Pensions industry shocked by deafening silence of the Government 'tax day'

The Government has now published the much anticipated tax-related consultations document following the budget earlier this month. This is another policy with missed opportunities for the pension industry.

James Jones-Tinsley, Self-Invested Technical Specialist at Barnett Waddingham, comments on the "deafening silence" of the Government 'tax day'.

James said: “It’s a tale as old as time – a much anticipated day of policy reform has left the pensions industry shocked by the deafening silence of the Government on the issues that matter most. With barely a bullet point dedicated to a handful of technical updates, trustees, advisers, and savers alike have been disappointed.

“At the very least, a simplification of pension tax relief is well overdue – and in fact, it was a manifesto commitment of this Government to support the 1.5m low-paid workers, mostly women, harmed by the tax relief discrepancy between ‘relief at source’ and ‘net pay’ workplace pension schemes.

"We should have seen a scrapping of the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA), which has been revealed as negatively impacting 1,000 savers each working day, as well as the abolition of the harmful Tapered Annual Allowance (TAA). Instead, the Treasury has squandered the opportunity to make real change – and the clock is ticking. If we don’t see action soon, the UK’s looming pensions crisis is only going to get worse.”

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