Three headlines this week which should give rise to at least a bit of concern amongst the adviser community. More than should be are taking money, taxable as well as tax-free, from their pensions without taking advice; which might be fine, but how it’s done can have a big effect on both tax and what might be left for the future. We also heard that DIY ‘we don’t give advice’ platform Hargreaves Lansdown have seen their new business triple so far this year; while oft-maligned industry giant St James Place’s business has halved. Now many of those pension and other DIY-ers may not be deemed, or may not feel they’re worthy or sizeable enough to become clients of your average financial adviser. But in the end, many will end up saving perhaps 1% in charges and losing much more in other ways, through tax or poor investment choices. A potential lose-lose for many, I’m afraid.
“Jeremy Vine latest to face HMRC in IR35 battle”
Yes, you heard it here first, there was something good in Liz Truss’s mini-budget: she abolished, or tried to abolish IR35. The ‘IR’ stands for Inland Revenue, so you can see it’s a regulation, or attempt at a regulation, which goes back to pre-HMRC days (that’s when it was merged with Customs & Excise, kids etc.).
