“Ed Sheeran puts a song in taxman’s heart with £28m contribution”

Feb 1, 2021 | Tax

Hearing about Ed Sheeran’s (parents etc.) £28m tax bill may have made you grind your teeth a little less if you had to fork out on 31st Jan. He pays a lot of tax because he’s chosen to live in Suffolk; but also because he doesn’t have to share his royalties or, more importantly these days, ticket sales with other pesky band members. He uses technology (and a bit of talent) to do everything himself. Which you can do in a lot of businesses these days, including, or perhaps especially, financial advice. The downside, to quote a songster of an earlier (kids etc.) vintage: ‘Oh, what a lonely boy’. Although I’m sure Ed’s not short of friends.

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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.