WHO WANTS TO BE AN ‘ISA MILLIONAIRE’?

TODAY’S BLOG

WHO WANTS TO BE AN ‘ISA MILLIONAIRE’?

Tax-free savings accounts have been ‘a thing’ since the introduction of PEPs in 1986.

In 1990 TESSAs were born, with ISAs appearing for the first time in 1999.

So for the last 36 years, it has been possible (and encouraged) to save tax-free up to certain limits.

As you are probably aware the current limit for ISAs is £20,000 per tax year.

There was an article in the news recently saying that HMRC has confirmed that there are now more than 2,000 ‘ISA Millionaires’ in the UK.

The first ever ISA Millionaire is thought to be Lord Lee of Trafford. He hit the £1,000,000 mark in 2003 (sixteen years after investing his first £1). He invested the full amounts allowed each year into stocks and shares accounts (totalling £126,000). All interest and dividends were invested back into his portfolio and the power of compounding is clearly demonstrated here (with growth in the sum of just under £900,000 to hit that magical £1million).

There is no Capital Gains Tax to be paid on it and no Income Tax on the dividends either. It IS what it ‘says on the tin’ … completely tax-free.

It has been calculated that investors putting in their first £1 today could become ISA millionaires in approximately 22 years (depending on returns) – and that’s if the annual allowance remains at £20,000!

So when you hear any of us on the Team at Solomon’s ‘reminding’ and ‘gently nudging’ you about making annual ISA contributions (or better still – setting up a monthly Direct Debit!) – there is a very good reason for this.

We encourage all our clients to save regularly in this way and maximise the allowances whenever possible – and so this is yet another timely reminder from us that if you want to use your allowance for the 21/22 tax year – you must do so very soon – time is running out – and it’s a case of ‘use it or lose it’.

Please let us know urgently if you are intending on making a contribution to your ISA in the 21/22 tax year, so that we can make sure this is processed within the deadlines.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]

GET IN TOUCH

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The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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WHO WANTS TO BE AN ‘ISA MILLIONAIRE’?Jemima Thomas2024-02-08T16:46:07+00:00

Inheritance tax is easy money for HMRC

Dominic Thomas
Jan 2022 • 1 min read

Inheritance tax is easy money for HMRC

Few weekends go by without one of the main newspapers doing a story on inheritance tax. I imagine that is because inheritance tax is often cited as the most loathed tax. The general view being that Government gets taxes whilst you are alive and the final indignity is to take more upon death. A 2015 YouGov report indicated its unpopularity.

If you have been reading any of my blogs over the years, you will know that I am rather sceptical of surveys and their results being understood to represent an entire population. The survey in question had a sample size of 1,975 adults. Not enormous out of a population of 66million. There are all sorts of problems with sampling data – but I digress, it is from my anecdotal experience of 3 decades, unpopular.

In March, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) projected 15% growth in inheritance tax (IHT) receipts from £5.2bn in 2020/21 to £6bn for 2021/22. They projected this sum to rise to £7.1bn in IHT receipts in 2024/25, after allowing for indexation of the bands which had been due to start in April 2021.

BACK TO ALL BLOGS

Inheritance tax is easy money for HMRCDominic2025-10-06T12:06:09+01:00

Self employed V LTD company

Dominic Thomas
Nov 2021 • 4 min read

Self employed v LTD company

Those of you that run a small business or provide a professional service are typically either self-employed or operate a small Limited company. The main legal advantage of a Limited company is that any liability is limited to the company and the Director cannot be harassed for funds owed to creditors should the business fail. The company is a legal entity in it own right.

The Chancellor’s plan to increase the main corporation tax rate from 19% to 25% in April 2023 has once again brought into focus the question of whether it makes sense to incorporate your business if you are currently self-employed. Although tax alone should not be the determinant, it can be a major factor in many instances.

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS

The first point to note is that the 25% rate will generally only apply for companies with profits of at least £250,000. Up to £50,000 of profits, the current corporation tax rate of 19% will continue, albeit labelled a small companies’ rate. In between those limits, the tax rate will be 19% on the first £50,000 of profits and 26.5% on the excess. This can mean that if you incorporate when your profits are modest, you may regret the move if your business starts to make more money.

