TENS of thousands of retirees are set to pay tax on their state pension for the first time next year.

It is expected that around 340,000 pensioners will be told that they need to pay tax when the state pension rises by £460 in 2025.

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Letters from the taxman will land on doorsteps for the first time next April, when the new tax year starts.

This is due to the triple lock, which means the payment made to those aged 66 and over rises every April by the highest out of inflation, the average UK wage increase or 2.5%.

Wages rose by 4% between May and July this year and experts suggest this figure will be the deciding factor in how much the state pension will rise by next year.

With tax thresholds frozen until 2028, this increase will drag around 340,000 pensioners into paying tax for the first time, it has been warned.

This is because the total annual amount of income they receive will be more than their personal allowance.

The allowance is the amount of money you can earn before you have to pay tax on your income.

Under the current rules, this is up to £12,570 each tax year.

Over the next few weeks HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is writing to 560,000 customers as part of its “simple assessment” process, which will calculate who needs to pay what tax.

It was previously expected that around 140,000 pensioners would receive a letter for the first time this year.

But because of the suspected increase in the state pension, 340,000 people are now likely to get one.

Sir Steve Webb, the former pensions minister, told The Sun: “Whilst pensioners benefit from an above inflation increase in 2025, some of the increase will be clawed back through taxation for more and more pensioners.

“This comes on top of the loss of winter fuel payments for most. Taking account of rising energy bills on top of all these changes, by next April, not many pensioners will feel better off overall.”

Previously all pensioners received a Winter Fuel Payment of up to £300 each year to help cover the cost of energy bills.

But in July the government said that the payment, which is not taxable, would only be made to those on low incomes who claim certain benefits.

These include Pension Credit, Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit.

To be eligible you needed to be receiving a benefit during the qualifying week of September 16-22.

Meanwhile, yesterday the energy price cap increased by 10%, adding £149 a year to the average household bill.

Between October 1 and December 31 the energy price cap is set at £1,717 for a typical household which has a dual fuel tariff and pays by direct debit.

The increase will pile further pressure onto pensioners who are struggling to make ends meet this winter.

How will the tax be paid?

HMRC has said that the letters it is sending to pensioners will include detailed calculations of any tax due on the income they receive in the 2023-24 tax year.

Pensioners will need to pay this tax through a Simple Assessment tax bill.

What is the Winter Fuel Payment?

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Consumer reporter Sam Walker explains all you need to know about the payment.

The Winter Fuel Payment is an annual tax-free benefit designed to help cover the cost of heating through the colder months.

Most who are eligible receive the payment automatically.

Those who qualify are usually told via a letter sent in October or November each year.

If you do meet the criteria but don’t automatically get the Winter Fuel Payment, you will have to apply on the government’s website.

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You’ll qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment this winter if:

• you were born on or before September 23, 1958
• you lived in the UK for at least one day during the week of September 16 to 22, 2024, known as the “qualifying week”
• you receive Pension Credit, Universal Credit, ESA, JSA, Income Support, Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit

If you did not live in the UK during the qualifying week, you might still get the payment if both the following apply:

• you live in Switzerland or a EEA country
• you have a “genuine and sufficient” link with the UK social security system, such as having lived or worked in the UK and having a family in the UK

But there are exclusions – you can’t get the payment if you live in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal or Spain.

This is because the average winter temperature is higher than the warmest region of the UK.

You will also not qualify if you:

• are in hospital getting free treatment for more than a year
• need permission to enter the UK and your granted leave states that you can not claim public funds
• were in prison for the whole “qualifying week”
• lived in a care home for the whole time between 26 June to 24 September 2023, and got Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance

Payments are usually made between November and December, with some made up until the end of January the following year.

This can be paid online, by bank transfer or by cheque.

If you get a letter after October 31, 2024 for the last tax year you must pay it within three months of the date you received it.

There is also an option to pay in instalments, so long as you pay the full amount by the deadline.

There is an online guide to the Simple Assessment for pensioners which provides more information for those who receive a demand.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

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The amount of initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) has fallen to its lowest level since the global financial crisis.

