The tax-free lump sum offered by most pension arrangements steps back into the spotlight as the Autumn Budget nears. “Anomalous, but much loved” was how one Chancellor, the late Nigel Lawson, described the tax-free lump sum from pensions in his 1985 Budget. Fast forward 41 years and 13 Chancellors later, the tax-free lump sum has […]
A new HMRC consultation paper is concerning news if you make self assessment tax payments on account. As the summer temperatures soared throughout the UK, HMRC released a large consultation document seemingly designed to make many taxpayers even hotter under the collar. It proposed a new regime for the 3.6 million taxpayers within self assessment […]
The government has published a consultation document on the replacement for the Lifetime ISA (LISA). The Lifetime ISA (LISA) was unveiled in the March 2016 Budget to no great fanfare. It was widely criticised at the time for attempting to address two different issues: Saving for the purchase of a first home – a relatively […]
New HMRC research places an uncomfortably large number on the estimated amount of outstanding unpaid tax. £59.2 billion is a serious amount of money: about £850 a head for every man, woman and child in the UK. In the context of UK tax, £59.2 billion is: HMRC’s estimate of the ‘tax gap’ in 2024/25, literally […]
The law in England and Wales is moving a step closer to treating married and unmarried couples in a similar way. “Over 3.5 million couples live together without getting married or entering a civil partnership, a number that has more than doubled over the past three decades. Despite this, cohabiting couples and their children have […]
The House of Commons Treasury Committee has published a critical report on the operation of student loans. Earlier this year the Department for Education (DfE) announced a 6% interest cap on Plan 2 student loans for one year from September 2026. The DfE press release claimed that the measure would “…protect students and graduates in […]
