Historically, married couples and those in civil partnerships have been in a more tax privileged position – such as with income, capital gains and inheritance tax – than those couples who cohabit. Many see this, understandably, as outdated and unfair, and the recent challenge of the Marriage Allowance by Labour also reflects this view. There …

A pension increase exchange (PIE) is where an individual is offered a one off higher scheme pension with no further non-statutory increases. The acceptance of a PIE by the member may not always be straightforward, as intimated in my previous article on its potential impact on the annual allowance. In this second article, I consider …

We can all agree that parliamentary chaos and the ensuing bumbling around Brexit created an extended stint of market uncertainty. This has undoubtedly impacted investor sentiment and resulted in lower inflows and growth across the platform sector, in a way that we’ve not seen for some time. But amidst all the doom and gloom there …

Obligations facing sponsoring employers of defined benefit schemes have led many to consider ways to mitigate their liability, and in effect de-risk the scheme. One such method is to offer a pension increase exchange, or ‘PIE’, where an individual is offered a one-off higher pension with no further non-statutory increases. The PIE is in lieu …

One thing I never had to contend with in reality was the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) as fortunately my daughter ceased to qualify for Child Benefit just before the charge came into force in January 2013. HICBC applies where an individual or their partner receives child benefit, and either of them has income …

A year and a half after the then Chancellor, Philip Hammond, wrote to the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) asking them to review inheritance tax (IHT), their second report titled ‘Simplifying the design of IHT’ has finally been released. The OTS’s first report focussed on feedback from their consultation and ways of simplifying the administration …

When Boris Johnson announced that if he becomes the next Prime Minister he will increase the 40% tax threshold from £50,000 to £80,000, there was a degree of scepticism as to whether he could deliver on what at first appears to be an exceptionally generous promise. Might this just be another exaggerated claim similar to …

Back in February – in the days when the original Brexit date was imminent – we spent 4 weeks touring the country and saw 361 advisers and paraplanners across 12 of our Masterclasses. With Brexit and market volatility in mind, we wanted to find out from our audiences of financial planners, whether they are providing …

HMRC’s recent study titled, ‘Lifetime gifting: reliefs, exemptions, and behaviours’ set out to explore peoples’ awareness of Inheritance Tax (IHT) rules and exemptions and to what extent these factors drive gifting behaviour. The results, published in May, gave an interesting steer as to what motivates individuals to gift, and it appears it was not as …

Giving gifts is never easy, but when inheritance tax is involved it becomes a hell of a lot trickier and if not managed appropriately, a simple gift could bring unintended consequences to beneficiaries In the run up to the end of the tax year I received a lot of questions on the use of the …