Taking a tax-efficient income in retirement

I’ve had a few conversations with people off line following my last post on the inheritance tax implications of #pensionfreedom.  What I’d like to do here is illustrate a few of the other implications in terms of how they affect different savings vehicles.  Before I do so however, it is important to note that Pensions Minister Steve Webb has stated that pensions should not become “a vehicle for inheritance tax planning”.  This suggests that it is at least possible that some of the recent pension freedom proposals might not actually see the light of day.  Worse still they might be reversed following May’s election.

So with that rather large pinch of salt, I’ll launch into what pension freedom, as currently proposed, implies for savings as I understand things to be.

To quickly recap, and generalise horribly, if you die after April 6th, but before the age of 75, your pension pot can be passed on to whomever you have nominated, free of inheritance tax.  Furthermore the pot will be theirs to spend as they please entirely free of income tax too.

Should you die after 75 the pot can still be passed on IHT-free, but tax will have to be paid at the recipient’s marginal rate if they require cash.  It is also worth remembering that the post 75 Death Tax reduces from 55% to 45% in April, but isn’t removed altogether until April 2016.

So how does this compare with other investments?  Recent ISA rule changes allow ISAs to be passed on between partners without losing their tax wrapper.  Previously ISA proceeds could be passed between couples, but, from the date of the first death, they would lose their income and capital gains tax advantages.  That new benefit is lost though on the second death and ISA assets become part of the couple’s estate for inheritance tax purposes, just like any other non-ISA savings.

So what we have effectively from the perspective of someone who has just retired is:

Private pension: Income is taxed at a person’s marginal rate and, if an annuity is not taken, 25% of the pot is generally available income tax free.  Zero IHT.

ISA: Zero income and capital gains tax.  Remember that assets can always be passed between partners free of inheritance tax regardless of tax wrapper.

Other assets outside ISA/Pension wrappers (bank deposits, investment funds, property etc): These generally enjoy no IHT exemptions and are subject to income and capital gains tax at the investor’s marginal rate.

These tax differences have implications for the order in which a pensioner might most efficiently derive an income from his or her savings, whilst maximising any possible legacy should their funds survive them.

All other things being equal it would make sense to utilise those resources deriving the least inheritance tax protection first.  It’s not quite that simple of course.  In certain circumstances it might make sense to combine income from non-wrapped and ISA sources in order to ensure that your marginal income tax rate is no higher than it needs to be.

Thus to cut a very long story short, the general idea would be to start to take your income from a combination of non tax-exempt assets, mixing in ISA income along the way.  This is because ISAs have income and capital gains tax advantages during a couple’s lifetime, which disappear entirely upon the second death.

The last port of call might be your pension (assuming you opt to drawdown rather than simply buy an annuity at retirement).  This is especially attractive to your loved ones due to the removal of the death tax.  It does highlight though the importance of making nominations of desired beneficiaries and, importantly, keeping these updated to reflect any changes in your personal circumstances.

This, of course, is all very simplistic, but does at least provide a few points to consider when deciding how to produce a retirement income from your assets.

So until everything changes yet again,

take care out there

PensionMan