There were just eight IPOs this year (to the end of September), according to research by national accountancy group UHY Hacker Young.

This is a decrease from 12 last year and the lowest number since the five recorded in 2007/08.

Only £88.6m was raised through AIM IPOs in 2023/24, compared to £8.83bn raised during the market’s peak year of 2006/07.

UHY Hacker Young said the steep drop in AIM IPOs “highlights a challenging environment for smaller companies looking to raise capital.”

Additionally, there is uncertainty surrounding the tax status of AIM shares.

Concerns have grown that the government might scrap the inheritance tax (IHT) exemption that exists on UK companies that are listed AIM shares.

This has made private investors more “cautious about investing in AIM shares” said UHY Hacker Young.

“Without the interest of private investors the share prices of AIM companies would fall due to lower demand and liquidity.”

Also without the IHT relief attached to investing in AIM shares the market could face greater competition from private equity, “with companies deciding to stay private rather than list on a stock market”.

The IHT exemption attached to AIM shares was introduced to encourage private companies to list on AIM and scale up instead of staying private.

UHY Hacker Young chairman Colin Wright said: “Speculation about the future of tax relief on AIM shares is very unhelpful for the market.

“Now that interest rates are finally falling that should help AIM.

“We hope the new government will make it clear that they are not planning to subject AIM shares to IHT.

“That would lift a big cloud from the UK’s biggest growth company stock market.

“More management teams at growth companies now look toward US markets as they can offer much higher valuations for companies.

“Private equity and venture capital investors can also outcompete AIM due to lower compliance and reporting burdens.

“For a lot of fast-growing companies, the IHT exemption of listing on AIM has been that advantage.”

The number of companies on AIM stood at 704 at the end of August 2024, down by 7% from 753 at the end of 2023 and 58% from its peak of 1,694 companies at the end of 2007.

In September 2024, UHY Hacker Young research also found that the amount of money raised on the AIM through secondary fundraising decreased by 33% from last year.

MARTIN Lewis has issued an urgent warning to all Disney+ customers due to a major change that could cost £60 a year.

It has been revealed that Disney+ is knuckling down on password sharing.

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In a recent MoneySavingExpert newsletter, it was explained that customers who share Disney+ accounts will have to pay an extra £4.99 a month.

This is on top of your existing base price plan.

Say you share an account with friends or family who don’t live with you, the cost will apply.

Add it all up and it comes to £60 a year.

If you currently have a monthly £7.99 standard plan, this will become £12.78 with the separate “extra member” price.

Or if you have a £10.99 premium plan, this will become £15.98.

Alternatively, a £4.99 standard with ads plan will become £8.98 as the extra member cost is £3.99.

Disney+ will also check your location when you access the service.

A “household” will automatically be set up for the account based on the devices you use and where your primary residence is.

Logging into your account away from home will mean completing a verification process using a one-time passcode sent to your email.

To share your account with someone else, you’ll need to buy a separate extra member profile.

You won’t be charged the extra fee automatically, instead you’ll need to buy the extra profile yourself.

However, you can only buy one per account.

This member can’t already have had a Disney+ subscription, including a free trial.

And they can only stream one device at a time.

It is worth noting that Disney+ have not revealed how exactly they will enforce this new policy.

There is a chance you might get locked out of your account if your’e not the account holder.

Sun Money has contacted Disney+ and will update this story when we hear back.

Last weekend The Sun reported on this news along with the revelation of it not being so long ago that Netflix begun charging for password sharing.

In 2023, Netflix started banning viewers from streaming the service if they didn’t live at the house of the primary account holder.

This meant Netflix users who wanted to share an account were charged £4.99 a month, the same as having your own ad-based subscription.

How to save on your Disney+ subscription

Here are a list of ways to cut costs.

Lloyds Bank’s Club Lloyds account gives you 12 months’ Disney+ standard with ads streaming for free – it’s normally £4.99 a month, £59.88 for a year.

The account is fee-free as long as you meet the £2,000 a month minimum pay-in – there’s a £3 a month fee if you don’t.

Or, if you have a Tesco Clubcard with enough points, you can use your Clubcard vouchers to get 50% off a three-month Disney+ subscription.

