Devonshire July and August 18

MANAGING your MONEY
"the hardest thing in the world
to understand is income tax"
Albert Einstein
Celebrating 26 years of
providing independent
financial advice in Devon
Tax savings
and more...
Helen Mulvaney
BA (Hons), Dip M, DipPFS
Proprietor of
RICHMOND INDEPENDENT
he new tax year saw a range of updated allowances,
T including the Marriage Allowance which has been
around since 2015.
The Marriage Allowance enables
you to transfer part of your personal
tax allowance to your spouse or
civil partner.
This is a useful tax
break which allows use of part of an
allowance which would otherwise
be lost.
Those of you who
have set up a
lasting power of
attorney may be
due a refund
To qualify, you need to be either
married or in a civil partnership.
One needs to be a non-taxpayer
and the other needs an income
of less than £46,350 p.a. gross (in
other words they cannot be a higher
or additional rate taxpayer). For
the 2018/19 tax year, the personal
allowance is £11,850 and the
transferable marriage tax allowance
is £1,190. You can backdate your
marriage allowance claim to any
tax year since 5th April, 2015. In
2015-16 the allowance was worth
£232 in tax and moving forward
to 2018/19 it is worth £238. If you
are eligible for the allowance since
it began then backdating could be
worth £900. This can be very useful
for those in retirement.
On another note, those of you
who have set up a lasting power
of attorney may be due a refund.
You can get part of your application
fee back if you applied to register a
power of attorney from 01/04/2013
to 31/03/2017. You must make a
claim before 31st January, 2021.
The refund must be paid to the
donor and the amount of refund
will depend on when you paid the
fee. The reason for the refund is
that between 2013 and 2017, the
operating costs of the Office of the
Public Guardian decreased, but
the fee stayed the same (at £110).
Since the fee is only meant to cover
operating costs the government
is now repaying the difference
between what should have been
paid and what was paid. There is
also a small interest payment on
the refund.
To claim your refund you need to
claim online www.gov.uk or phone
the office of the Public Guardian's
helpline on 0300 456 0300.
Drawdown, unlike
an annuity, for
example, requires
the retiree to be
able to manage
their financial
affairs throughout
retirement
Lasting power of attorney is
particularly important if you have a
drawdown plan. Drawdown, unlike
an annuity, for example, requires
the retiree to be able to manage
their financial affairs throughout
retirement . If you suffer physical
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Helen has been advising
clients in the East Devon
for the past 26 years and
specialises in the provision
of retirement and
investment advice.
richmondindependent.co.uk
helen@richmond-ifa.com
01395 512166
ill health or a lack of mental capacity
you may be unable to manage
your financial affairs including
drawdown decisions. Lasting
Powers of Attorney (LPA) allows
a person to appoint a third party
to make decisions on a range of
matters including their finances
in the case of incapacity. Without
a LPA a third party would not be
able to make the financial decisions
which would be needed when
using a drawdown plan. Therefore,
ensuring that an LPA is in place is
extremely important for those in
drawdown.
Helen Mulvaney
Richmond Independent is a trading
name of Investment & Financial
Solutions Partnership LLP which is
authorised and regulated by the
Financial Conduct Authority
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