Mitchell Wealth Management

Last week’s market update in 7 mins: https://ow.ly/6rjJ50TZmBI 💼 Last week, UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves took the opportunity to take centre stage and deliver her inaugural Budget, before focus turns to the US election this Tuesday. 📊 The MSCI Europe ex UK fell 1.2% in Euro terms. This came despite some positive economic figures, as Eurozone GDP growth reached 0.4% in the third quarter - doubling expectations. #Markets #Budget

In 2022, we made a commitment to sponsor 21 schools over three years on Young Enterprise's Centres of Excellence for Financial Education programme. We're delighted to announce that the final 7 of these 21 schools have been confirmed: Kingsbridge Community College, Devon Kingsbridge Community Primary School, Devon Markethill High School, Armagh St Paul's High School, Newry St Matthews Academy, Saltcoats Ysgol Frongoch, Denbighshire Gordon Primary School, Ilford Each school on the programme will work with an expert financial education consultant from Young Enterprise UK to embed financial education across the curriculum. They aim to bring practical, effective and sustainable financial education into the classroom. So far, the programme has provided financial education opportunities for thousands of children and young people in 14 schools across the UK. We're excited to see these schools embark on their financial education journey. #FinancialEducation #TalkMoneyWeek

Busy week. Read all about it!

Diwali, is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in Hindu culture. Symbolising the triumph of light over darkness and reminding us of the importance of hope and positivity in our lives. Happy Diwali from St. James's Place.

The Budget brings some clarity and certainty following many weeks of speculation. The Government has had to balance a challenging fiscal situation with a plan to invest for the future and for growth. This has not been an easy Budget for those who are attempting to save and invest for their future. Given the changes announced today, many people will rightly be trying to understand what it means for them and how it might change their own personal financial plan. If people are worried or unclear, they may need some help to navigate the changes. Financial advisers up and down the country will be on hand ready to support clients through these conversations. I look forward to working with the Government to help balance some of the changes announced today with its wider agenda to help encourage retail investing by addressing the advice gap and to encourage good outcomes for people preparing for retirement.

UK 2024 Budget Headlines: National Insurance: * 15% for employers (+1.2%) rise and threshold cut from £9,100 to £5,000 Capital Gains Tax: * Lower Rate: 18% (prev 10%) * Higher Rate: 24% (prev 20%) Carried Interest: * 32% (prev 28%) Inheritance Tax: *IHT Nil Rate Band (£325k) & Residence Nil Rate Band (£175k) frozen until 2030 * Inherited pensions subject to IHT for first time from 2027 * BPR/APR restricted to £1m per estate. Values over that taxed at 20%. * AIM shares taxed at 20% IHT rate (So, we now have a concept of 50% relief from IHT, which is a blast from the past.) SDLT: * The 2nd home surcharge is going up from 3% to 5% from tomorrow! Corporation Tax: * 25% (prev 25%) Non-Doms *Non-Dom tax regime abolished. Residence based scheme to be implemented. The devil is in the detail, so onto the HM Treasury Budget Notes! #budget2024 #tax #hmrc #advice #sjpwealth

Last week’s market update in 7 mins: https://ow.ly/QLXX50TUE38 💼 UK investors are eagerly awaiting this week’s budget. 📊 US equities slipped last week as mixed corporate results and anticipation of the upcoming election tempered market sentiment. #Markets #Budget

There has been a lot of speculation in the press about potential changes to pension legislation in the forthcoming Budget. But remember, ‘politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.’ The link below is to the left wing think tank, the Institute of Fiscal Studies report on “Raising revenue from reform to pensions taxation.” * Scare = abolish higher and additional rate tax relief on pension contributions. 😱 * Political reality = it would impact up to a million teachers, nurses and other public sector workers with defined benefits pension schemes. The IFS report uses an example of a nurse on £45,000 per annum facing an additional annual tax bill of £1,000. After just giving junior doctors significant pay rises to stop the strikes, hitting them with big tax bills would be “madness!” ✅ * Scare= reducing tax-free cash from £268,275 to £100,000. 😱 * Political reality= Levels of tax-free cash during my 27 years as an adviser: 1.5 times your total earnings, 25% of your pension value, £450,000, £375,000, £312,500, £268,750. HMRC have ALWAYS provided transitional protection for clients who have built significant pension funds. Retrospective taxation is in the “unpalatable" box. The IFS report concedes that unless this is implemented over a “generational time frame” it would involve retrospective taxation. ✅ * Scare= pensions will be subject to inheritance tax. 😱 * Political reality= pensions are investments in a discretionary trust, and have never been subject to IHT. (Pension funds had a death benefits charge prior to 2015.) The introduction of IHT could very well happen, but initially it doesn’t raise that much initially. “Potentially as much as £200 million a year in the short term.” The IFS report then states’ “Potentially as much as £2 billion a year, though probably less.” Accurate stuff! 😱 * Scare nobody is talking about = charge employer national insurance on pension contributions. Employers pay 13.8% NI on employees earnings and benefits, but not on pension contributions. ✅ * Political reality= applying employer NI to pension contributions is the most palatable way to raise immediate funds for the ‘black hole”. It’s not a tax on “working people’ To stop a ‘big-bang’ change that will simply risk a decline in contributions to pensions, the IFS suggest introducing a tapered system. ✅ The reason the Labour Party dropped the reintroduction of the lifetime allowance prior to the election was after consideration, the proposal was in the “too difficult” box. I suspect many of the scare stories about pensions fall into the same casket! 📦✅ #pensions #tax #budget2024 #tax #getadvice #taxrisk #sjpwealth

Register to join our webinar and get the ‘low down’ from this Thursday’s Budget.