Pre-Budget Report 2009 Introduction Personal tax Tax rates and allowances Furnished holiday lettings Pensions and Credits State Pension Rates of tax credit National Insurance Contributions Rates and limits: 2010/11 Rates and limits: 2011/12 Employees Bankers' bonuses Electric cars and vans Cars up to 2012 Car fuel Works canteen Savings Pension contributions Capital Gains Tax Annual exemption and rate Inheritance Tax Rates and threshold Stamp Duty/Stamp Duty Land Tax Extended holiday ends Corporation Tax Rate of tax Business Tax Bank payroll tax Capital allowances Research and development Time to pay Empty property rates relief Value Added Tax Standard rate Flat rate Other Measures Equitable liability Offshore disclosure opportunity Public sector pay and pensions Tax avoidance

Pension contributions In the April Budget we were told about the restriction on higher rate tax relief for pension contributions that would bite on people with incomes over £150,000 in 2011/12, and also measures to stop people keeping the benefit of that relief by paying extra contributions in advance of 6 April 2011 (so called "anti-forestalling rules"). If someone has had income of at least £150,000 in the current or the last two tax years, and makes a "special pension contribution" of more than £20,000, they may suffer a tax charge of the difference between the higher rate relief they would expect and the basic rate relief that they would be entitled to in 2011. The PBR includes a measure to tighten up this rule. HMRC have realised that pension contributions paid by a self-employed person or by an employee are effectively part of their gross income and so count towards the £150,000; contributions paid directly by an employer are not. So someone with a salary of £200,000 who paid a contribution of £80,000 would be caught, but someone with a salary of £120,000 whose employer paid a contribution of £80,000 would not. For contributions paid on or after 9 December 2009, employer contributions will count towards an employee's income limit when measuring it against £150,000. However, someone with an income of no more than £130,000, before the employer contribution is added, will not be subject to the supplementary charge. These rules are complex, and anyone who has had total income approaching £150,000 in any of the last three years should take advice before paying a pension contribution totalling over £20,000 in a year.