FURBS And Business Assets

FURBS And Business Assets
John Woolley LLB FCII FTII explains the intricacies of Funded Unapproved Retirement Benefits Schemes when invested in business assets.
A Funded Unapproved Retirement Benefits Scheme usually known by the acronym FURBS can be an attractive way for a director/shareholder of an unquoted company to provide (usually) deferred benefits from the company. Whilst an approved pension scheme will normally be the first port of call in such planning one very real benefit of an unapproved scheme is that all of the retirement benefits can be taken in the form of a tax-free cash sum. Also of course for directors whose earnings are caught by the earnings cap (£91 800 in tax year 2000-01) the 'funded unapproved route' will be much more compelling.
The tax and National Insurance planning qualities of funded unapproved schemes have been slowly whittled away since their...