worth the hassle of owning bullion.

The problem has always been:

  • Storing and insuring physical gold yourself can be costly.
  • Buying and selling gold bars or coins usually comes with minimum trade sizes and dealer markups.
  • Selling gold to release cash can take days.

TallyMoney solves these pain points. You gain direct ownership of vaulted, insured physical gold, while enjoying the instant access and spend-anywhere flexibility of a current account. Your balance rises and falls with gold’s market value, and the uplift is taxed under CGT rules, not income tax.

A Quick Word on Risk and Reality

Of course, gold prices can move in both directions in the short term. That means your GBP balance in TallyMoney could dip if gold falls. Historically, however, gold has held its value and often risen in periods when currencies lose purchasing power.

And unlike a speculative gamble, you’re holding a 5,000-year-old store of value. The difference is, TallyMoney makes that gold spendable, without you having to sell coins on eBay or queue at a bullion dealer.

Keeping More of What’s Yours

When you compare the tax treatment side-by-side, the numbers speak for themselves.

  • With a traditional savings account, you’re paying income tax every year on any interest above your allowance, whether you touch the money or not.
  • With TallyMoney, the uplift in your account’s GBP value is a capital gain, giving you a much bigger annual tax-free allowance and the power to decide when a tax event happens.

For higher-rate taxpayers especially, that can mean hundreds, even thousands, more in your pocket each year. And unlike fixed-term bank deposits, your tally is always accessible. Spend it with your TallyMoney Debit Mastercard, transfer it back to pounds in seconds, or simply let it sit and grow until the timing suits you.

In a world where inflation quietly erodes your cash and interest rates rarely keep pace, finding ways to grow and retain more of your money is crucial. TallyMoney offers both,  pairing gold’s historic track record for preserving value with a tax treatment that works in your favour.

Ready to take control? Open a TallyMoney account today and see how holding your everyday money in physical gold could help you pay less tax and protect your wealth.


Disclaimer: This blog is for general information only and is not financial or tax advice. Tax rules can change, and how they apply to you will depend on your individual circumstances. If you’re unsure about your situation, consider speaking to a qualified financial adviser or tax specialist.

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Real World Examples

  1. Fancy a coffee? Use your TallyMoney Mastercard. Boom – paid. (Yes, you’re buying a flat white with gold. How amazing is that?)

  2. Need cash? Use any Mastercard ATM worldwide or spend across the globe. ZERO fees from us, ZERO markup. (When you spend or withdraw, your gold converts instantly at the global spot price. No catches, no hidden charges – just straight-up Mastercard exchange rates. Because your money shouldn’t cost you… more money.)

  3. Want some money back in your bank? Just tap ‘transfer’ in the app. (Though after a while, you might wonder why you’d want to…)

    Zero faff. Zero waiting. Zero fees when you spend tally.

Meet Cameron Parry

Meet the guy who wouldn’t accept being trapped in a ‘heads they win, tales we lose’ government-run monetary system that protects and benefits the financial institutions, to the detriment of the public. Where people’s deposits are constantly at risk, and losing value through inflation caused by central bankers and politicians.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then frustration may be the roommate’s cousin of motivation. In any case, he decided to stop getting mad and start a new monetary system with sound money. Where deposits serve the depositor, where savings build wealth for savers, and transactions are made in a familiar way. And he called it TallyMoney.

TallyMoney: Gold upgraded

With TallyMoney:

  • Your pounds instantly become physical gold (1 tally = 1mg of real gold)
    Stored in Swiss vaults (not under your bed)
  • Fully insured and allocated (actually yours, not a paper promise)
  • Spend it anywhere with your TallyMoney debit Mastercard
  • Transfer back to pounds instantly if needed (but why would you?)

We’re not anti-bank because it’s trendy. We’re anti-bank because the current system is rigged against you. Every day you leave money in a “savings” account, you’re funding their profits while your wealth evaporates.

Enter gold: the original currency

Why gold? It’s value is universally acknowledged.

  • It’s not controlled by any single government
  • It can’t be printed or manufactured
  • It’s actually scarce 
  • It requires effort to extract it 
  • It doesn’t rust, decay, or disappear
  • It has remarkable properties

So while the pound’s lost 50% of its value since 2004, gold’s grown by 146% in the last decade alone. While your bank savings got mugged by inflation, gold owners were laughing all the way to… well, not the bank.

