HMRC is writing to over a million people offering them tax relief.(1) ‘Make a pension contribution and you get tax relief’ – it sounds straightforward, but it’s not quite so simple. There are two methods by which tax relief on pension contributions is given: Pension relief at source (PRAS): This applies to personal pensions and some occupational pension schemes (including the National Employment Savings Trust). Contributions are made from after-tax pay, and then HMRC pays bas

The state pension triple lock is set to be adjusted under new proposals.(1) The triple lock was introduced by the coalition government in 2010 with the goal of raising the value of the basic state pension as a proportion of average earnings. It currently requires the old and new state pension (but not any other state pension components) to increase each April by the greater of: Yearly consumer price index (CPI) inflation to the previous September; The annual growth in average

Updated figures from HMRC reveal greener company cars are surging in popularity. (1) Source: HMRC(1) This summer’s slew of statistics on income tax issued by HMRC revealed an interesting picture of how company car ownership has changed since 2020. The total company car population (the red line in the graph above) slumped to a low of 720,000 in 2019/20 and in 2020/21, but then rose by over a quarter in the next four years to 920,000.(1) As the graph illustrates, the recovery i

How much would it cost to increase the income tax personal allowance?(1) Source: HMRC, ONS. Assumes annual CPI inflation 2% from September 2026(2) The personal allowance is the amount of income that you can receive free of income tax. Since 2010, the personal allowance has not been a universal figure because of the introduction of a taper if ‘adjusted net income’ exceeds £100,000. The taper gradually reduces the personal allowance to nil at £125,140. If you escape the taper,

The tax-free lump sum offered by most pension arrangements steps back into the spotlight as the Autumn Budget nears. “Anomalous, but much loved” was how one Chancellor, the late Nigel Lawson, described the tax-free lump sum from pensions in his 1985 Budget.(1) Fast forward 41 years and 13 Chancellors(2) later, the tax-free lump sum has survived, although since April 2006 it has formally been called the pension commencement lump sum (PCLS).(2) Since April 2020, the maximum PC

Andy Burnham has plans to deal with long-term care in England.(1) In March 2010, during the dying days of Gordon’s Brown’s Labour government, Andy Burnham was the Health Secretary. In that role, he published a White Paper on social care reform in England, proposing the establishment of a national care service. The new service was to be funded by state and individual contributions, but decisions on who would pay for what were deferred until after the impending election. In a s