Sandison Lang Client Newsletter - Spring 2024

Sandison Lang

LOOKING BEYOND THE BUDGET HEADLINES

At the time of presenting the Budget in March, it was widely touted as being a pre-election display of fiscal measures. There were no big crowd pleasers, however, with fairly low-key actions being announced.

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt focussed on National Insurance (NI) cuts, announcing a further 2 per cent decrease, the same as given in the Autumn Statement last November.

While back-to-back reductions appear generous, figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility show that NI cuts will cost around £21bn. At the same time, tax receipts from frozen tax thresholds will increase by £41bn by 2028/29. The effects of fiscal drag mean more people are reaching tax allowances and rate bands, and therefore boosting Treasury reserves.

In addition, receipts from NI contributions, income tax and capital gains tax from April 2023

to February 2024 rose to £430.3bn, up £23.3bn on the same period the previous year.

Although tax cuts are usually welcomed, NI provides funding for public services so reduced revenues could impact health and education services.

More estates caught by inheritance tax freezes

The predicted cut to inheritance tax did not materialise yet again. The current threshold has been frozen since 2008 and is set until 2028.

Data from HMRC shows inheritance tax delivering £9.7bn by 2028/29 as more and more estates rise above the £325,000 threshold. IHT receipts for April 2023 to February 2024 were £6.8bn, a £0.4bn increase on last year.

New research also depicts that older generations may have over £2.6tn of property value waiting to be passed down, further escalating this issue.

Smaller business news

In a modest boost to smaller businesses, there was an increase in the VAT registration threshold from £85K to £90K. Many critics will say this does not go far enough to help businesses who still face a ‘cliff edge’ when they reach that point – nor does it make the administrative burden of becoming registered any less.

The VAT registration threshold had remained at the current rate since 2017. The Association of Taxation Technicians believe the registration threshold would be around £110,000 had it risen in line with inflation.

We are yet to have an election date declared (at the time of writing) but it is possible we may see some mid-year fiscal announcements or that the Autumn Statement will be deferred. If you have any queries with any of the news from the Budget, please do speak with your accountant who will be happy to help.

Pensions update

Dr Mark Martin writes: You may have received a letter recently from the NHS Pension Agency asking if you would like to change the decision you made about your pension when the 2015

scheme was first introduced. This is being called ‘Choice 2 revocation’ and like most things related to the NHS pension, is typically complicated. More importantly, there is just a few months to take action.

As you may recall, the original ‘Choice’ exercise gave all eligible members of the NHS pension the option to move from the 1995 section into the 2008 section when it was introduced. Then, when the 2015 section was launched, ‘Choice 2’ gave members who had remained in the 1995 section another opportunity to move.

As part of the McCloud remedy being implemented, members have now been given the option to reconsider their original ‘Choice 2’ decision. This is because they may have moved to the new sections believing they offered more

retirement flexibility in the future – but now those flexibilities have been offered to them anyway.

The letter therefore asks whether, if you decided to move your 1995 section benefits to the 2008 section, you would like to move the benefits back. Importantly, there is a deadline of 20th May 2024 to inform the NHS Pensions Agency.

For the majority of those impacted, reversing their decision will be beneficial but every case must be properly checked as there are various criteria to consider – and not much time to verify the details.

If you have any questions regarding McCloud or the letter received, please do speak with your accountant in the first instance who will happy to recommend a specialist financial adviser if required.

Client offer: reduced mortgage advice fees for you and your loved ones

Q&A

As mortgage rates continue to fall with some lenders promoting sub 4% rates, we are delighted to be offering a special opportunity for you and your family from Charterhouse Mortgages & Protection.

They have agreed to offer Sandison Lang clients, and their dependents, a 50 per cent discount on their standard advice fees on all remortgages and purchase applications.

If you are one of the 2.3m mortgage customers coming to the end of your fixed rate then the team at Charterhouse can help you to navigate the options ahead. You may be looking for a new

buy-to-let product or considering purchasing a new home. You may have adult offspring looking to buy their first property or perhaps they are upsizing to accommodate your grandchildren.

If you or your family member needs assistance with their new property loan or would value the team’s help to negotiate a mortgage deal, please speak with Beulah Antonin at Charterhouse.

To ensure the discount is applied, please mention this offer when getting in touch.

Beulah can be contacted on beulah@chmap.co.uk or 03304 704585.

