The Lifetime Allowance Dilemma

Jun 27, 2023 | Tax

So here’s a horny dilemma. The Lifetime Allowance was (mostly) abolished in the last Budget. I say mostly, because the limit on how much tax-free cash you can take from a pension is still in place as are one or two other, arguably anachronistic elements of one of the most complex elements of the extremely complex pension rulebooks. Labour famously and immediately said they would unabolish it, and as the headline affirms, most advisers believe them, or at least believe they’ll win the next election. So should we tell clients who have or may have pensions larger than the allowance as was, to take benefits they may not need while the going is good, perhaps worsening their tax position in other ways? Or follow the accepted wisdom, that you should only plan on the basis of the known, rather than the might be in the future? Damned if you do…

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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.