We’ve been involved in many a technical, post-Budget follow-up session with various specialists, most of which have focused on Inheritance Tax. As is often the case, the devil is in the detail and there is a lot of detail where IHT is concerned. That affects both planning already done, and what can be done in the future. The big changes, as already much-discussed, are pensions, now subject to IHT and AIM investments, now only half-free of IHT (leaving aside the F-for-Farming word). The devil-detail involves stuff which has not been clarified and/or which they hadn’t thought of when they came up with the new rules; for instance how tax on pensions will be collected and whether you can move from AIM investments to other investments which will still help to reduce IHT. A couple of interesting take-aways, however. Firstly, there will now be much more certainty about what can or can’t be done, as this government are clear that ‘this is it’ and a future maybe Conservative version is unlikely to make it worse. And there is time and there are planning options, which means, if advisers do their jobs, the tax-take might not be as turbo-charged as they expect.
“2024 a mixed year for sustainable investing, report finds”
lthough in theory the environment (pardon the) for sustainable/ethical/responsible funds improved significantly last year, the performance of many did not. Excluding oil/mining/guns/fags all hampered their performance in the aftermath of Ukraine.