Bridging to Retirement – Splitting SIPP & ISA Contributions

Edit 06Dec21: I realized that this is all completely wrong! You can get the same effect, without paying National Insurance, by just putting part of the money to the pension, then taking the 62% hit on the take home cash for an ISA. For example, for £1,000 of pre-tax income, put £475 in your salary

Practical Thoughts on the New Health & Social Care Levy

By now, we’ve all heard of the new Health & Social Care levy – but what does it really mean in practical terms? I’m not going to talk about the politics, or whether the levy is actually fit for purpose to improve the NHS and social care – I’m mostly keeping this blog apolitical. However,

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Defuse the RMD Bomb

Time for a quick pause in my bigger Withdrawal Strategies series – there’s a few detailed topics we need to get to before we can get to Part 3, combining when you get access to accounts with how to minimize your taxes and get to your money. Before Part 3 will make sense, I’m going

Alternative Minimum Tax & Americans Overseas

I just finished my 2020 US taxes, and while reviewing them noticed that I had a chunk of Alternative Minimum Tax, over $600! Fortunately, it was offset by my child tax credits (thanks girls!), so I didn’t actually owe any tax, but it got me to thinking. My kids are growing up fast, and there

US and UK Taxes – Which are higher?

The UK, right? Lots of people make the assumption that the UK is a high tax country, with a generous social safety net funded from those high taxes (some people I know would disagree with how generous – more than the US in a lot of cases, at least, but no Norway!). I wanted to

The US/UK Tax Treaty

Big caveat up front: I am not a lawyer! This is 100% a layman’s reading of the tax treaty – it’s entirely up to you to confirm my interpretations. I’ve tried to call out situations where there are various interpretations so you can make your own judgment or seek out professional advice. Don’t try to