Tax Planning

The government has launched draft legislation and a formal consultation on a new general anti-abuse rule (GAAR) that aims to tackle artificial and abusive tax avoidance schemes.

People who are will to pay into a pension but have not got around to signing up are collectively losing out on £2.5bn in income tax relief on contributions, analysis has found.

Almost three million pensioners and low-paid workers have paid too much tax on their savings, research suggests.

Advisers have been warned not to mislead and confuse HMRC by claiming to offer investment management services - a VAT chargeable activity - while lacking the necessary permissions to do so.

The pick of this week's articles on IFAonline.co.uk...

Chancellor George Osborne has done a U-turn on plans to cap tax relief on charitable donations.

The Chancellor will not press ahead with the so-called 'pasty tax' after agreeing the plans were too complex and burdensome to business, according to reports.

Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, has asked George Osborne to respond to suggestions from Barclays that retrospective tax action taken against the bank earlier this year was "unwarranted".

The government has launched an online tax calculator enabling people to work out how much tax they have paid and how it is spent.

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