Tolley’s Pensions Taxation 2011/12

Publisher: LexisNexis; paperback

Finance Act 2004 contained the legislation for pensions tax simplification although it did not take effect until 6 April 2006 known as A-day.

Every Finance Act since (including all three in 2010) has tinkered with the subject. What we have now is anything but simple.

At last someone has been brave enough to attempt to explain it all. Trying to cut through the disguised remuneration legislation in FA 2011 is difficult but Stephen Ward seeks to demonstrate its effect on pension arrangements.

Yet modestly he acknowledges there is now so much legislation that it is almost impossible for any one person to know the whole picture inside out. Overall this book is commendably short given all the nuances it has to cover.

Quite rightly the author points out that all complications contained in...