For those who didn't hang on George Osborne's every word, we've compiled the interesting bits of the Budget. The key theme was 'Britain deserves a pay rise', with the emphasis being on tax relief rather than tax credits. The most relevant highlights included:
Effective removal of inheritance tax on most family homes from 2017
Introduction of a tax lock: no increase on main rates of income tax, NI or VAT
Higher rate tax threshold to be raised from £42,385 to £43,000 in 2016-17
Businesses and charities allowed to claim up to £3,000 off their NI contributions from 2016.
We live in the age of consumer feedback - we're more likely to buy a book based on a reader's review than a critic's. But can you apply the same principle to advice? When we polled users of our site, we found consumers to be much more sceptical than we imagined. Of online reviews, they said:
9% I generally rely on them
24% I think a lot of them are fake
21% Reviews can tell you something but not everything
Since pension freedom was announced, fraudulent activity has been on the rise. A recent report in the FT Adviser announced that as many as one in five over 50s have been targeted by scammers - a figure that looks set to grow. That's why we've recently launched a dedicated 'Pension scams and fraud' page to give tips on how to spot a fraudster.
Faced with insistent clients who want to transfer safeguarded benefits, advisers can feel they're between a rock and a hard place. Robin Nimmo, strategic insight manager at Royal London, lays out the facts and explains the responsibilities of advisers when clients make these requests.
Category: News Tagged: pensions, retirement, tax
