The way savings are taxed is being reviewed by the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS). The OTS is looking at the way in which savings and investment income is taxed, which can be very complicated. According to its paper, published in May 2018, “the interactions between the [tax] rates and allowances is sufficiently complex at…

Transfers out of private sector final salaries boomed in 2017. There was a dramatic increase in the value of number of transfers out of defined benefit (usually final salary) pension schemes in 2017. A recent Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revealed that the £20,800 million was transferred last year,…

The Bank of England did not raise interest rates in May, despite earlier suggestions that it would. About four years ago a member of the Treasury Select Committee compared Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, to “an unreliable boyfriend”. The remark was prompted by Mr Carney’s record of talking about future interest…

A new report has proposed taxing the baby boomers to help resolve major issues around intergenerational fairness. The report, published by the Intergenerational Commission in May, offers ten policy recommendations which would represent a radical overhaul of the UK tax system. Examples include replacing inheritance tax with “a lifetime receipts tax that is levied on…