The state of the nation.

I’m talking about pension contributions.

Those of us lucky enough to earn over £50,000 have just seen a reduction in the amount we can pay into our pensions.

That was part of a range of new measures, each measure will affect someone; If you have been paying more than £50,000 into your pension, or if you were planning to make an extremely large pension contribution in the year you retire, or if you earn over £150,000 and you’re in a final salary scheme – especially if a significant pay rise is on the cards.

At the other end of the scale, if you’re almost 60 and your entire pension pot is worth just under£18,000 you may be affected, too.

The rules changed immediately they were announced on 14th October, so if you recognise any of those, you’ll need to do some rapid reading-up, or get some advice.

If you’re unlucky/lucky enough to be facing redundancy soon, with a big severance payment, you might well be expecting your money on 31 March? It seems to be a popular date.

Take great care in advance if you’ve got any tax planning in mind: The last day of the tax year is 1 April this year (because of the Easter bank holidays).

This could make a huge difference if you’re facing 40% tax on severance pay.  It’s quite easy to do that because your redundancy sits on top of a whole year’s income, especially if you don’t expect to pay 40% tax in the new tax year.

The Financial Services Authority does not regulate Tax advice

So what?
Plan carefully. Take advice if you need it.