How you draw income from your company will determine your overall tax bill. In the examples below, we have assumed:

All of the profits will be drawn. This makes the picture consistent with the self-employed alternative under which all profits are taxed.
You draw a salary of £8,840 a year from your company. At this level neither you nor your company will have any National Insurance Contributions (NICs) to pay.
All your profit, after deducting your salary, is taxed at corporation tax rates and then paid to you as a dividend.
The first £2,000 of your dividend is free of tax thanks to the dividend allowance, but still counts as part of your total income for tax purposes.

So, let’s consider the same scenario, but with larger numbers, double at revenue of £150,000…

The higher profit level highlights the impact of the corporation tax change: at £75,000 the corporation tax bill increases between 2021 and 2023 by 9.6%, but at £150,000 the bill jumps by 25.5%.

MORE IS MORE

If the corporation tax increase goes ahead – and there are voices suggesting it might be tweaked nearer the time – then on tax grounds the case for incorporation will be weakened, particularly at higher profit levels. However, as mentioned above, tax is not the only consideration.

ACTION

The numbers above are for two specific profit levels. Comparative calculations are complicated by the phasing out of the personal allowance, so there is no straight line between the £75,000 and £150,000 results.

The corporation tax move is another step on the slow path to rationalising the taxation of earnings between employees, the self-employed and owner directors. For a review of your personal situation and the tax saving opportunities available now, please talk to us.

For what its worth (nothing) if I were Chancellor, I’d have standard rates of tax irrespective of where the income is derived. This would make tax much more transparent, straight-forward and easier for everyone to understand. The problem lies in the will of Government.

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Self employed V LTD companyDominic2025-02-17T17:00:06+00:00

RISING COST OF A SECOND HOME

TODAY’S BLOG

RISING COST OF A SECOND HOME

Second home owners face a clampdown over a tax loophole that can save them money by claiming the properties are available for holiday lets. Currently around 60,000 properties classed as holiday lets are liable for business tax rather than council tax, which in the vast majority of cases currently means paying nothing at all. The Treasury said it would “ensure that owners of properties that are not genuine businesses are not able to reduce their tax liability by declaring that a property is available for let but make little or no realistic effort to actually let it out”. It was announced as part of a raft of consultation documents on tax published by the Treasury which also included plans to shake up air passenger duty (APD).

SOLOMONS IFA RISING COSTS OF A Holiday Home

THE TAXMAN COMETH

The holiday lets move relates to properties in England which the owner declares are intended to be made available to let 140 days in the coming year, making them liable for business rates rather than council tax. In about 96% of cases, they have such a low rateable value that they qualify for small business rates relief which means they pay nothing at all.

There is currently no requirement for checks to verify that the properties are actually commercially rented out.

Following a consultation launched in 2018, the government said it would now legislate to tighten the rules. Also included in the series of consultations were proposals to cut down on inheritance tax red tape, reducing the paperwork families need to fill out. The government also published an interim report on its review of the business rates system – long the subject of calls for change from the retail sector – detailing responses from some firms. But a final report will not be published until the autumn.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]

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The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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RISING COST OF A SECOND HOMEDominic2025-01-21T16:33:57+00:00

THE TROUBLE WITH CASH ISAs

TODAY’S BLOG

THE TROUBLE WITH ISAS

HMRC have published their data about ISAs to the end of the 2018/19 tax year. Their data is reliable or should be because you will recall that each ISA requires your unique National Insurance number. As a result, it is possible to provide accurate data about income, age, gender, and employment.

The deeply disturbing news is that the vast bulk of ISAs are cash ISAs. Cash ISAs are glorified deposit accounts, cash is not a sensible long-term investment strategy, it is a perfect short-term spending strategy. As cash rates have declined from not very much to virtually nothing over the last 20 years, Cash ISAs have basically failed to keep pace with inflation.

“BUT CASH ISAs ARE LOW RISK”

“But Cash ISAs are low risk” you cry, well… what you really mean is that the value doesn’t go up and down (volatility) your assertion would be right, but when you factor inflation into the actual real world, then Cash ISAs are pretty much basically always guaranteed to go down. The risk you run is one of running out of money and the power of your pound shrinks.

There may of course be good reasons for holding Cash ISAs, but based on income range, people over £30,000 generally have more stocks and shares ISAs than Cash ISAs – though its still a fairly close-run thing.

