‘Royal baby may have to pay US taxes for life’

Dec 4, 2018 | Tax

Anyone who’s had any dealings with government bureaucracy in ‘the land of the free’ will know that it makes our own dear benefits system look like a Janet and John book (kids etc). Holding a US passport means you must complete a US tax return and pay US tax wherever you live; Eritrea is, astonishingly the only other country with such draconian rules. Investment companies here now have to report any US investors to the US, even those who are also UK citizens. So most won’t take them on and are, sort-of politely, asking those they have to take their business elsewhere. Eritrea, perhaps? No, that wouldn’t help much.

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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.