Although, this only works with standard with ads and standard subscriptions.

When you swap your vouchers, you’ll get a code that’s valid until May 1, 2025, so if you’re an existing Disney+ subscriber you can wait till your current plan expires, and then use the code.

How to cancel your Disney+ subscription

If you’re unhappy with the changes to your subscription you can cancel anytime by following these simple steps.

It’s important to note though that if you cancel, you won’t be able to watch TV shows or any other content through the streaming platform.

You can cancel at any time and there is no fee to leave.

Start by logging into your Disney+ account online.

Then click the Manage Account button which can be found in the top corner of the screen.

From the plans and billing section, click on your subscription. Then, click cancel subscription and follow the last few steps to confirm.

Do bear in mind, that if you cancel halfway through your billing cycle, you’ll still be able to use the account until your next payment date.

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) said it “became apparent” it needed to appoint four of its executive directors to the board of the Personal Finance Society (PFS).

The CII would not elaborate on the exact reasons why when asked, but simply said it was clear that the PFS would ‘benefit’ from having more CII executives.

It added that the appointments would bring “additional strength” to the PFS board.

However, critics have questioned this.

Posting on LinkedIn, chartered financial planner Vanessa Barnes reposted a video interview with the first independent chair of the PFS, recorded 12 months ago.

In it, he says: “Historically, the [Chartered Insurance] institute was appointing their full-time employees, who weren’t necessarily particularly skilled in governance, and obviously have found it very difficult to take an independent view.”

Former PFS former Fellow Alasdair Walker has questioned why, given these comments, “One year later, the CII has appointed four new institute directors to the PFS board, who are all executive directors and employees of the CII.”

Walker added: “I have been trying to prevent this, both publicly and privately, for more than two years.

“I’m afraid it looks like, without significant member intervention, the future of the PFS is grim.”

A spokesperson for the CII told Money Marketing: “The Institute has the absolute discretion to make changes to its Director representation on the PFS Board at any time.

“It had become apparent that the PFS board would benefit from having more of the Group’s executive team – beyond the interim CEO’s role in serving the board – available to input directly into discussions and decision-making.

“The four new appointments bring additional strength to the PFS board as it seeks to deliver an ambitious programme of work for members.”

They stressed that the composition of the PFS board has not changed and that seven Institute-appointed directors remain.

The CII said the four new appointments to the PFS Board “ensure it has access to the most accurate and timely information when taking decisions on behalf of members”.

CII group chief executive Matthew Hill and three other members of the organisation’s Executive leadership team – Trevor Edwards, Mathew Mallett and Gill White – have been added with immediate effect.

They replace four existing Institute appointed directors – Neil Buckley, Sarah Howe, Catharine Seddon and Neil Watts.

The CII spokesperson added: “CII executives have previously served on the PFS board over many years.

“Reestablishing a PFS board structure that combines both external and internal knowledge and expertise will ensure the Group’s strategic ambitions for the PFS are best achieved.

“They include delivering high-quality learning opportunities, developing our exceptional member offer, and making significant advances in our IT services.

“The additions of our executive director, member engagement & learning, and executive director, digital & information, alongside the group chief executive and executive director, resources & people, will bring additional strength to the PFS board and help achieve this strategic alignment for the benefit of members.”

The CII said it “would like to put on record its thanks to the four Directors who have left the PFS board for their respective contributions over many months”.

The other Institute-appointed directors – Mike Crane, Edward Grant and Debbie Mitchell – remain in post.

The latest move, announced yesterday (1 October), has increased tensions between the two parties, which were already at breaking point.

The whole saga started in December 2022, when in similar fashion the CII decided to appoint three of its directors to the PFS Board, apparently without warning.

It’s justification was that mediation between the two parties had failed, and as such the CII was taking matters into its own hands.

This ‘Christmas coup’ as it has since become known, was met with anger by the PFS, who said they had not been informed.

The move was labelled as “aggressive” by the PFS chair at the time.

(Bloomberg) — Billionaire investor Ray Dalio says China’s surge of market stimulus will be a historic turning point for the world’s second-largest economy, if policymakers in Beijing deliver “a lot more” than pledged.

