A financial adviser is warning that taking advantage of pension law changes and using a pension pot to buy a property is not the most tax efficient use of your money.
Tony Mudd at St. James’s Place says retirees tempted to invest their pension pot in property should think carefully.
“The government has empowered a generation of retirees to do much more than they could before, including the idea of investing in the buy-to-let property market. With meagre returns on cash savings, buy-to-let offers the potential for attractive levels of rental income and capital gains and retirees may feel they can tread a more familiar path by investing in bricks and mortar,” he says.
“Investors who have saved diligently into a pension because of the tax breaks will baulk at the prospect of handing back 40 per cent or more in tax. Those who understand the need to maintain their standard of living throughout retirement will be working hard to minimise the tax they have to pay” he says.
Mudd says that a recent HSBC study reveals that gross rental yields in some property hotspots can be as high as seven or eight per cent per year.
“As impressive as this sounds, buy-to-let is not necessarily the fail-safe investment opportunity these figures suggest; there are many other factors that need to be taken into consideration. Residential property cannot be held in a pension, people purchasing a house or flat will firstly need to draw the required sum from the fund” he claims.
The new rules make it possible to withdraw the whole fund, with 25 per cent available tax-free but with further amounts taxed at the individual’s marginal rate of income tax.
Pensioners taking a large withdrawal could therefore find much of it, along with any other income for that year, taxed at the higher 40 per cent rate, or the top rate of 45 per cent.
Mudd warns that the potential tax burden doesn’t end there. If the value of the buy-to-let property rises sufficiently, it will be liable for Capital Gains Tax when sold. In addition, any property owned by the individual forms part of their estate for Inheritance Tax purposes.
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More scaremongering. Let people do what they want with they money they've earned. When did personal agency become such an alien concept in this country!
Agreed. Too much nannying going on these days. If people want to spend their money on buy-to-let properties, why they should be allowed? I don't buy into the fact that it's a dangerous, risky move - all the current evidence in the property market would suggest otherwise, particularly in East London. Buy-to-let investments seem a pretty safe bet to me with demand for rental properties growing by the day.
#why shouldn't they be allowed.
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