The last-minute dash to beat the 31 October payand-file deadline brings the usual frustrations, as stressed-out accountants seek to squeeze their clients' tax returns through a Revenue system operating at full throttle.

Working against the clock is hardly the best approach to sensible tax planning. Yet, by dragging their heels until the deadline is almost upon them, thousands of people are forced to make important financial decisions on the spot.

Pensions are a prime example. By stuffing money into a retirement fund before the end of the month, they can cut their tax exposure for 2005 considerably. But this leaves little time to pick through all the different investment strategies and pension fund managers on the market. All pension funds qualify for tax relief but some have a much better chance of yielding a decent income in retirement than others.

If you are still struggling with the form-filling, here are five tax tips to watch out for before filing your return.

Capital Gains Tax With the emphasis on income tax, it is all too easy to forget that 31 October is also a deadline for capital gains tax. This can be a costly oversight for anyone who has made money from selling property or shares since the start of the year.

"When people think about the pay-and-file deadline, they think about income tax, either the balance due for 2005 or preliminary tax for 2006, " says Brian Keegan, head of taxation at the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

"It's easy to overlook that you also have to pay tax on any gains made in the first nine months of the year by 31 October."

PRSI on pensions We all know that pensions qualify for tax relief but people who take pension planning into their own hands risk losing the valuable relief from PRSI that is also available.

The system is riddled with inequalities. If you contribute to an employer's occupational pension, you automatically get relief from PAYE and PRSI through the payroll.

If you make your own pension arrangements, you get the same relief from income tax but, until relatively recently, you did not qualify for any PRSI relief.

This has now been changed so that a PRSI refund can be claimed on pension payments made after 1 January 2003. But problems remain and they need urgent attention, according to the prebudget submission published last week by the accountancy bodies.

"An employed taxpayer can claim a PRSI refund where he or she makes a pension contribution but a self-employed person cannot, " the submission states. "This is inequitable and counterproductive in an environment where all citizens are being asked to make proper provision for their retirement."

Property shelters The Revenue announced in August that it was getting tough with taxpayers who fail to disclose enough detail about their investments in property-based tax shelters, which can in some cases wipe out your tax bills completely.

If you claim the relief but fail to give all of the detail required, the Revenue has threatened to return the form to you for completion. At worst, this could expose you to penalties and surcharges.

According to the taxman: "In view of Revenue's commitment to provide timely and accurate statistics to the Department of Finance, it has been decided that a more vigorous approach to the screening of . . . the forms is required."

Individualisation Single-income families can reduce their tax bills considerably by transferring some of their income-producing assets to the stay-at-home spouse. In theory, families should be able to earn 64,000 a year before falling into the top 42% tax band. But this threshold drops to 41,000 if all the income is earned by one spouse.

This creates a powerful incentive to distribute the income more evenly, although the taxman will pounce on any artificial arrangements that have been cobbled together just to avoid tax.

Medical expenses One of the most potentially lucrative tax breaks, because it is available at the top 42% rate, medical expenses relief is also one of the most commonly overlooked.

The list of qualifying expenses is long and, apart from the predictable such as doctors' bills, it covers the cost of all prescription drugs. This means that even the cost of the contraceptive pill can be written off against tax.

It is also worth remembering that the portion of any medical bills not covered by VHI or Bupa can qualify for tax relief.