“BUT AT LEAST CASH ISAs ARE TAX FREE”

Cash ISAs are tax free, that is certainly true. What that means is that the interest paid to you on your deposit is tax free. All good… well, it was. Since 6 April 2016 there has been a personal savings allowance. Basic Rate (20%) taxpayers are able to earn interest of £1,000 without it being taxed. Higher Rate taxpayers have a £500 allowance and Additional Rate – well, of course we know that it is politically expedient to be seen to punish anyone earning £150,000 or more, so no tax-free savings for you!

WHY LOCK INTO A DEPRECIATING ASSET?

Taking a basic rate taxpayer with interest rates at something like 1.5% at best, then you would need more than £66,000 in your cash ISA before any tax would be applied to the interest. At 1% it would require £100,000. Higher rate taxpayers simply halve the numbers. As for the tax that would be applied on interest above that – well no more than a round of drinks for most people.

A quick trawl of Cash ISA rates today (30/06/2020) and the very best rate I can find is 1.25% if you want to lock your cash up for 7 years… why anyone would do this is beyond me. Then there is the aggravation of regularly looking for a better rate and the hassle of moving your really rather duff Cash ISA into a different one. Life is too short for this nonsense isn’t it?

Similarly, junior ISAs – why bother holding cash for a child for 18 years and missing out on investment growth over nearly 2 decades. It is madness. Investors and savers really must understand what risk really means.

The value of ISAs to the end of the data was £584billion, of which cash ISAs account for 46% yet make up 76% of all ISAs. The chart below (from the HMRC bulletin – so labelled Chart 4) shows the fluctuating but growing value of shares in ISAs. Remember all are being added to each tax year, but the vast majority of the money each year goes into Cash ISAs.

CONFESSIONS OF A CASH ADDICT

OK – so you have some cash ISAs. I am not saying you shouldn’t have them, but only do so if you intend to spend the money fairly soon (within 3-5 years tops). Otherwise you are missing out on a lot of growth and the ability to keep the power of your £ working for you. If you would like a review, do some of the legwork, compile a list of your Cash ISAs, the balances, the Banks or Building Societies that they are with and the current rate of interest you earn. If there is a fixed rate, confirm when that ends. Then send me the information.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – [email protected]
Call – 020 8542 8084

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THE TROUBLE WITH CASH ISAsDominic2023-12-01T12:13:16+00:00

TAXED INCOME ?

TODAY’S BLOG

TAXED INCOME?

We have all applauded those that work in the NHS to help reduce deaths and improve recovery of anyone suffering from COVID19 or frankly any other life-threatening condition. We have also become aware of our reliance on people, who are not terribly well paid, but ensure that our local food is picked, packed, stocked, stacked and delivered and or course countless other services.

We have marvelled at the amount of money raised by a man aged 99 who celebrated his 100th birthday and was honoured for his efforts. These are all good things, but it must surely leave you wondering why the extra money is needed to pay for the NHS. Blaming multinationals like Amazon is all too easy, perhaps we need to reflect on our own tax system.

Here is my problem – we know that taxes are required, but we also know that the State wastes money. We all have an opinion on who, what, why and how our taxes should be made available to. My job is to help you to ensure that your money outlasts you. I do this by using investments, getting you to think and plan ahead for all manner of possibilities and I use the prevailing legitimate tax system properly.

£2,500 A MONTH – THE NEW BASE LINE?

The Government seem to believe that most people can survive on £2,500 a month (taxable), that’s £30,000 a year. In practice excluding national insurance, that would be a net income of roughly £26,500 with basic rate tax paid of £3,500. I have also excluded any pension payments or charitable giving. You will recall that there is a personal allowance of £12,500 (0% income tax) for those with income below £100,000.

By way of simply showing how an adviser can achieve this level of income for you (tax free) here are some options. Doing them all would far exceed the target £26,500 income, but hopefully you will see my point.

