Finance Act 2004

30 July 2004

Publisher: IMD

The Finance Bill has now received Royal Assent and has become the Finance Act!

The Finance Bill 2004, which has just become an Act, includes most of the headline Pensions Tax Simplification rules pretty much as was announced just before Christmas last year, subject to the tweaks in the Lifetime and Annual Allowances announced in the Budget.

Over the coming months the nitty gritty rules and practice guidelines will filter out from the Inland Revenue (Transitional Protection rules in particular need clarifying), and more importantly the DWP who have been deafeningly silent on the issues they have control over such as Income Drawdown for example.

In simple terms therefore, you could say that the changes will definitely be going ahead from April 2006, and as per the programme, but that right up to the final whistle some areas will be a bit grey, although as there is 18 months to go yet, there is time I think to clarify things.

If you fancy reading the whole text (652 pages!) then it's available at the The Office of Public Sector Information website