Q: When am I likely to receive my ‘Annual Allowance statement’ now McCloud is in place?

William Myatt writes: NHS Pensions is due to start issuing statements from April 2024. These are officially known as ‘remedy pensions savings statements’ and will show the recalculations of your pension benefits and subsequent tax position for the seven years of the McCloud ‘remedy period’.

To recap, the McCloud remedy aims to recompense NHS pension scheme members deemed to have suffered age discrimination when the 2015 pension scheme was introduced.

Those members will now be able to receive their original benefits from the 1995 or 2008 scheme for the remedy period between 2015 to 2022.

The statements will be based on the assumption that your benefits will be put back into the legacy scheme. This means you will need to reconsider your tax position for the seven years – and look again at any annual allowance liabilities.

HMRC is launching a digital service to help those needing to report over or underpaid tax on their recalculated benefits for the remedy period. Once available, you will need your remedy pensions savings statement to be able to use the online facility.

Sandison Lang interview with Mr Tim Sinnett

Mr Tim Sinnett is a Trauma and Orthopaedic Consultant surgeon specialising in foot and ankle conditions. He has been a consultant at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust since 2017 and co-founded Grosvenor Orthopaedic Partners.

Why did you choose medicine?

I fell into it. My dad was a breast cancer surgeon [Mr Dudley Sinnett] and my mum was a nurse, so it was always in the family. I originally thought I was going to be a professional rugby player but then realised I may well need a backup option! When I was about 16, I had an aptitude test at school which suggested I'd be a doctor and everyone already assumed this.

I chose orthopaedics because it was the most fun. It's a nice mix of being practical and doing interesting surgery that made sense to me. It’s about good spatial awareness and working out how to realign, fix, basically put things back together. It can also make a tangible, positive difference to the patient.

I broke my ankle while I was training which was bad for my rugby career but helped me to decide to specialise in foot and ankle. We see young patients, old patients, sports injuries, arthritis. It's got the whole gambit. These types of cases also mean it’s easier for me to leave my work at work and get home to do the most important bit, which is be a dad and husband.

When did you establish your business?

I co-founded Grosvenor Orthopaedics with my colleague Luke Jones who also works at Chelsea & Westminster in 2018. I had done about three months of being my own secretary, typing my

own letters, booking my own clinics (which was a useful experience because I could see how the system works), but also realised that it's certainly not something I want to do on my own.

Luke and I are similar, both family guys, and it made sense to work together. From the two of use having a sandwich outside the hospital, it's grown pretty well! We now have a large group of surgeons with us.

Do you work with sports clubs because of your interest in rugby?

We see a lot of sports injuries through the NHS plus Grosvenor Orthopaedics sponsors Rosslyn Park Football Club. I train my son’s under 12 rugby team which is a big commitment. We're proud to sponsor and look after them. We've also sponsored Saracens amateurs in the past and it feels good to give back. I think nearly everyone at Grosvenor has a strong sporting background whether it’s rugby, football or even ice hockey.

Has your career changed with advances in technology?

I think that the main change in orthopaedics in general is robotics and AI technology, which is certainly changing the way certain joint replacements are done. I'm not a big joint replacement surgeon, so won’t say whether this is the answer. Surgical times can be a bit longer and so there are pros and cons.

It is almost monthly now that we're getting shown a new device, a new method. Sometimes the old techniques are the best and the most reliable – especially with trauma. I tend to always revert to basic principles in the most challenging cases.

Do you have a mentor?

Yes, and my mentors are either practical or provide a new outlook. Obviously, my dad is my number one source of advice. His work ethic and belief in centring patients in everything that he did is the most important message.

I’ve certainly appreciated other advice from surgeons (usually not foot and ankle surgeons surprisingly) that I might send a quick message to. It's very rarely about a case, it's normally about a life decision.

I tell my registrars they might not enjoy everything that they've learned with me, they might not find the best way or the easiest way, but to pick the things that they like the best.

They then come out as the best possible trained surgeon they can be.

What's been the most rewarding part of your career so far?

In reality, the most important thing is having been able to provide for my family and everything I do is for them. I think within surgery, I still get a massive buzz from seeing a patient who's had an horrendous injury and taking them through to return to their previous function. Whether it is helping an 80-year-old who's fallen over, bust his hip and is now back playing bowls, or if it's a 20-year-old rugby player who's snapped his shin and he's then back playing on the wing, I still get that buzz. I think hopefully I'll always have that – there's not much point in doing what I'm doing otherwise.

