IFS

Tax-free lump sum could be abolished in ISA-style system

Pension tax relief reform plans put forward by the major political parties smack of short-term ad hoc thinking which the UK could "come to regret", a think tank has said.

Conservative party plans to remove family homes worth up to £1m from inheritance tax (IHT) will be paid for by cutting pension tax relief for those earning over £150,000.

The second-hand annuity market may fail to develop and even if it does many people will struggle to make well-informed decisions, think thank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggests.

Many middle-class professionals are paying an income tax rate of 60% as a result of a little-understood policy introduced by the last Labour government which affects more than 500,000 people, a leading economist has warned.

Scottish taxpayers will have to pay out £1.6bn a year to fund initiatives set out in the white paper on the country's independence which have not yet been allocated cash, according to Treasury figures.

Retirement Planner's round-up of the top pension stories this week.

Wealthy investors were hit hardest by the recession but poorer households will feel the biggest squeeze in the coming years thanks to benefit cuts.

The MAS intends to deliver a series of targeted interventions and school-based programmes to young people. Here Rod McKee, vice principal, Institute of Financial Services (IFS) School of Finance argues that this is simply not enough.

The initial hike in the state pension age (SPA) for women improved public finances by £2.1bn as employment rates for both women and men increased, research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found.