Rumours are swirling of Chancellor Reeves eyeing up a raid on pension tax reliefs, aiming to tighten her grip on hardworking Britons’ wallets. Now the Institute for Fiscal Studies has called for Reeves to reduce the amount that pensioners can withdraw from their pension pots tax-free. As it stands, savers can take out 25% of their pension tax-free up to £268,275, though the tax-happy think tank says this should be reduced to £100,000. Hitting 1 in 5 hard-working retirees’ wallets…

Tax lawyer and senior Labour activist Dan Neidle slammed the idea, pointing out the tax-free lump sum has been a cornerstone of the “deal” that workers have been promised when putting their hard-earned cash into their pensions. It would be yet another policy proving high-tax Labour view the elderly vote as less important. Reeves would be wise to ignore the idea, branded “unethical” by Cut My Tax. Changing the rules half-way through the game isn’t a good look for a party that claims to be one of “integrity”…

Labour have already u-turned on their promise to not raise taxes on “working people”. Reeves is saying she needs to fill the “surprise” £22 billion black hole by whacking up tax. Though if they are to commit to their promise of not raising income tax, VAT or NI, it’s simply a question of which sectors of life Labour will target. Tax lawyer Dan Neidle has done some research into which taxes they could raise:

Pension Reforms:

• Scrap the pension tax relief.
• End the pension tax free lump sum.

Inheritance and Wealth Taxes:

• Limiting inheritance tax reliefs.
• Increase inheritance tax on trusts.
• Wealth tax – targetting those with assets.
• Gift tax.

Capital Gains and Investment Taxes

• Increase capital gains tax. Something that would drive out investment and investors…
• Abolish business asset disposal relief.
• Cap tax relief on ISAs.

Property and Real Estate Taxes

• Eliminate the stamp duty “loophole” for enveloped commercial property.
• Increase ATED.
• Council tax increases for valuable property.

Consumption Taxes

• Reverse the Tories’ cancellation of the fuel duty rise.
• Increase vehicle excise duty.
• Tax gambling winnings.

A reminder that Neidle is not just a tax lawyer, but a senior Labour activist, who currently sits on the Party’s senior disciplinary body. He may be very well informed…

‘Tax researcher’ and on the record Labour activist Dan Neidle has admitted to making the most basic of errors – confusing someone with the same name as someone else. Yesterday, Neidle suggested on X that West Ham boss and Tory donor David Sullivan became Maltese tax resident in 2019. It turns out, there are actually two businessmen named David Sullivan, the West Ham boss not being the one who became a Maltese tax resident. Neidle makes a grovelling apology over his “incorrect” post:

My post yesterday was therefore incorrect.

Our apologies to both David Sullivans.

— Dan Neidle (@DanNeidle) May 21, 2024

Misidentifying someone is something the most junior of reporters can weed out. Call yourself an expert…

It looks like Brits are turning away from sacrificing even more of their livelihoods for the sacred cow. New polling for tax researcher and Labour activist Dan Neidle’s website Tax Policy Associates, conducted by WeThink, reveals that a majority of the public is opposed to paying more tax for the NHS. The public are already turning against the failing system… which is flush with cash…

Even the majority of those earning under £20,000 are opposed. Women are also much less keen on hiking taxes to supply the NHS with even more cash. Only 40% of women are in favour compared with 48% of men. There isn’t variation on region, age, or education – the public’s view is universal. The NHS is flush with cash and fails to perform – no wonder Brits don’t want to cough up even more moolah to keep diversity staff in frappuccinos…

What is it with party chairs and their taxes? Having brought down Nadhim Zahawi, tax lawyer Dan Neidle has now set his sights on ex-Labour Party chair Ian Lavery. According to The i, Lavery is “refusing to confirm he paid tax on £140,000″ in unexplained payments and written-off loans from the Northumberland National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Now Neidle is asking questions… 

It’s virtually a mirror image of the Zahawi saga: Lavery is dodging questions, claiming HMRC has already conducted a “desktop review” of his taxes, and claiming “no further assessment [is] necessary”. Apparently i News contacted him weeks ago, with no response…

Neidle added:

“When there are financial irregularities, undocumented payments, and uncommercial arrangements involving loans, it is reasonable to ask whether the correct tax has been paid on the payments. It is a very simple question, and should have a simple answer… I fear that, like Mr Zahawi, Mr Lavery has decided the best response to people asking legitimate questions about his tax affairs is to provide bland statements that all tax has been properly paid, ignore the specific questions being asked, and hope it all goes away. I expect, like Mr Zahawi, he will be disappointed.”

Perhaps now Rishi’s had a spring clean of CCHQ, this is something Lee Anderson could bring up given his previous beef with Lavery…