If aged 55 but not yet drawing a State Pension. You could crystallise £16,665 of an investment-based pension. This would generate £4,166.25 as tax free cash and £12,498.75 as taxable income, but as it is within the £12,500 threshold there would be no income tax to pay. However you would then find yourself restricted to a maximum £4000pa of new contributions to pensions (called the Money Purchase Annual Allowance or MPAA).
Alternatively, you could simply crystallise £106,000 of an investment based pension, take 25% (£26,500) as tax free cash and leave the balance to grow.
An investment portfolio will regularly have gains (that’s the point after all). A growth of say 5% over a year on a fund of £234,000 can use £12,300 of the capital gains tax allowance – 0% tax. Trigger a larger gain and the gains above £12,300 are taxed at a lower rate of 10% or maybe 20% (but not if you do these other things).
Perhaps rent a room for a tax free £7,500 a year
Draw 5% of your capital back from an investment bond, so a Bond of £100,000 would provide £5,000
Any money drawn from ISAs would be tax free, but taking say £8,535 from an ISA would take the total “income” from all these to £50,000 and not a penny of income tax would be paid.

EARNED INCOME IS TAXED MORE

Yet if this was earned income in 2020/21 income tax of £7,498.20 would be due with a further £4,860 of National Insurance a total of £12,358.20 leaving a net income of £37,641.80. This is makes full use of the basic rate tax, any income above this would be taxed at 40% or 45%.

The point I am making is that how much tax is paid is very much dependent on where your money is and how it is generated. It’s certainly the case that not everyone has these sums of money (which are likely to have been taxed before). However, this is only the basic stuff and exposes the problem of a complex tax system that punishes those earning income far more than those with capital.

IF YOU ARE NOT A CLIENT

If you are reading this and not a client, do not conclude that the above is advice to you, it is not. The calculations that we do can be complex and relate to each individual situation, never rely on generic information about money, except for spend less than you earn.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – [email protected]
Call – 020 8542 8084

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Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
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Email – [email protected] Call – 020 8542 8084

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TAXED INCOME ?Dominic2025-01-21T16:33:58+00:00

PPI – ANOTHER PAYOUT?

TODAY’S BLOG

PPI – ANOTHER PAYOUT?

Just when you thought you had seen the last of PPI, I am here to tell you that it’s not over until the tax taken is repaid… If you’re one of the millions of people who’ve shared in the £34billion of PPI repaid (so far), you may have paid tax unnecessarily. If so, and your payout happened in the last four tax years, you are due money back. The money you get paid back for PPI can have up to three main elements:

A refund of the PPI you paid.
If the bank (outrageously) added an extra loan to your original loan just to pay for the PPI you get back any interest you were charged on this extra loan.
You get Statutory Interest (at eight per cent a year) on the total of both those sums, for each year since you got the PPI.

Only the third element is taxable. Any tax taken is usually shown on your payout statement. Tax is due because this Statutory Interest is designed to return you to the position you’d have been in if you hadn’t had PPI. If tax is due on PPI payouts, most firms deduct it automatically, at 20 per cent, before you get the money. That has always been an issue for non-taxpayers. However, since April 6, 2016, far more people have been owed tax back, as that’s when the personal savings allowance launched. It allows most taxpayers to earn £1,000 a year of savings interest, tax-free. Since then, while most savings interest has been paid without any tax taken off, PPI still has 20 per cent automatically deducted. Therefore, oversimplifying somewhat, it counts as savings interest, as if you’d earned it on that saved cash.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – [email protected]
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – [email protected] Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

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PPI – ANOTHER PAYOUT?Dominic2025-01-21T16:34:00+00:00

THE TAXMAN COMETH… AGAIN

TODAY’S BLOG

THE TAXMAN COMETH… AGAIN

A week today is deadline pay to send in your self-assessment tax return and payment to HMRC. The 31st January brings an end to arguably the worst month of the year with a tax deadline. Most people will be very familiar with 31/01 by now, but invariably a lot of people file their returns late.

In February 2019, HMRC confirmed that 93.68% of people filed their returns on time, which was a new record. There were 11.56 million taxpayers that had to file a return, 731,186 didn’t do so on time. Fines for not filing a return on time are £100, even if no tax is due. So that comes in at a neat £73,118,600 in immediate fines. After 3 months (30 April) additional penalties are applied at £10 a day.

Left until the last minute.com…

A thumping 735,258 filed on the final day itself (6% of those that had to). Remember this is sending a return for the tax year that ended 5th April in the previous year!

