The Chancellor George Osborne will be presenting his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday 29th November 2011.
Here at Informed Choice, we will be covering the Autumn Statement live and writing a briefing note for our clients and professional connections.
We aim to publish this briefing note by the end of the working day on Tuesday.
You will be able to stay up to date with all of the key personal finance announcements made during the Autumn Statement on our dedicated website page – www.icl-ifa.co.uk/autumn-statement.
We will also be using our @informedbudget Twitter account to keep our followers up to date, using the hashtag #AS2011.
Whilst the coalition government is unlikely to be diverted too far from their austerity measures, we do expect to see some concessions within the Autumn Statement designed to stimulate economic growth.
With Christmas quickly approaching, here is our Autumn Statement 2011 wish list:
1 – Leave pensions alone
Ahead of every Budget we see speculation about the withdrawal of income tax relief on pension contributions. We also tend to hear predictions that tax-free cash from pensions will become taxable.
High on our wish list for the Autumn Statement is that the Chancellor should leave pensions alone.
In fact, we would love to see Osborne go a step further and de-politicise pensions altogether. As was previously done with monetary policy, it would be fantastic to see pensions policy delegated to an independent committee of experts.
The best way for the government to encourage people to take personal responsibility for long-term retirement savings is to leave the rules alone. By constantly tinkering with the rules, government simply creates uncertainty and discourages saving for the future.
2 – Implement tax simplification measures
Now is the right time for the government to start implementing some of the sensible recommendations made by the Office of Tax Simplification.
This government department was formed in July 2010 to provide the government with independent advice on simplifying the UK tax system. One of their first tasks was to complete a review of tax reliefs, with a final report presented to government ahead of the Budget earlier this year.
The Autumn Statement would be a good opportunity for the Chancellor to confirm government commitment to carrying out the recommendations of the Office of Tax Simplification.
3 – Merge Junior ISAs with the Child Trust Fund
The abolition of the Child Trust Fund (CTF) and launch of the Junior Individual Savings Account (ISA) this year has created two separate savings schemes for children.
Whilst these two schemes share many of the same features, failure to roll CTFs into Junior ISAs has resulted in unnecessary complexity for some parents whose children are entitled to different schemes due to their different ages.
We would like to see the Chancellor merge Junior ISAs with the Child Trust Fund, giving holders of the Child Trust Fund access to the greater fund choice and lower charges already associated with the newly launched Junior ISA.
4 – Make life easier for small businesses
Small businesses drive economic growth and employment, so this Autumn Statement would be a great opportunity for the Chancellor to cut red tape and costs for SMEs.
Money spent by small businesses on complying with regulation is money that could be spent on investment or recruitment. Rather than hamstringing business owners with the burden of regulation, the Chancellor could use the Autumn Statement to launch a series of bold measures cutting this red tape.
If Britain is to start growing again, small businesses in the private sector need to lead this growth.
5 – Postpone additional fuel duty increases
The cost of petrol and diesel is already contributing to the squeeze people are experiencing on their incomes.
Implementing further fuel duty increases next year would simply deprive consumers of more money they could be spending on goods and services to help stimulate economic recovery.
Postponing fuel duty increases would be a popular move which could help to stem higher price inflation and reduce the impact of continually rising prices on the UK consumer
Do you agree with our wish list? What else would you like to see in the Autumn Statement?
Photo credit: Flickr/altogetherfool
