“Treasury responds to pension tax relief speculation”

Jul 12, 2018 | Tax

Another year, another rumour that pension tax relief will be cut. Apparently, May has given Hammond ‘free rein’ to raise £20bn for the NHS, and once again pensions are a soft target. Now they’re pretty much compulsory in the workplace, making them more expensive js an easy tax-take. Rather like taxing car insurance premiums, with the usual argument that it’s those fat cats ‘with the broadest shoulders’ who will suffer most. Trouble is, the level at which one becomes an obese feline is reducing year on year; and, alas, it’s likely to be as ineffective as Boris’s £350m per week.

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“HMRC scraps plans to tax pensions after death”

“HMRC scraps plans to tax pensions after death”

A couple of other Statement Highlights (in my world, anyway). A welcome ‘nothing happened’ on the treatment of pensions on death. They were never going to be liable to IHT (too complicated with trusts and trust law) but there was talk of making them income-taxable on the recipients at whatever age you die.

“Raising IHT threshold could cost government £6bn”

“Raising IHT threshold could cost government £6bn”

Well, the lesson of this week in politics must be to expect the unexpected. Or, alternative interpretation, to expect more of the same. The speculation on the future of Inheritance Tax has switched from abolition to a rise in the amount of wealth you can have before the 40% payment hits.