Finance Bill 2011: the new measures

Finance Bill 2011 published on 31 March 2011 contains a mixture both of measures that were announced for the first time in the Budget of 23 March and measures that had been consulted on following the release of draft legislation in December 2010. A number of these latter measures remain unchanged from the December draft and are not considered here.

There are no major changes to the rules on pension tax relief although as promised in the Budget the Bill contains provisions to enable individuals to meet high annual charges from their pension benefits. Draft guidance on the rules around income drawdown was also released on 31 March.

The Bank Levy provisions in the Bill reflect the increased levy rates announced in February 2011...