I remember these sorts of schemes being heavily promoted to us as financial advisers a few years ago. The idea was that you could help the film industry, get a little of the glamour of being a movie financier and it would all be tax-free and bring down your tax bill into the bargain. My mantra on these things have always been that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is; and if I don’t understand it (what the heck is ‘sideways relief’ when it’s at home?), I shouldn’t be recommending it. So I didn’t. I know a few clients who were tempted and had a go themselves, but had the sense to realise it was a gamble which might not (and didn’t) pay off, in both cases because the films were never made. Many advisers working in the ‘high net worth’ market, however, did try to be, in my opinion, rather too clever, and it seems both they and their now not so high net worth clients may have caught a nasty cold. Caveat Emptor.
“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.