Budget freedoms branded a short-sighted tax collection exercise

Principal Danny Vassiliades said government figures showed the Treasury would net an extra £1.2bn in tax receipts in 2018-2019 as a result of the reforms. "With this policy, [the Chancellor] is raiding future tax streams. In other words, people would have bought annuities, paid tax on those annuities as income in the future, and he's brought forward that tax to today," Vassiliades said. The forecast from the impact assessment attached to the draft Taxation of Pensions Bill - published last month - revealed the reforms would generate an extra £3.9bn between 2015 and 2020. Vassiliade...