Poll: Pre vs post retirement disposable income (actual or planned)

hugheskevi

Just one thing to ask of you number crunchers - have you ensured that when life happens, and one of you is left alone (usually the wife) will she still have enough income to be comfortable?  

Something I monitor closely - the tax impact of moving from 2 sets of allowances to a single allowance is significant, as it means both of us are basic rate taxpayers when alive, but the survivor will be a higher rate taxpayer,

I might delay my wife's DB or State Pension slightly to equalise the figures in the future if we have more than we need, but more for the satisfaction of symmetry than any genuine need.

SouthCoastBoy

Silvertabby said:

Just one thing to ask of you number crunchers - have you ensured that when life happens, and one of you is left alone (usually the wife) will she still have enough income to be comfortable?  

That's easy from my perspective as I have a DC pot my wife is the beneficiary so will inherit the remainder of the pot. I will get about 8k per year from her DB pensions. 

Silvertabby

Interesting point about the individual tax allowances.  Unbelievable to think that as recently as 1990 a wife's income was deemed to be her husband's for tax purposes!  

We, too, would pay a substantial amount of  higher rate tax on our combined pensions.

Hmmm - maybe I shouldn't be putting ideas into a certain person's head......

LHW99

Silvertabby said:

Interesting point about the individual tax allowances.  Unbelievable to think that as recently as 1990 a wife's income was deemed to be her husband's for tax purposes!  

We, too, would pay a substantial amount of  higher rate tax on our combined pensions.

Hmmm - maybe I shouldn't be putting ideas into a certain person's head......

Although there was the Married Man's Tax Allowance - larger than a single person's and was set against the couple's combined income.

Silvertabby

LHW99 said:

Silvertabby said:

Interesting point about the individual tax allowances.  Unbelievable to think that as recently as 1990 a wife's income was deemed to be her husband's for tax purposes!  

We, too, would pay a substantial amount of  higher rate tax on our combined pensions.

Hmmm - maybe I shouldn't be putting ideas into a certain person's head......

Although there was the Married Man's Tax Allowance - larger than a single person's and was set against the couple's combined income.

Yes, 1.5 times the single rate.  I dare say that married couples with non working wives weren't happy if they had to pay more tax, but a big boost for working couples.