Chancellor Has Pensions in his Sights

[Malcolm Buggeridge]

Was reading an article in the Money section of de Sunday Times on how Osborne may be cracking down on pensions in his autumn statement.

The author speculates that the maximum allowance could be cut to £30000.

What the article doesn't say is whether this is with respect to personal pensions or company pensions. If the latter, I expect this will affect the tax planning of quite a few people operating within IR35 .

Personally, I've never paid that much in, but I do use company wension contributions as a way of keeping the taxman's sweaty palms off my filthy lucre when caught by IR35

[SimonMac]

Was reading an article in the Money section of de Sunday Times on how Osborne may be cracking down on pensions in his autumn statement.

The author speculates that the maximum allowance could be cut to £30000.

What the article doesn't say is whether this is with respect to personal pensions or company pensions. If the latter, I expect this will affect the tax planning of quite a few people operating within IR35 .

Personally, I've never paid that much in, but I do use company wension contributions as a way of keeping the taxman's sweaty palms off my filthy lucre when caught by IR35

A pension is a pension be it private or corporate, looks likely to be announced 5th December so if you were planning unstick a wad of cash in anytime soon best do it now

[centurian]

Pensions (relief) have been in chancellors sights for years - just they have rarely pulled the trigger.

But this year round, there appears to be few other targets showing up on the scope, that he really doesn't have much of a choice.

£30 is still a fair wedge to get relief upon. I am pretty sure that this will cover all contributions

And it should include appreciation of final salary schemes, which means a few mid level civil servants will get a shock when they net pay drops by a couple of K. I think that's what will stop it from going any lower than £30K, because it will then start to affect the rank and file public sector.

[The Spartan]

With the Civil Service Pension now being Career Average instead of final salary does it make much difference to the end amount?

When I was a Civil Serpent it was your final salary x years worked/60, a bit mental really but I'm just interestedhow much of a difference it would make?

[TestMangler]

With the Civil Service Pension now being Career Average instead of final salary does it make much difference to the end amount?

When I was a Civil Serpent it was your final salary x years worked/60, a bit mental really but I'm just interestedhow much of a difference it would make?

When I was in the CS it was final salary x years worked/80 (up to a max of 40/80). Pension is index linked and comes with a nice 3 x annual pension lump sum attached.

I stand to get enough out of it to buy cigarettes and maybe an ice cream or two. Still better than my private pension though

[The Spartan]

Thing is though why should Civil Serpents be allowed such good pensions it makes no sense whatsoever and it isn't sustainable

[TestMangler]

A compost heap would do better than a private pension.

I've changed from a private pension plan to online poker for my pension fund now.

My fund management strategy is rolled up aces over kings, check raising stupid tourists and taking huge pots off 'em, playing all night no limit Hold 'Em at the Taj...............

[IR35 Avoider]

If I make maximum contributions this year, I will have used up all backlog of unused relief, meaning I'm restricted to 50K next year.

Cut to 30K would affect me if I'm still working, but there is yet another round of out-sourcing going on where I contract, and I'm hoping they'll put me out of my misery by letting me go. (I don't look for work, I only work if/when former client asks, I've never worked out how to say no.)

Wife also contributes about 50K a year, keeping her salary at threshold of higher rate tax, so she'd be affected.

If the limit does change, child benefit would disappear, as we'd no longer be keeping both salaries below threshold.