Some 60,000 people tried to file their return between 4pm and 5pm on the 31st January 2019. That is really leaving it to the last minute (which is midnight of that day).

IMPORTANT – Pension Tax Tips Pre-Return:

These tips help taxpayers get all the pension tax relief to which they are entitled or to avoid an unexpected tax bill in years to come.

A) Claim higher rate relief on personal pension contributions:

Many pension savers who pay income tax at the higher (or additional) rate, may be unaware that they need to claim higher rate relief through their tax return on contributions into a personal pension. Employee contributions into a personal pension or group personal pension automatically attract pension tax relief at the basic rate through the ‘relief at source’ method. This tax relief is claimed by the pension provider on behalf of the member. But those who pay tax at the 40% or 45% rate only get their extra tax relief if they claim it through their tax return. For example, someone who pays £80 into a personal pension automatically gets an extra £20 in basic rate relief added to their pension. But if they pay tax at 40% they are entitled to another £20 in tax relief which they will only get if they enter this information on their tax return.

B) Report contributions in excess of your annual allowance

Individuals are expected to report on their tax return any pension contributions (from themselves or their employer) into a Defined Contribution pension and/or any growth in Defined Benefit pension rights in excess of the Annual Allowance, so that additional tax can be paid.

C) Report contributions made on your behalf under ‘scheme pays’

HMRC recently admitted that some taxpayers were failing to report on their tax return that a pension tax charge had been paid on their behalf by their occupational pension scheme. A new FOI obtained by Royal London shows that in 2016/17 just over 1,000 people failed to report this information. As the number of people affected by ‘scheme pays’ has grown rapidly since 2016/17, it is likely that thousands of people are now failing to report this information. The FOI from HMRC says that this is a case of ‘under-reporting, not under-payment’, but taxpayers are expected to give complete information on their tax return.

And finally…

There were some strange excuses too… here is a video HMRC put together about them.

Here are some things that didn’t pass the valid expense claims.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – [email protected]
Call – 020 8542 8084

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THE TAXMAN COMETH… AGAINDominic2025-01-21T16:34:22+00:00

TAX AND POLITICS

TODAY’S BLOG

TAX AND POLITICS

The General election is a few weeks away, the over-egged promises are being spouted by all sides. We really must seem like a very dim bunch to those that are so wrapped up in their political ideology. Anyway, I am not here to share my political views, simply to remind you of some basic truths.

I heard one item on the news as I travelled to the office the other morning. This was another politician using the word “free” to describe what the electorate would receive. This is an interesting choice of words. I was also somewhat interested in the bashing of the uber rich. I am not in that bracket (!) and frankly there is no possibility that I ever would be. However I was surprised that some people seem to believe that those with vast wealth actually have it all in bank account that can be easily raided. Like them or not the uber rich hold assets and some cash, but mainly assets.

This in mind, I thought that perhaps a little bit of education on the tax system may be of help. There are lots of numbers involved, but stick with it if you can (I know your time is precious).

INCOME TAX

Income tax accounts for about a third of all taxes received by HMRC. When combined with National Insurance, Capital Gains Tax and Bank Payroll Tax, these make up about 55% of all UK taxes. The amount of total tax paid to HMRC rises almost every year. In 2000/01 the total stood at £315,642m in the last tax year 2018/19 it had nearly doubled to £619,367 over 18 years.

THE UNION AND TAXES

In the tax year 2016/17 for those of you interested the total tax raised was £568,603m of which 87.2% was raised in England, 3.3% was raised in Wales, 7.4% raised in Scotland and 2.1% raised in Northern Ireland.

WHO PAYS INCOME TAX

In 2017 the UK population was about 66million. Not everyone pays income tax (children, sick, unemployed, not employed and choosing to not “work”). In practice about 40% of the population pay income tax (they may well pay other taxes, but so do the 40%). In the 2016/17 tax year, there were 26.3m income tax payers in the whole of the UK. Of these 15.1m were male and 11.2m were female. 20.9m were under 65 and 5.39m were 65+.

HOW MUCH INCOME TAX DID THEY PAY?

In the 2016/17 tax year (the most recent with the data analysis). There was £174,000million paid in income tax by 26.3m individuals. So thats about 30% of all the taxes paid were from these income tax payers. In the tax year concerned we basically have 4 categories of income taxpayer, those that simply pay the savings rate, those that pay basic rate (20%), higher rate (40%) and additional rate (45%).

