Comment and Blogs
In April 2017 the Scottish Rate of Income Tax was introduced, which may have gone largely unnoticed by many Scottish taxpayers as the overall basic rate remained at 20% - albeit 10% going to HMRC and the other 10% to Revenue Scotland.
Read more: Lisa Webster: How Scottish tax changes will affect pensions
Over the last few weeks there’s been a fair amount of noise regarding IHT reforms. First we had The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS)’s call for evidence, and more recently the Intergenerational Commission (IC)’s “Passing on” report on options for reforming IHT.
Read more: Lisa Webster: IHT reforms - what could it mean for pensions?
On Valentine’s Day this year I received not only a lovely card and flowers from my husband, but also an email from my financial adviser about a new specialist divorce service they were offering.
Read more: Webster: Divorce and pensions - for richer and poorer
SSASs have been in for a bit of a battering over the last year or so. Tainted by misuse from scammers, efforts to control the rogues have had serious implications for legitimate businesses trying to set up and run these small occupational schemes.
Normally the end of the year is quiet in terms of changes to the pensions industry, but 2017 bucked this trend with a very sensible move by the Scottish government.
From 1 April, just three months away, there are significant changes coming into effect that will impact the leases of commercial properties held within a SIPP or SSAS in the UK.
Read more: Elaine Turtle: Big changes on property will affect SIPPs