Synopsis: Short summaries of articles we think you will find useful from some of the weekends broadsheets. At the end of each summary is a link to take you directly to the relevant article. Please see Helpful Hints at the end of the bulletin.
Financial Times:” Setback for HMRC tax avoidance push”. The tax authority’s counter-avoidance campaign took a knock this week after judges upheld the legitimacy of a scheme that saved company directors millions in tax. Click here to go directly to the article
Financial Times:” Stricter UK rules have not entirely rubbed out tax avoidance”. When MPs grilled Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of HSBC banking group this week, his tax arrangements were attacked as being ‘extraordinary’. Even Mr Gulliver acknowledged that the public would find them ‘unfamiliar and rather strange’.
Click here to go directly to the article
Financial Times:” Warning over ‘default annuitisation'”. Annuity sales have continued to fall as people approaching retirement age shift their cash into income drawdown ahead of new pension freedoms coming into force in April. Click here to go directly to the article
Financial Times:” Webb threatens to ‘name and shame’ high-charging pensions”. The government is threatening to name insurers which it says are not responding to calls for action over £26bn of funds held in high-charging pensionsschemes. Click here to go directly to the article
Financial Times:” FCA sets out pension risk warnings”. Pension savers accessing their retirement funds will be better protected against making poor financial decisions when big changes to the pensions market come into force in April. Click here to go directly to the article
Financial Times:” Miliband attacked over pension tax plan”. Ed Miliband has come under fire from pensions experts for pledging to rein in tax breaks for retirement savers to fund cheaper tuition fees for university students. Click here to go directly to the article
The Times:” Why taking pension cash may be tricky”. Insurers plan to set some strict conditions for people who want to use their savings pots like a current account
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The Times:” Act quickly to save a valuable pension perk”. PENSION savers can hang on to an important tax perk and preserve their £40,000 annual allowance after the new freedoms come into effect — but they must act quickly.
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The Times:” The generation game: killing inheritance tax”. As celebrities line up to attack the tax, we show how to minimise its effect
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The Times:” Families to ditch trust funds for Jisas“. How best can parents take advantage of new freedoms?
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The Times:” Tiny charges that have a big impact”. You have 36 days to use your £15,000 annual Isa allowance, but it is as important to review your previous year’s purchases as it is to find this financial year’s best deals. As part of this early spring clean, you need to check how much you are paying everyone involved for the privilege of investing in Isas.
Click here to go directly to the article
The Times:” Tax accountants raked in fees for advice that left clients facing ruin”. A major accounting firm earned more than £1 million from promoting and selling a ‘low risk’ tax-avoidance scheme that has left clients facing bankruptcy, The Times can reveal.
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The Times:” Tax staff laid off for three months by system failure”. Hundreds of workers who check claims for tax credits were sent home for nearly three months because their computer system did not work.
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The Times:” Labour pension raid to hit middle-earners”. Plans for a multibillion-pound raid on pensions tax relief to cut university tuition fees announced yesterday by Labour would leave hundreds of thousands of savers worse off and benefit only wealthy graduates, experts have warned.
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The Times:” Act now to protect your pension options”. The minister responsible for the biggest restructuring of Britain’s pension system in decades has admitted that the scheme is risky and could leave some people without funds in their old age.
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The Times:” Pension rules are a gamble, says minister”. The Government promised to reduce the burden of inheritance tax (IHT) prior to the 2010 General Election, but the Revenue now seems to be doing all it can to increase the tax take.
Click here to go directly to the article
The Telegraph:” Now unlimited pension lump sums can be ploughed into your dream business”. This couple have unusual plans for April’s freedoms involving a dinosaur museum. Katie Morley explains why they are tax efficient
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The Telegraph:” Pension pot raiders face losing one third to tax”. Savers who cash in their pension from April could lose a third of the money to tax and have to claim back thousands of pounds, experts have warned
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The Telegraph:” Pensions industry hits out at Ed Miliband’s plan to alter tax relief rules”. Labour leader wants to fund a cut in tuition fees with a tax raid on pension savings
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The Telegraph:” No big bang after pension rules change, says Old Mutual boss”. Investment firm is preparing for the retirement overhaul on April 6 but does not expect a rush to move money
Click here to go directly to the article
HELPFUL HINTS
1. LINKS TO ARTICLES:
We have now provided direct links to the articles referred to in the article. These can be accessed by click on the “To go directly to the article click here” at the end of each article summary
2. REQUIREMENT TO SUBSCRIBE TO SITES:
As some Opus Gold users will be aware, many of the broadsheet newspapers that are traditionally covered in our From the Papers bulletin, are changing (or have changed) their free online access to articles.
Currently the Financial Times and Weekend Financial Times only allows access to view 8 articles a month free, then requiring the user to subscribe to their online service. From 1 July 2010 The Times, Saturday Times and Sunday Times articles are no longer available for free online. Instead a daily or monthly fee will have to be paid to access the articles.
We are aware of the inconvenience this will cause to our users. Unfortunately, due to the stringent copyright rules enforced by the newspapers we are not allowed to copy the articles onto our bulletin to make them available to Opus Gold users, thus our only option is to put a direct link to the article on the newspapers own website.
Although we will continue to produce From the Papers bulletins linking to these articles, users should be aware that access to many will now be blocked unless a personal subscription to the newspapers site is taken.
Once again we apologise for this inconvenience but this is something outside of our control.
QUICK LINKS
FINANCIAL TIMES, TIMES + SUNDAY TIMES, TELEGRAPH + SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN + GUARDIAN WEEKLY +MONEY OBSERVER + OBSERVER, INDEPENDENT + INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, SCOTSMAN + SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY +EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS, DAILY MAIL + MAIL ON SUNDAY + (LONDON) EVENING STANDARD + THIS IS MONEY.
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