"Net Pay" kicked down the road again

Following the Autumn Budget 2018, Malcolm McLean, Senior Consultant at Barnett Waddingham, is disappointed with the lack of detail on pension plans in this year’s Annual Budget. Please find below his commentary on the announcement.

Malcolm said; “There was a disappointing lack of detail about future plans for pensions in this year’s Budget announcement, with many areas only outlined for consultation and discussion over the next 12 months. These will no doubt be addressed in the bumper pensions bill, promised by Guy Opperman, which he claimed will leave pensions untouched for years.

Mr Hammond failed to follow up on his earlier statement that ‘pensions tax relief is eye-wateringly expensive’, which may mean he will wish to come back on this at a subsequent budget. However, for now there appears to be no change in either the rate of tax relief or the allowances.

Bringing the increase of personal tax allowance forward a year will be beneficial to low earners, but rather perversely it will also bring even more people into the ‘Net Pay’ arrangement, causing them to miss out on valuable pensions tax relief. This is an ongoing problem and a solution is urgently required.”

Jonathan Marrow and James Jones-Tinsley contributed to the writing of this comment.