Tom Selby: A Covid-19 pension tax relief raid could exacerbate generational pensions divide

The DB challenge

clock • 3 min read

With rumours once again swirling around the future of pensions tax relief in the run up to this year's budget, comments Tom Selby, any reduced incentive for long-term savers could risk further exacerbating the generational divide in pensions...

One of these days I'm going to run a sweepstake for when the annual ‘higher-rate pension tax relief is about to be axed' rumour first gets aired. This year, if you'd backed the last weekend of August in my imaginary (and incredibly nerdy) gambling guessing-game you'd have been in the money. Recent Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph front pages, both speculated - thanks to help from the usual ‘Treasury sources' - that pension tax relief could be in Rishi Sunak's sights, with the prospect of introducing a flat-rate set at 20% or 30% floated. Various other measures including aligning capi...

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