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Help for new mothers

From April, the government will rewrite child benefit forms to highlight the risks to stay-at-home parents’ retirement income if they fail to register for child benefit. The forms are available online and given to new mothers in hospitals.

Registering for child benefit allows parents with children under 12 to build up their entitlement to state pensions, even if they do not pay national insurance (NI) contributions.

However, a tax on child benefit for higher earners, introduced in 2013, has discouraged hundreds of thousands from claiming the perk. Since 2013, 516,000 parents have opted out of child benefit — 84% of them women.

About 1.1m families are affected by the tax charge on child benefit, which reduces payments when one parent earns £50,000 or more and wipes out the benefit for those who earn £60,000 and above. The rule applies to married and cohabiting couples.

Families with a higher earner can opt not to receive any child benefit. However, they still need to register and opt out. Parents who fail to do so miss out on the NI credits.

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Entrepreneurs’ Relief (ER) – share disposal update

The 2018 Budget has caused significant concerns for shareholders in companies that have multiple share classes carrying different rights and entitlements (also known as alphabet shares).

The new proposed rules change the definition of ‘personal company’ in the ER legislation in such a way as to prevent shareholders in a company with alphabet shares from claiming  ER.

On 21 December 2018, the Government proposed a significant amendment to the Finance Bill rules defining what constitutes a ‘personal company’ for ER purposes.

The revised legislation retains the old qualifying criteria (that the shareholder must have at least 5% of the ordinary share capital of the company and 5% of the voting rights) but adds in two new conditions, at least one of which will need to be met:

  • The shareholder must be entitled to 5% of the profits available for distribution to equity holders and 5% of the assets available for distribution on a winding up (these were the changes originally announced in the 2018 Budget);

AND/OR

  • In the event of a disposal of the ordinary share capital of the company the shareholder would be entitled to 5% of the disposal proceeds.

Additional provisions set out the process for determining whether the second test is met at any one time.  The legislation does not define the term ‘proceeds’, which implies that it may extend to some payments made to debt-holders on a sale of a company.

In its rationale for making the changes, the Treasury has stated that it has laid these amendments to ensure that the conditions for benefitting from the relief operate as intended and to continue ‘supporting enterprise creation and growth in the UK.’

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State pension payments will rise by 2.5 per cent next April

…the Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed.

From the 10th April 2017 the value of the flat-rate state pension, brought in earlier this year, will increase to £159.35 from the current rate of £155.60.

Under the Government’s controversial ‘triple lock’ manifesto commitment, the basic and new state pensions will rise in line with the highest of inflation, earnings or 2.5 per cent. 

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