There’s been much talk of the extra ‘stealth’ tax-take likely to be included in next week’s budget/financial statement/let’s call the whole thing off (kids etc.). The pension lifetime allowance and inheritance tax thresholds will be frozen, so that as inflation inflates the value of estates and pension funds, more tax is payable. And, yes, investment returns are usually inflated, Not so many years ago, the top rate of return we were able to project for pensions was 13%; it’s still currently 9%. But here’s the real disgrace. In a country where many have the ‘problem’ of paying more tax on big inheritances and pensions, stealth cuts mean kids who desperately need them can no longer get school meals. Isn’t that why we pay taxes in the first place? Shame on us all that this can happen in the world’s sixth wealthiest country.
“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.
