Business news and opinion from Evans Weir > Tag: personal tax

Our latest Autumn Tax briefing is now available to download here.

The Treasury and HMRC are reportedly looking at the removal of a ‘double tax break’ which currently enables families to inherit pension savings and not pay income tax or Inheritance Tax (IHT) on the proceeds. At present, families inheriting pension savings from somebody who dies before the age of 75 can withdraw funds and not pay any tax on the proceeds.

At the same time as a poll for the Sunday Telegraph suggested voters believe Inheritance Tax (IHT) to be the most unfair tax levied on UK residents, revised HMRC forecasts were suggesting that up to 50,000 more families would be faced with an IHT tax bill by 2028.

With house prices at all time highs, mortgage rates on the increase and disposable incomes under pressure, the property rental market has been booming as individuals, couples and families choose to rent rather than buy. If you’re thinking of buying a property to rent or you’re switching your current property to a rental as part of a relocation, you’re going to need to know about the tax implications of doing so.

The freeze on income tax thresholds is creating a series of tax cliff edge situations for middle income earners according to analysts. The Chancellor has made clear that the income tax thresholds will not change for a ‘few years’ meaning thousands of people are finding themselves paying more tax as their pay increases move them into the next bracket or create effective tax rates through loss of other income streams.

News that HMRC has pulled in almost £650m due to complex inheritance gifting rules in the past three years, has once again highlighted the need for careful estate planning by families. Whilst the overall tax receipts from Inheritance Tax (IHT) between April 2022 and February 2023 were £6.4 billion, the focus of this latest news is on the proportion collected as a result of gifts made by the deceased in the period leading up to their death.

Analysis by HMRC suggests that millions of investors will be hit hard by the planned reductions in the dividend allowance coming into effect in April 23 and April 24.

Back in 2015, then Chancellor George Osborne, shook up the dividend taxation system, overhauling an area of economic policy that had not been touched for years. But now the present day Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has signalled what appears to be the death knell for the allowance as he set out plans in November 2022, to reduce it to just £500 in the 2024/25 tax year.

The Chancellor’s budget announcement that personal allowances and the threshold for the higher rate tax band will be frozen until April 2028, will see thousands more individuals paying higher levels of tax as a result. It is estimated that the move will see more than 200,000 (two-hundred-thousand) individuals moving into the higher rate tax band alone.

If there’s one thing the recent hokey cokey of Chancellors and fiscal policy has achieved it has to be a rigorous testing of our sentiment towards taxation. Whilst it is hard to imagine that anyone has found this funny or even useful for personal and commercial planning purposes, as a research case study it provides tremendous insight on public opinion and our threshold for taxation.

If you’re in the process of writing a will or starting to talk to you family about what your estate looks like, then you may be asking yourself how you can reduce the amount your heirs will be paying in IHT.