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The comments came after Chinese stocks posted the biggest rally since 2008 following a policy blitz last week that included lowering interest rates and allowing brokers to tap central bank funding to buy stocks. China’s top leaders have also pledged to support fiscal spending and stabilize the beleaguered property sector.

In a LinkedIn post on Monday, Dalio drew a parallel between President Xi Jinping’s moves and the moment in 2012 when former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged to “do whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. Draghi’s speech eventually helped bring an end to that period’s European debt crisis.

“It was a big week,” wrote Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates. “In fact, I think that it was such a big week that it could go down in the market-economic history books,” as long as China’s policymakers “do what it takes, which will require a lot more than what was announced.”

China’s Crossroad

Beijing is at a crossroad in confronting the bursting of a housing bubble and mounting local government debt, said Dalio, who has frequently visited China to meet senior leaders.

The nation could either slip into an economic malaise similar to what Japan experienced in the past, or successfully cut debt and avoid a crisis, the closely followed investor said.

To achieve what he calls a “beautiful deleveraging,” Beijing needs to restructure bad debt, while creating more money to reduce the debt service burden without fueling too much inflation. Such “reflation” moves would encourage risk-taking by making cash less attractive than other assets, he said.

“Doing these things starts to rekindle ‘bottom fishing’ and ‘animal spirits,’” he wrote. “We are clearly seeing that happen now.”

Dalio warned that the deleveraging would be painful because it will destroy wealth and bring about the politically-charged decisions as to who will shoulder the costs of debt losses. A decline in the working-age population and aging demographics compound China’s challenges, he added.

“So, while last week we saw great actions and words that I am sure will be followed by highly stimulative policies that will help a lot and will support asset prices, I think that there are several important other things to keep an eye on to see how well China’s domestic debt-money-economy challenges will be handled,” he wrote.

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©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -Berkshire Hathaway will take full ownership of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, after Warren Buffett’s conglomerate agreed to acquire the 8% it did not already own from the family of late billionaire philanthropist Walter Scott.

According to a Tuesday regulatory filing, Berkshire Hathaway Energy will pay $2.37 billion in cash for about 4.42 million of its shares.

The Scott family will also swap 1.6 million of the energy unit’s shares for an unspecified number of Berkshire Class B shares. Berkshire Hathaway Energy is also exchanging some debt.

Following the transaction, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire will own 100% of the energy unit, up from 92% now.

The transaction is expected to be completed after regulatory approvals in the current quarter. Its total value is unclear because the energy unit’s shares are not publicly traded.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy declined additional comment, while Berkshire did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scott, an Omaha native, was a longtime Berkshire director and Buffett friend who died in Sept. 2021 at age 90.

Analysts had expected Berkshire to buy out Scott’s family, though Edward Jones’ analyst James Shanahan said it took longer than expected.

In June 2022, Berkshire Vice Chairman Greg Abel, who led Berkshire Hathaway Energy for a decade, sold his 1% stake to Berkshire for $870 million. That suggested that the Scott family’s stake was worth nearly $7 billion at the time.

But the energy unit’s PacifiCorp utility has since faced many lawsuits from homeowners and business owners who blame it for causing wildfires in Oregon and northern California in 2020.

The purchase also lets Berkshire spend some of its cash, which totaled $276.9 billion as of June 30.

“It makes sense,” said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research. “Berkshire has a significant pile of cash to deploy, at a time U.S. Treasury yields are falling and likely to continue to fall.”

She said the energy unit nonetheless “has had its fair amount of challenges since Abel sold his stake, not the least of which is the wildfire litigation.”

Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns energy, utility and pipeline businesses, and one of the largest U.S. residential real estate brokerages.

Buffett’s conglomerate originally bought a 76% stake in 2000, when the unit was known as MidAmerican Energy. The unit adopted the Berkshire Hathaway Energy name in 2014.

Berkshire also owns dozens of other businesses, including the BNSF railroad and Geico car insurance, and common stocks including Apple.

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Abel, 62, is expected to eventually succeed Buffett, 94, as Berkshire’s chief executive.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski)