Currently if you die before you have started to draw your pension, the value of your pension fund will not usually be subject to inheritance tax (IHT) at 40%, as it is excluded from your estate. However, there can be a 55% tax charge where your pension fund is passed to someone else under your will, especially if you die aged over 75.

From 6 April 2015 the 55% tax charge will be abolished. If you die before you reach age 75 you will be able to pass on your pension fund on death to any one you choose without a tax charge. The new owner of the pension fund will have no tax to pay when he or she makes withdrawals from the fund, whether those withdrawals are in the form of a lump sum or as income drawdown.

If you die aged 75 or more the person who receives your pension fund will pay tax at their marginal income tax rate on income drawdowns they withdraw from that fund, and there will be no restriction on the amount that person can withdraw from the fund. However, if the beneficiary of the fund wants to take all the value out as a lump sum, there will be 45% tax charge, although that may change from April 2016.

If you die after you have bought an annuity with your pension savings, the value of your pension can’t be passed on, unless the annuity contract provides for a lump sum to be paid on your death.

These changes mean that tax planning for older people needs to be re-thought from the bottom up to take into account the ability to pass on tax-free a significant pension pot.

Feel free to talk to us for further advice.

There are a number of personal assets that you can sell without a risk that you are creating a CGT liability. They include:

• your car
• individual personal possessions worth up to £6,000 each, such as jewellery, paintings or antiques
• stocks and shares you hold in tax-free investment savings accounts, such as ISAs and PEPs
• UK Government or 'gilt-edged' securities, for example, National Savings Certificates, Premium Bonds and loan stock issued by the Treasury
• betting, lottery or pools winnings
• personal injury compensation
• foreign currency you bought for your own or your family's personal use outside the UK

Personal possessions that you dispose of for more than £6,000 are potentially subject to CGT unless both of the following apply:

1. The asset you are selling is a wasting asset – i.e. has a predicted life of 50 years or less, and
2. The asset has not been used in your business.

Sometimes an asset that would normally be liable to CGT (for example a piece of jewellery worth over £6,000) is lost or destroyed. If you receive an insurance payout or other sum for the item, you're treated as disposing of the asset for CGT purposes.

If you receive more in the insurance payout than the asset's value when you acquired it, the difference between the two may be liable to CGT.

A further complication can arise if you sell a number of personal possessions as a set. Generally, a set is worth more as a set than if the component parts are sold separately.

If you sell or dispose of personal possessions as a set, the £6,000 limit applies to the set as a whole.

If you sell parts of a set to the same person in separate sales, the £6,000 limit still applies to the set as a whole. You cannot apply the limit separately to each sale.

From March 2015 (subject to Parliamentary approval), the Child Maintenance Service and Child Support Agency (CSA) will begin sharing certain information about the payment records of their clients with credit reference agencies.

This means that arrears built up in maintenance payments will have the same effect on people’s credit score as other debts. Having a poor credit rating can cause people to be refused loans, mortgages, credit cards, hire purchase finance arrangements, mobile phone contracts and other forms of financial credit.

Principally, information will be shared about an individual when a liability order is made against them – a measure used as a last resort after other efforts to encourage payment have been exhausted. In the year April 2013 to March 2014, 12,410 liability orders were granted.

But it is also expected that the introduction of the new measure will have a deterrent effect on those who may otherwise choose to evade maintenance payments, so getting more money flowing to the children and families who need it.

Non-resident parents who have a good maintenance payment record will also be able to request that information about them is shared if they feel it may help improve their credit rating.

While the majority of non-resident parents do contribute towards the maintenance they owe – with compliance amongst CSA clients reaching a high of 86.2% in June this year – this new measure is aimed at targeting the minority who fail to pay.

It is just the latest in a catalogue of radical reforms the coalition government has made to Britain’s child maintenance system.

In addition, an online banking-style self-service facility has been launched allowing parents to manage their maintenance arrangements and keep track of payments. And new enforcement charges have been introduced to recoup the costs of pursuing those who continually don’t pay what they owe.

There are precious few opportunities to make an arrangement after the end of a tax year, and carry the benefit back to impact tax liabilities of the previous tax year.

One such opportunity involves gift aid, and has the full blessing of HMRC.

According to HMRC you can:

“… ask for a Gift Aid donations to be treated as being paid in the previous tax year if you paid enough tax that year to cover both any Gift Aid gifts you made that year and the ones you want to backdate.

Your request to carry back the donation must be made before or at the same time as you complete your Self Assessment tax return for the previous year but no later than the filing deadline for the tax return, which is 31 October if you file a paper tax return, or 31 January if you file online. If you don’t complete a tax return you can ask your Tax Office to send you a form P810 Tax Review – you must send this by no later than 31 January after the end of the tax year to which you wish to carry back your gift.”

In non-tax speak, you can basically carry back gift aid payments made during part of a tax year, and help reduce your tax liability for the previous tax year. The two main conditions that you must observe are:

1. You must have paid enough income tax in both years to cover the donations made, and
2. You must make the claim to carry back relief before the filing deadline for your self-assessment tax return in the tax year that you make the gift aid payment.

This strategy can be particularly useful if your income marginally exceeds £100,000 as the carry back will not only save you income tax at 20% (40% – the basic rate tax deducted from the payment you make) but also save you the gradual loss of your £10,000 personal allowance.

There are precious few opportunities to make an arrangement after the end of a tax year, and carry the benefit back to impact tax liabilities of the previous tax year.

One such opportunity involves gift aid, and has the full blessing of HMRC.

According to HMRC you can:

“… ask for a Gift Aid donations to be treated as being paid in the previous tax year if you paid enough tax that year to cover both any Gift Aid gifts you made that year and the ones you want to backdate.

Your request to carry back the donation must be made before or at the same time as you complete your Self Assessment tax return for the previous year but no later than the filing deadline for the tax return, which is 31 October if you file a paper tax return, or 31 January if you file online. If you don’t complete a tax return you can ask your Tax Office to send you a form P810 Tax Review – you must send this by no later than 31 January after the end of the tax year to which you wish to carry back your gift.”

In non-tax speak, you can basically carry back gift aid payments made during part of a tax year, and help reduce your tax liability for the previous tax year. The two main conditions that you must observe are:

1. You must have paid enough income tax in both years to cover the donations made, and
2. You must make the claim to carry back relief before the filing deadline for your self-assessment tax return in the tax year that you make the gift aid payment.

This strategy can be particularly useful if your income marginally exceeds £100,000 as the carry back will not only save you income tax at 20% (40% – the basic rate tax deducted from the payment you make) but also save you the gradual loss of your £10,000 personal allowance.