PPM Financial Planning

PPM Financial Planning Offering "No Tie" Independent Financial Advice. We regard ourselves as the GP's of financial services offering advice on all aspects of your finances.

Financial Planning for Business Owners, Business Leaders and Horse Racing Professionals
These are the areas we specialise in but we will sit down and create a plan with anyone who sees the value in planning for their future. As it is most peoples common goal to retire, it is this area where we specialise
providing bespoke individual retirement strategies that include pension, investment, business strategy planning, protection and savings advice.

25/06/2026

PPM's 6️⃣0️⃣ Second Read!

Making Tax Digital is slow to attract taxpayers

HMRC has reported a low initial registration level for its new income tax regime.
A little over 11 years after ‘Making Tax Easier’ was first announced in the March 2015 Budget, Making Tax Digital for income tax self assessment (MTD for ITSA) went live on 6 April 2026. The subtle rebranding along the way – replacing ‘easier’ with ‘digital’ – hints at the struggles to develop the system.

The 2015 Budget Red Book said, “…the government will transform the tax system over the next Parliament by introducing digital tax accounts, removing the need for annual tax returns. By the end of the next Parliament [2020], over 50 million individuals and small businesses will be able to see and manage their tax affairs online”. It has not worked out that way and, alas, annual tax returns are still with us.

As a reminder, the first group of taxpayers who were meant to have registered with HMRC for MTD before 6 April 2026 were people personally registered for self assessment who:
• received income from self-employment and/or property (or both), and
• had qualifying income (basically gross income from self-employment and/or property) of more than £50,000 in 2024/25.

HMRC estimated that 864,000 people would fall into this initial wave, all of whom are required to deliver their first quarterly update of income and expenses to HMRC via HMRC-approved MTD software by 7 August 2026. Thereafter, further quarterly updates must be submitted by the 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, with a final tax return (under MTD) by the following 31 January.

According to HMRC, a week after the start of MTD, registrations numbered 250,000, nearly 170,000 of which were from tax agents and accountancy firms. Only 80,000 came from individuals. As the professionals would most likely comply with 6 April deadline, those numbers suggest that around 614,000 individuals failed to register on time.

Perhaps in anticipation of a slow take-up, last November the Chancellor announced that in 2026/27 there would be no penalties for filing overdue quarterly updates. However, penalties will still apply for the final (unabolished) tax return and, under the MTD process, this can only be filed after all quarterly updates have been submitted.

Successive governments may have taken over a decade to introduce MTD, but if you are within its scope and have not registered, you do not have the option to procrastinate.

Tax treatment varies according to individual circumstances and is subject to change.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax advice.

18/06/2026

PPM's 6️⃣0️⃣ Second Read!

Where is your emergency cash?

Do you have a rainy day fund? Think again, if you don’t – where you hold your cash matters.

A common piece of basic financial advice is that you should have enough of a cash reserve to cover at least three months’ (and ideally up to six) of your essential regular outgoings. That means expenses like your mortgage or rent, food, council tax and utility bills: it does not include the nice-to-haves. Nevertheless, the sum involved can easily run to five figures, especially if you are aiming for the half year yardstick.

Rainy day money needs to be available quickly – in practice it may be required to cover one sudden big bill. It should be placed somewhere that offers instant access, with no penalties or risk of capital loss. Rainy day money is thus about cash savings not investment. Two obvious options are:

• Easy access accounts. There are hundreds of instant access accounts available, ranging from those which can only be opened and managed via a mobile to the traditional High Street account. The best interest rates – over 4% at the time of writing – are to be found from the smaller deposit takers. Their names may be unfamiliar, but provided the institution is a UK institution covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), your deposit is protected up to £120,000 (£240,000 for joint accounts). The one point to watch: that FSCS cover is per banking license, and some banks have multiple brands (e.g., Lloyds Bank’s license also covers Halifax).

• Cash ISAs. Cash independent savings accounts (ISAs) will be subject to new restrictions for the under-65s from next April, but in 2026/27, you can still place up to £20,000 in a cash ISA. The ISA framework means no tax on the interest, although the personal savings allowance (£1,000 for basic rate taxpayers and £500 for higher rate taxpayers) means your interest on non-ISA deposits may also be tax-free. ISAs cannot be jointly held, which is a drawback for couples. For them, joint rainy day accounts make more sense so that either can have access.

You should regularly review your cash reserves to check you are earning a competitive interest rate and have the right level of reserve. Excess rainy day money could be an investment opportunity missed.

The value of your investment and any income from it can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested.

11/06/2026

PPM's 6️⃣0️⃣ Second Read!

Student loans – of little interest?

The government has announced an interest rate cap for some student loans. It is not all it seems.

Following Easter, the Department for Education (DfE) announced a 6% interest rate cap on Plan 2 (and 3) student loans. The DfE press release read “Interest rate cap introduced to protect Plan 2 borrowers”.

