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Autumn News
Pension Pot
If you earn at least £150,000 a year, you will be concerned about the new 50% tax rate coming in on 6 April 2010. You should also be looking at the new restrictions on tax relief for pension contributions. Although that's only due to bite on 6 April 2011, there are rules now to stop people advancing the contributions they would make after that date to take advantage of the more favourable relief now.What this means is that there will be a tax hit for anyone who pays more than their regular contributions and more than £20,000 a year from 22 April 2009 to 5 April 2011. Regular contributions are payments under a pre-existing contract which are made quarterly or more frequently, but a higher limit applies if irregular contributions averaging up to £30,000 a year were made in each of 2006/07, 2007/08 and 2008/09. The effect of the charge is to withdraw the 20% higher rate relief that would have been enjoyed at the top rate of tax.
This does not affect people with incomes below £150,000 or pension contributions below £20,000 a year. If you are above those limits, or you are close to them, we can advise you on how to avoid the hit.
