“HMRC U-turns on lifetime allowance death payments change”

Apr 16, 2023 | Tax

Tags: HMRC, Pensions

The devil is always in the detail. Yes, the pension lifetime allowance has been abolished; possibly temporarily if Labour keep it on their list of stuff to un-abolish, if and when. The amount of tax-free cash you can take if you’re lucky enough to have a giant pension fund is still ‘capped’ at 25% of the current (now-abolished) lifetime allowance. And on death, if the pension is above the (now-abolished) lifetime allowance, those who receive it will have, instead of a ‘lifetime allowance’ tax charge, income tax based on the tax position of the recipients, the family or beneficiaries. The pension providers who would have had to collate and police this have protested at the delays this would cause, and so for the moment the idea has been dropped. As always, particularly where pensions are involved, ‘simplification’ adds yet more layers of complexity, eyes glaze over, and yet more wonder: ‘why bother?’

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“TV presenter wins 10-year IR35 battle against HMRC”

“TV presenter wins 10-year IR35 battle against HMRC”

The infamous ‘IR35’ dates from the Gordon Brown (kids etc.) era. It was intended to stop contractors effectively working for companies as if self-employed and avoiding many of the costs, NI for one, of being employed; for both the non-employee and employer.