This was a somewhat creative interpretation. To see why, you need to delve into the arcane world of Plan 2 student loans, which were made for undergraduate courses starting between 1 September 2012 and 31 July 2023 in England, and are still being made in Wales. The loan ‘interest’ charged is linked to retail price index (RPI) inflation in March of each year, applied from the subsequent 1 September:

• Until the April after graduation, interest is charged at RPI +3%, meaning that at present it is 6.2% as the March 2025 RPI was 3.2%.

• For graduates – the vast bulk of Plan 2 borrowers now – the interest rate varies between RPI and RPI + 3%, based on income. In 2026/27, RPI is charged for graduates with income up to £29,385 and RPI + 3% applies if income is £52,885 or more.

The interest rate has no bearing on how much a graduate pays, only on how long they must make payments (subject to a maximum of 30 years, after which any outstanding debt is written off). The payment level is 9% of income over £29,385, a figure that the last Budget froze until April 2030.

The DfE made its announcement ahead of the RPI figure for March 2026, which was expected to jump from February’s 3.0% due to the war in Iran. There was already growing criticism of the Budget repayment threshold freeze, so to avoid further discontent at rising interest costs, the DfE rolled out a 6% interest cap (for one year only).

The March RPI turned out to be 3.3%, which means the minimum interest rate will be 3.3% and the maximum 6%. The sliding scale interest rate calculation means that only graduates with incomes above £50,535, and those few still studying, will benefit from the cap.

With over £260 billion of outstanding student debt, the hard financial truth is that your student loan is another area of your finances where you cannot look to the state for much support.

Happy Birthday to our Financial Planner Anil Choudhry.
09/06/2026

Happy Birthday to our Financial Planner Anil Choudhry.

04/06/2026

PPM's 6️⃣0️⃣ Second Read!

The ‘mansion tax’ and property prices – what’s to come?

Further details have emerged about the potential impact of the ‘mansion tax’ announced in the last Budget.

Rachel Reeves’ first two Budgets have so far featured announcements of tax-raising measures with delayed starting dates. For example, the controversial changes to inheritance tax (IHT) business and agricultural relief emerged in October 2024 but have only just taken effect. Similarly, bringing pensions within the scope of IHT was announced at the same time, but will not commence until 6 April 2027.

In her Autumn 2025 Budget, she set out plans for a High Value Council Tax Surcharge (HVCTS – aka ‘mansion tax’) on homes valued at £2 million and above, to start in April 2028. There was little detail about the measure, but a consultation was promised “in the New Year”. So far, nothing has been published by the Treasury, but just before Easter, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) set out its assessment of the new tax’s impact. These included some interesting nuggets:

• By 2028, the OBR thought the full value of the future HVCTS liability would be reflected in property prices. Although the OBR did not spell out the numbers, what this means in practice is that for every £1,000 of consumer price index (CPI)-linked HVCTS annual charge, the OBR expects a property’s value to drop by about £35,000. For the lowest £2,500 charge covering properties valued at £2–2.5 million, their value would drop by about £87,500, according to OBR theory.

• The OBR forecasts that there will be a bunching of prices just below each threshold, which would further lower prices for properties that would otherwise be just above a threshold. The OBR is on solid ground with this assumption, as it is exactly what happened when a single stamp duty rate was based on a house’s price.

Property value in 2026 HVCTS in 2028/29

£2m to £2.5m £2,500
£2.5m to £3.5m £3,500
£3.5m to £5m £5,000
£5m + £7,500

• One-in-five property owners (who are liable to the tax, rather than the occupiers) are expected to lodge an appeal, with a 40% success rate.

Perhaps the most telling point is that the new tax would initially raise only £400 million in 2028/29, hardly even a rounding error in Treasury accounting terms. Almost the same sum could have been generated by raising the standard rate of VAT from 20% to 20.04%, although the politics would have been much trickier.

We’ll have to wait and see if the OBR’s expectations pan out.

Tax treatment varies according to individual circumstances and is subject to change.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax advice.

Village Magazine June Edition
01/06/2026

Village Magazine June Edition

PPM's 6️⃣0️⃣ Second Read! So much for 2% inflation on the horizon…The war with Iran has dashed hopes of inflation fallin...
28/05/2026

PPM's 6️⃣0️⃣ Second Read!

So much for 2% inflation on the horizon…

The war with Iran has dashed hopes of inflation falling to its target level.

When the Bank of England met in early February of this year, the summary of the meeting said, “Although above the 2% target currently, consumer price index (CPI) inflation is expected to fall back to around the target from April, owing to developments in energy prices, including from Budget 2025.”

The reference to energy prices had nothing to do with the focus of current interest: oil. The Bank was looking forward to the reduction in the domestic energy price cap from 1 April. That was set in train by the Chancellor’s decision in last November’s Budget to transfer some renewable energy costs from bills to general taxation for three years.

At the time, the move by Rachel Reeves was seen as having three benefits. It would:
• reduce the average annual utility bill by £150 (all other things being equal);
• lower inflation, providing some good economic news; and
• feed through lower government borrowing costs, some of which are linked to inflation.

