California property insurance featured news.

In his eighth Budget the Chancellor has put an end to the annual game of innovative tax avoidance schemes by announcing that they need to be registered with the Inland Revenue before being offered to the public.

Gordon Brown has obviously become frustrated with playing catch-up with tax avoidance schemes as they’ve been dreamt up.

Until now tax saving schemes have been launched, substantial amounts of tax saved, and then the loophole closed.

Now the schemes will have to be approved prior to release rather than the other way round.

This means that high earners in particular will have less creative agent insurance personal property
to get tax back from the Revenue.

Two specific examples announced today are a new tax on small company dividends and tax relief for films being restricted to the film-makers rather than the investors in them.

Distributed profits as dividends will attract a 19% tax meaning that small company owners will pay a similar amount of tax as if it were earned income.

Up until now investors in films could create losses against income reclaiming tax back at up to 40%.

Restricting tax relief to film makers effectively closes this loophole to most private wealth investors.

No cold wind of change

The Chancellor announced freezes on rates of tax for Capital Gains Tax, Corporation Tax, air passenger tax, insurance premium tax and, happily for estate agents, stamp duty.

The property market received another shot in the arm with the confirmation of the Real Estate Investment Trust Scheme.

This will mean that many of us will be able to invest in the residential property market (which the Halifax Property Index tells us rose 18% in the last 12 months.)

This means a new source of financing homes and rented accommodation as well as providing a new asset class for UK investors.

The Inheritance Tax nil rate band has increased to 263,000 resulting in 95% of estates now paying no Inheritance Tax.

Each pensioner household (for those over 70) will receive an extra 100 towards winter fuel allowance. This takes it up to 300 for those over 70 and 400 for those over 80.

All is not lost for higher earners

Despite the agent insurance personal property
on tax avoidance schemes for the future, the Chancellor announced two schemes which were marginally more beneficial for higher earners.

The first was the doubling of the Venture Capital Trust Allowance (VCT) to 200,000 a year and a doubling of the tax relief to 40%.

This should open up the VCT market to savers and investors and enable more tax relief to be reclaimed.

The hike of the proposed pension cap from 1.4 million to 1.5 million (increasing to 1.8 million in April 2006) means that wealthy pension pots can squeeze a little more into them than originally anticipated.

These last two measures will probably only benefit more wealthy savers.

Drowning your sorrows becomes a little more expensive

If it’s all getting too much for you, it’s best to drink either spirits, cider or sparkling wine because there’s no additional duty on them this year.

Red sparking Shiraz will enjoy a niche market all of its own. It shouldn’t attract the 4p a bottle increase on other red wines.

Beer goes up 1p a pint so you’ll have to drink a gallon to pay the same amount of increase as the 8p per packet rise on cigarettes.

Charitable giving gets a boost

The Chancellor announced two new charitable ideas.

One is a National Community service which, if it follows the US example, will mean that young people get help towards the cost of their education in turn for working within their local communities.

The other involves the mentoring of property mortgage insurance
youngsters.

Churches and sacred places can now reclaim all VAT on repairs until 2006.

So if you’re an over 70, property and liability insurance principle
, non-smoking vicar, and on a state pension, you can feel pretty pleased with yourself.

But if you work in the Government departments of Work and Pensions, Customs and Exercise or the Inland Revenue - given the proposed job cuts - and if you pay higher rate tax, smoke and have a house worth over 263,000 then it’s a very different story.