The fees for obtaining probate in England and Wales have increased. The fee charged to obtain probate in England and Wales has been increased from £273 to £300 (10%) and for confirmation in Scotland, which has a sliding scale by 2%. Northern Ireland revised its probate fees in November 2023. Whether the higher […]
There are several ways to minimise the amount of IHT your family pay when you’re gone. In addition to maximising IHT allowances, other planning opportunities include utilising gift exemptions. Making IHT-free gifts Each financial year you can make gifts of up to £3,000 (in total, not per recipient) and if you don’t use this in […]
In the first ten months of the 2023/24 financial year, HMRC collected £6.3bn in IHT receipts, £0.4bn more than the same period the previous fiscal year. This represents a 6.8% rise year-on-year and suggests this year’s annual figure will comfortably surpass last year’s record-breaking total of £7.1bn. With the nil-rate threshold frozen at £325,000 for […]
National Savings provides a glimpse of the new bond promised in the Spring Budget. Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget had an emphasis on Britishness with talk of “the great British pub”, ‘the British ISA’ (now a UK ISA) and ‘Great British Nuclear’. Included on the list of Britishness was the promise of a new ‘British Savings […]
New research has put some surprising numbers on the income needed in retirement. Each year since 2019, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has set about answering the question of how much retirement costs for couples and single retirees. It considers three different Retirement Living Standards, which are summarised as: Minimum: covers all your […]
An independent report suggests that the State pension age (SPA) should rise much faster than planned. The next SPA rise begins in under two years with a phased increase to 67 ending in April 2028. Yet, neither main political parties are likely to say much about further SPA changes in their upcoming election manifestos. The […]