But here’s the rub: Traditional gold ownership is a right pain. Buy physical bars? Prepare for storage fees that’ll make your eyes water, insurance premiums that never end, and a 5-10% haircut when you need to sell. Plus, try buying your weekly shop with a gold ingot.
Paper gold ETFs? They’re classed as Tier 3 assets for a reason – that’s financial speak for “risky as hell.” You don’t own gold, you own a promise. A tradeable IOU. And when everyone wants their gold at once? Good luck with that. So you’re stuffed either way: real gold that’s impossible to use, or fake gold that might not be there when you need it.
Until now.

The truth about inflation

How? Well, when politicians overspend (and they invariably do), they need more money to ‘stimulate the economy’. But raising taxes makes voters angry. So what do they do? They fire up the money printer, and boy do they love to print. To give you a sense of the scale, since 2015 the Bank of England has created £520bn out of thin air through “quantitative easing” (electronic money printing) plus £86bn in physical currency. 

Thing is, more pounds in circulation = each pound is worth less. Think about it: In 2004, £100 could buy you a decent night out, theatre tickets, and a cab home. Today? That same £100 barely covers the theatre tickets. Your money didn’t disappear – it was diluted, like someone’s been topping up your whisky with water when you weren’t looking.

The “2% inflation target” they bang on about? That’s them telling you they plan to steal 2% of your wealth every single year. And calling it healthy.

How TallyMoney actually works?

  1. First things first: we’ve got actual gold bullion* (none of that paper-promise nonsense) locked up tight in a Brinks vault in Switzerland. Yeah, those Brinks – the security legends who’ve been protecting valuables since Queen Victoria was on the throne.

  2. You send your pounds to your TallyMoney account (bye-bye, inflation-addicted fiat!).

  3. We use the global gold spot price to instantly turn your currency into its weight in gold. No hidden or fuzzy exchange rates, just the real market gold price + 1.49% gold purchase fee.

  4. Each milligram of your physical gold = 1 tally (we keep it decimal because no one wants to faff about with troy ounces – the specific unit for measuring gold).

  5. That’s it! Your app shows your balance in tally, but remember – those aren’t just numbers on a screen. That’s your solid gold, in milligrams, sitting pretty in Switzerland.
  6. You can now save and spend your gold as you see fit.

*All Tally gold is sourced from LBMA-accredited providers because we’re rebels with a cause… and standards. Instead of tracking the gold price per kg, your money is directly converted based on the real-time global gold spot price.

TallyMoney is 
real money

  1. Store of value
    Your gold sits in a Swiss vault (not getting ‘quantitatively eased’ away)
    Evidenced by 5,000 years of holding its value
    Can’t be inflated by government whim and fingers on the ‘currency print’ button
  2. Medium of exchange
    Spendable at 150+ million shops worldwide (thanks, Mastercard)
    Currency converts instantly at market rates (no sneaky margins)
    Moves as quickly as sending a text 
  3. Unit of account
    1 tally = 1mg of gold. Simple
    Stable enough to actually plan your future with
    Speaks every currency’s language (gold’s kind of a big deal everywhere)

This is why TallyMoney is so much more than just owning Gold – it’s a real financial revolution. We’re not just helping you own gold; we’re bringing back what money was always meant to be. Sound Money for a Brighter Future. Because your hard work and wealth deserve better than being slowly robbed by external forces.

We want you to have real money

  1. A store of value:
    Keeps its value over time
    Insulated from devaluation/inflation
    Actually rare and can’t be created out of thin air
  2. Medium of exchange:
    Easy to use for everyday transactions
    Widely accepted
    Can be transferred efficiently
  3. Unit of account:
    Works like a proper value-measuring stick (imagine if your ruler shrunk every year – mad, right?)
    Splits nicely into useful bits
    Reliable enough to plan your future with

Why does this matter? Because your hard work deserves better than being turned into monopoly money by someone else’s actions. Every time your currency loses value (inflation) its stealing from your past work, which harms your present savings, and your future dreams.