“Review of pension freedoms ‘inevitable’ under Labour govt”

May 27, 2024 | Pensions

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

Pronouncements on the detail of pensions are never likely to be election winners or swayers. When the manifestos finally arrive, my guess they’ll say no more than that certain aspects will be ‘reviewed’ with ‘consultation’. Labour did oppose pension freedoms when they were sprung upon them in G Osborne’s 2015 budget but have since ‘read the room’ and seen how popular they are. Similarly, I can’t see further tinkering with the lifetime allowance being a priority. But one things for sure, they will not be able to resist a fairly major tinkering with a fair number of pension regulations; because no government or chancellor ever has. And they whatever they do will make life still more complicated; because it always does.

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“HMRC: ‘digitalising tax process could close gap’”

“HMRC: ‘digitalising tax process could close gap’”

You, like a majority of both taxpayers and accountants, may have been sweating and cursing over a keyboard last week to submit a last-minute tax return. Many by the end of that accursed process will have been shouting ‘bring back paper!’, a vain and pointless hope, I’m afraid.