“Lords to probe shake-up of IR35 rules”

Feb 6, 2020 | Government

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

‘IR35’ basically says that if you’re ‘self-employed’ but only do work for one company, you’re actually an employee, should be taxed like one and get holidays, maternity leave etc. etc.. It’s been around for 20 years or more and has been difficult, nigh impossible to enforce. The conundrum is, it would raise a lot more tax; but would make a lot of workers and companies a lot worse off. So getting tough on it could be a major own-goal. I’d say.

Read more

luke stackpoole mOEqOtmuPG8 unsplash scaled
“Record year for annuity sales driven by advisers”

“Record year for annuity sales driven by advisers”

I was asked this week whether annuities are now ‘a good investment’. They’ve been recommended very rarely in recent years, since ‘pension freedoms’ allowed pretty much unlimited drawdown on pension funds and anything left to be passed on to beneficiaries free of Inheritance Tax.