Is there anything you would still like to achieve?

I'm really lucky in that I generally enjoy every day that I go to work. I've got a good split between NHS and private work, and they're both different challenges, both are enjoyable. The focus with my private group at the moment is growth and business development. I’m sure this will be an ongoing challenge for the next 20 years. It's exciting as I'm five years into private practice and certainly still learning the ropes from a business side of things.

I'm happy that I'm a good surgeon and getting close to being the best I'm going to be but the main thing is making sure that I continue to learn with different techniques, with different materials. And decision making in surgery is always going to be ongoing learning – as is decision making in business.

Do you ever regret not choosing ‘plan B’?

I took my rugby seriously – I got a final England under 21 trial and played for England students. I was asked to go on a Great Britain under 23 rugby league tour but that was just as I was moving from Cambridge to Imperial, so timings were never quite right. There might be slight regret about not taking some of those opportunities but on reflection, I've made the right decisions in my life. The career of a rugby player now is actually pretty short.

As a parent, I try to give my kids as much of an opportunity as possible. That’s why I'm very happy to stand on the side of a hockey pitch for three hours in the pouring rain, or take my son to do some extra sprint training or watch various

Interview continued

ballet shows. Hopefully they will say they had the opportunity to choose what to do in life!

I am a big believer that sometimes it’s about being in the right place at the right time. There were certain things in my rugby career where I was picked for an England squad because I’d just had a really good match. If my parents hadn't

taken me to that game, that wouldn't have happened. The same thing has applied in medicine. When I was doing my fellowships, I sent a text to someone asking if a job might be coming up at Chelsea. Nothing was being advertised at the time but they replied saying there might be. Two months later I was interviewing for a locum job.

Viewpoint: Michelle Trivett, partner

Customer service at HMRC is at an all-time low, according to politicians on the Public Accounts Committee. This is the organisation set up to determine value for money of government

Reminder: key changes from April

Class 1 NI Contribution employee rate reduced to 8% for those earning £12,570 – £50,270.

Class 2 NI Contribution abolished.

Class 4 NI Contribution rate reduced to 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270.

Thanking you for thinking of us

Congratulations to Dr Aarti Shah who wins £1,000 in our latest refer-a-friend prize draw.

Do you have a friend or colleague who could benefit from our specialist services? Simply

projects and services. We could argue that they might want to assess the politicians too.

Their findings show nearly two-thirds of callers have to wait more then ten minutes to speak to an adviser with the average on hold time being around 16 minutes.

Having a call answered at all is considered a bonus for many. HMRC recently announced it would close its self-assessment helpline for six months every year from April to September. Furthermore, only taxpayers with ‘priority’ queries would be able to use the helpline for the other six months of the year. All enquiries would be handled by the website or automated chat-bots.

Amid widespread criticism, just one day later it was announced that the phone line would stay open this summer and 12 million self-assessed

Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount reduced to £3,000 for individuals and £1,500 for most trustees.

VAT registration threshold increased to £90,000.

email their contact details to us to be entered into our bi-annual draw. (Please do mention that we might be in touch.)

You will also receive an entry into the draw if a friend or colleague mentions your name when they first enquire to Sandison Lang. You

What is your best piece of advice?

The thing I'm most proud of with my kids is when they achieve something they haven't initially found easy. It's when they try something new, have stuck at it and persevered and demonstrated their work ethic, that’s what I'm most proud of. So my advice is having that work ethic, not accepting failure and doing everything to the best of your ability.

taxpayers breathed a sigh of relief. HMRC chief executive declared they had listened to feedback…but moving users to online services would still be encouraged. This may mean we see more temporary closures in the future. Not for everyone though – last month it was revealed that politicians and high-ranking civil servants had their calls answered up to 12 times faster than the rest of us via a VIP special hotline.

One of the main issues is that more people are needing to complete self-assessment because personal income thresholds have not moved. It remains to be seen whether this changes in the year ahead.

There are changes to allowances from April, as detailed below. If you have any queries with these or indeed self assessment, please phone us as we're happy to help.

Capital Gains Tax on residential property disposals reduced to 24% for higher rate taxpayers.

Dividend allowance reduced to £500.

may refer as many people as you wish – for every person that you suggest, you will receive another entry into the competition which will be drawn in November 2024.

Many thanks for supporting our business.