Less than four weeks after the Bank of England had mused about inflation finally reaching the target set for it by the Chancellor, the Iran war began. Brent Crude, one of the oil price benchmarks, rose from around $70 a barrel in late February to over $110 a month later, before settling around $100 (at the time of writing).

The UK’s March inflation figures showed the first impact of the oil price jump, with annual inflation rising from 3.0% to 3.3%. The detailed data showed overall motor fuel prices rising by 4.9% in the year to March 2026, compared with a fall of 4.6% in the year to February. The March fuel inflation figure was the highest recorded since January 2023. There is probably more pain to come as the fuel prices were based on the average across March, which were 140.2p a litre for unleaded and 158.7p for diesel.

So far, there are no forecasts that inflation will return to the 10%+ of 2022/23. However, for the second time in less than five years, we have all been reminded that inflation has not disappeared and cannot be ignored.

Congratulations to all our Villa Fans we hope you enjoyed your memorable European night of success.
21/05/2026

Congratulations to all our Villa Fans we hope you enjoyed your memorable European night of success.

21/05/2026

PPM's 6️⃣0️⃣ Second Read!

Are today’s mid-lifers facing a future retirement crisis?

New research reveals that five million mid-lifers, aged 40–54, face a difficult retirement.

The retirement landscape in the UK has changed significantly over the last 50 years:

• In 1978, the State pension moved from what was largely a flat rate benefit to a
combination of flat rate and, for employees only, earnings-related State pensions.
• Over the years, the earnings-related element underwent a variety of changes, mostly benefits (and government costs) until in 2016 it was replaced by a new flat rate benefit.
• Final salary (defined benefit – DB) pension schemes were widespread in both the
private and public sector in the 1970s and 1980s, with personal pension plans largely limited to the self-employed.
• Years of attrition followed, and by 2025, only 3% of private sector DB schemes were still accepting new members, while about three-quarters were no longer accruing benefits for their existing members.
• From October 2012, automatic enrolment (AE) in workplace pensions was phased in, reaching a final steady state from April 2019. Workplace pensions of various types now cover about four-in-five employees and other workers, but not the self-employed.

From that history emerges a theoretical gap for those who started their working lives roughly in the fifteen years from the turn of the century. Outside the public sector, most would not have joined a final salary pension scheme, and some would have had low or even no pension scheme membership until they joined a workplace pension, thanks to the phasing in of AE.

New research undertaken by one of the UK’s major pension providers has discovered that the theory is very much a reality. It found a generation of people born between the early 1970s and late 1980s who were too young to benefit from DB schemes, but also too old to feel the full benefit of AE. Five million of the mid-lifers, currently aged 40–54, are not on track for an adequate retirement. Of that 9% of the UK adult population worst at risk are part-time workers, renters and those who have taken a career break.

The research did offer some hope for a way out of the pension mid-life crisis: start putting more into retirement plans now, as there are at least 13 years before State pension age arrives.

The value of your investment and any income from it can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested.

14/05/2026

PPM's 6️⃣0️⃣ Second Read!

State pension age hits the 67 threshold

Were you born after 5 April 1960?

There can sometimes be a long period between when legislation becomes law and when it takes effect. The delay is often due to the legislation being only a broad framework to which a raft of detailed regulations is subsequently attached. However, there are instances where a protracted run-in is a deliberate feature. Such is the case with the State pension age (SPA) provisions in the Pensions Act 2014.

These put into law a phased one-year increase in SPA to 67 for men and women born after 5 April 1960, beginning in April 2026 and ending two years later. At the time the Act was passed in May 2014, the SPA for men was 65 and for women, about 62, on the way to an equalised SPA of 65 in March 2016. Thereafter, both men and women saw another year added gradually to their SPA, taking it to 66 in November 2018.

Unsurprisingly, the increases to SPA were – and still are – controversial. To dampen further criticism, the government said that it would provide at least ten years’ notice of any rise in SPA – hence the 12-year time lag for the Pensions Act 2014 change.

While there is a good case for giving a decade’s warning of an increase to SPA, it comes with a risk that the assumptions underlying the original announcement prove to be wrong by the time it takes effect. Unfortunately, this is the case with the latest SPA increase:

• In 2014, the then latest (2012-based) life expectancy projections from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) were that a man aged 66 in 2018 would live for 21.1 years and his female counterpart would survive another 23.7 years. The corresponding projections for men and women aged 67 in 2028 were 21.3 years and 23.8 years, justifying the one-year increase in SPA to 67 by that point.

• In 2026, the ONS life expectancy projections (2022-based) for 67-year-olds in 2028 are 18.6 years for men and 21.1 years for women.

That is a 2.7-year shorter life expectancy between the two sets of projections for both sexes. Sadly, life expectancy has not improved as rapidly as the ONS expected back in 2012.

One more reason for planning your own retirement date, rather than defaulting to the State’s choice.

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