For more than a decade, the standard piece of UK retirement tax advice ran along the same lines. Spend your ISA first. Leave your pension alone. The pension passes outside your estate for inheritance tax, so on death an unused pot could go to your children or grandchildren without the
If you’re earning enough to pay higher-rate or additional-rate tax in the UK, the rules around pension contributions get more interesting and more rewarding than they are for basic-rate taxpayers. The tax relief is generous, the allowances are substantial, and used properly the system is one of the best deals
There’s a financial decision that almost every UK employee has access to, that pays a guaranteed return measured in tens of percent, that’s protected from tax in both directions, and that takes about ten minutes to optimise. And yet most people, when asked about it, say something vague along the
If you’ve spent any time looking into UK savings, you’ve probably encountered the word ISA more times than you can count, often used as if everyone already knows what it means. The reality is that there are four different types of ISA in the UK, each designed for a different
Working through the Lifetime ISA pros and cons is an unusual exercise, because the same product manages to be both the most generous and the most punitive ISA the UK government offers — at the same time. It hands you a 25% top-up on everything you contribute. That’s free money
Once you’ve accepted that you should be investing, the next question is usually: where? The two obvious answers in the UK are a Stocks and Shares ISA and a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension). Both are tax wrappers. Both let you hold the same kinds of investments. Both reward people who
Category: ISAs & Pensions · Reading time: 11 minutes · By Stuart Welch If you’ve spent any time reading about investing in the UK, you’ve encountered the acronym ISA approximately four hundred times. Individual Savings Account. Everyone tells you to open one. Fewer people explain clearly what it actually is, why it matters, and
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