Investments

Pension scheme members who delay taking their pension until they are age 75 may be liable to an unexpected tax charge, warns ANDREW ROBERTS.

RICHARD CURTIS wonders whether the flat taxes wind from the east threatens our progressive tax régime.

How should the shares of an employee leaving the company be valued? JAN ELLIS discusses this complicated issue.

KEN MOODY reviews the rules on elections to ignore restrictions on employee shares.

ANDREW WILKES, associate director at Smith & Williamson, looks at the options still available for investors in films.

PENNY BATES illustrates why the interaction of retirement annuity and personal pension reliefs is anything but simple.

LONSDALE V BRAISBY was recently heard in the Court of Appeal following decisions from the High Court ([2004] STC 1606) and the General Commissioners. The points at issue were the amount of unused relief relating to retirement annuity plans and how the sum of unused relief is calculated and reduced under the transitional provisions of TA 1988, s 655(1).

JOHN ENDACOTT considers pension planning both before and after A day.

TONY BLAIR FAMOUSLY referred to 'education, education, education'. For this third Labour administration, the phrase 'pensions, pensions, pensions' is probably more appropriate. However, there is a link with education and that is as far as the pensions knowledge of tax advisers is concerned.

PHILIP REEVES discusses the potential problem areas of the corporation tax relief for employee shares in FA 2003, Sch 23.

A VALUABLE RELIEF for companies which provide shares for employees was introduced by FA 2003, Sch 23 and this article examines the background to that schedule and also explores the conditions that have to be satisfied in order to claim the relief.

Problem solved, as explained by JOHN BARNETT with regard to a share buy-back difficulty.

AS THE PAGES of Taxation magazine have testified over the years, the taxation of companies repurchasing their own shares — while deceptively straightforward — is often fraught with difficulties. Most such problems seem to be caused by an incomplete understanding of the company law issues involved in a share repurchase and the effect that these can have on the tax treatment.

Still Uncertain

The tax treatment of life policies in trust is examined by JOHN WOOLLEY.

REBECCA BENNEYWORTH recommends that practitioners keep their guard up when dealing with tax credit renewal claims.

MARK MCLAUGHLIN considers some alternative methods of extracting value from family and owner-managed trading companies.