As a reminder, in 2016/17 the personal allowance was £11,000 (the amount you can earn without paying income tax). This is reduced once your income is £100,000 at the rate of £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000. So anyone with an income of £122,000 has no personal allowance – all their income is taxable.

In terms of taxable income, the first £32,000 was taxed at 20%, from £32,001 – £150,000 tax is 40% and anything above £150,000 is taxed at 45%. Here is what happened.

As you can see from the table above, 81.75% of basic rate (20%) income taxpayers paid £57,300million in tax. You will remember Pareto’s law 80/20? Well its not far off, just over 80% of income taxpayers (83.78%) pay about 33% of the income tax bill. The next, smaller group, nearly 15% of the income taxpayer population of 40% taxpayers pay rather more between them – 37.3% of the total income tax bill. The smallest group (1.25% of taxpayers) those paying 45% income tax rates pay 29.6% of the total bill.

So whilst it is only part of the story – higher rate and additional rate taxpayers pay 66.9% of the income tax bill. Yet they only make up 16% of the income taxpayer population.

DO YOU WANT TO TAKE A POP AT THE 1%?

I am not supporting any political position here. I am simply making the statement that factually, if you pay income tax of 45% you are the 1%. As such you contribute a huge proportion of the total income tax bill. In exchange you have no personal allowance and probably a reduced pension allowance of £10,000 – less than an ISA. Let me also remind you that an income of £150,000 does not make you a millionaire…

If you fancy having a pop at the “millionaires”, taking the same data but just considering Additional Rate Taxpayers. There are 16,000 people with incomes of £1m+ (0.06% of income taxpayers) pay 8.79% of total income tax collected. So I will leave this here for you to mull over.

2016-17 Additional Rate Income tax payers

I have taken all this data from published HMRC and ONS documents that you can easily search and check yourself.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]

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PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – [email protected] Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

TAX AND POLITICSDominic2025-01-21T16:34:22+00:00

ANNUAL ALLOWANCE EXCESS

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The Annual Allowance Charge

Arguably the most dreadful bit of recent pension changes is the annual allowance charge. This arises for anyone that contributes more than the annual allowance towards pensions during a tax year. To most people £40,000 a year into pensions is a lot of money so on the surface this is nothing short of yet another raid on higher-earners.

The annual allowance is really £40,000 or 100% of your earned income, whichever is lower. However, if your income is over £150,000 then the allowance reduces gradually down to £10,000 for anyone earning £210,000 or more, this is termed the Tapered Annual Allowance. Just for some context anyone earning over £150,000 has lost their personal allowance (income before any tax is paid) and pays a tax rate of 45% on income above £150,000.

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Excessive Tax? Not Enough Voters

You can exceed the annual allowance in various ways – the amount for those investing money to build a pension is straight-forward. If you and your employer pay more than your annual allowance into pensions, you suffer an income tax charge on the excess at 45%. Easy, maybe not fair, but easy.

However, if you are a member of a good old-fashioned final salary (defined benefit) pension, well it’s a little more complex. The annual allowance is not calculated based upon how much you paid into a scheme, but on how much your pension improved by. So if you had a pay rise… this makes life more complex. If your pension increased by more than £2,500 a year (which admittedly is a very good pension for another year of employment) then you are likely to exceed the annual allowance of £40,000. If you have the minimum annual allowance as a high earner, then your pension only needs to improve by probably £527 – £625 a year.

£561m Extra Tax

This all became the new norm from the 2015/16 tax year. HMRC collected £179m in extra tax revenue as a result. However, this has now jumped massively as the reality sinks home for many high earners, rising to £561m for 2016/17.

Some people can get their employer pension scheme to pay the “fine” (tax) most cannot. In 2016/17 only 2,340 people achieved this which accounted for £44m (8%) of the tax however the clear majority had to pay up themselves – all 16,590 of those that realised!

I might call this a disincentive to save for your retirement, or daylight robbery…. Take your pick, but fair and sensible is most certainly is not.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]

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ANNUAL ALLOWANCE EXCESSDominic2023-12-01T12:17:49+00:00