This QANGO (as nobody now calls such institutions) was set up to suggest improvements, supposedly...
Tax
Inheritance Tax is in need of reform
Yes, Inheritance Tax is in need of reform, but then so is most of our ridiculously complex tax...
“Investors lose appeal over film tax avoidance scheme”
I remember these sorts of schemes being heavily promoted to us as financial advisers a few years...
“HMRC repays ‘sky high’ UK pension emergency tax as total bill tops £1bn”
This annoys a lot of people, and we, as the messenger, often get the blame. Taking a one-off,...
“HMRC rakes in record high of £7.1bn in IHT receipts”
This is hardly a surprise, of course. A decade and a bit of rising house and asset prices, while...
“HMRC U-turns on lifetime allowance death payments change”
The devil is always in the detail. Yes, the pension lifetime allowance has been abolished;...
“England’s poorer pupils face ‘geographic exclusion’ from top state schools – study”
What’s this got to do with financial advice? Well, bear with me. I was a school governor for 15...
“Inheritance tax regime must move with the times”
In my experience, some worry too much about Inheritance Tax, others not enough. Most married...
“IFS calls for govt to scrap 25% tax-free lump sum”
’Scrapping’ the tax-free lump-sum would not be a simple as it sounds. Nothing in the wonderful...
“Over 1 million Brits to be dragged into higher tax bands by 2027”
So, yes, it will cost a lot to give all those strikers and others decent, or at least...
“Pension tax relief ‘cost’ hits £27bn”
The next Budget is a couple of months away. And it may actually be called a Budget this time;...
“‘Teachers reveal scale of pupils’ hunger as 100,000 frozen out of free school meals”
There’s been much talk of the extra ‘stealth’ tax-take likely to be included in next week’s...
“Chancellor scraps 45p income tax change in ‘embarrassing’ U-turn”
I wish this U-turn had been for the right, or for even vaguely altruistic reasons. For instance,...
“How grandparents are facing more restrictions than oligarchs”
I did say some years ago that it’s easier in this country to buy a football club than to pay...
“‘For richer or poorer? Advising cohabiting couples”
The reasons cohabitors give for not marrying is the cost of weddings and divorces, especially...