More u turns, or just on his Magic Roundabout?

Although Alistair Darling has only been in post as Chancellor since June 2007, he has already announced a number of reversals in tax policy in that short period.

In October 2007 the Chancellor announced sweeping changes to the Capital Gains Tax rules which would have a detrimental effect for many business owners.

In January 2008 he announced a significant concession in the form of Entrepreneur's relief.

More recently he has announced an increase to personal allowances by £600 to compensate basic rate tax payers for the loss of the 10% tax band announced in the 2007 budget.

Despite the slogan "Tax doesn't have to be taxing", these constant changes make it extremely taxing to stay up to date with the changes. We keep on top of the changes in order to identify for you the tax saving opportunities. In this edition of our newsletter we look at one or two ideas.

Pensions:

As personal pension payments are paid net of basic rate tax, they are affected by the recent fall in basic rate income tax. Although the reduction in the basic rate of income tax from22% to 20% is to be welcomed, it does reduce how much the pension providers can reclaim from HM Revenue & Customs on your personal pension contributions. For every £1 personal pension contribution the pension companies could previously reclaim around 28p, this has fallen to 25p from 6th April 2008. As the tax relief for higher rate tax payers has increased, they will be able to increase their personal pension contributions by the 2% change without being any worse off. Basic rate tax payers may wish to consider whether to increase their personal premiums to ensure that the same amount overall goes into their pension.

Rather than company owners paying personal pension contributions into their own pensions, they may wish to let their company pay "Employer" pension premiums instead. This could save significant amounts of National Insurance for both the company and the individual.