Not speculation about what a future Budget might do. Every change here has a published effective date and every figure is read from the same versioned rules bundle the app runs on. If a change is not in that bundle, it is not on this page.
From this date the full new State Pension is worth more than the personal allowance, so for the first time everyone receiving it in full has taxable income. On its own that is a very small tax bill. Alongside any other income, it is not.
Why this is arithmetic, not a forecast. Next April's cash figure is not set until the autumn. But the triple lock guarantees a rise of at least 2.5%, which puts the State Pension at no less than £12,862, against an allowance held flat. The gap today is about £22.
Unused pension funds and most death benefits start counting towards Inheritance Tax. A pension has been one of the most effective ways to pass money on; from this date it is treated like the rest of what you own. Money left to a spouse or civil partner keeps the usual exemption.
Who this catches: anyone whose plan quietly assumed the pension would pass on untouched. We have a full page on this one: it is the largest of the six.
The overall ISA allowance does not change. How much of it can sit in cash does, for anyone under 65. The rest has to go into a stocks-and-shares, innovative-finance or Lifetime ISA to be used at all.
Who this catches: under-65s who use the full allowance in cash. Savers aged 65 and over keep the whole £20,000 in cash. Transfers from a stocks-and-shares ISA back into cash are blocked for under-65s, so the route around it is closed too.
The earliest age you can normally touch a pension rises from 55 to 57. It happens in a single step with no phasing, so reaching 55 the day before means you can access your pension; the day after means waiting almost two more years.
Who this catches: anyone turning 55 between April 2028 and April 2030, who lose up to two years to a birthday. Some older schemes carry a protected earlier age, which is scheme-specific and worth checking with your provider.
Pension contributions made by salary sacrifice are currently free of National Insurance without limit. From this date only the first slice is, and anything above it attracts both employee and employer National Insurance.
Who this catches: middle and higher earners sacrificing heavily into a pension. Most basic-rate taxpayers using salary sacrifice stay under the cap and are unaffected.
Income tax thresholds and the inheritance-tax nil-rate bands stay exactly where they are until 2031. Frozen thresholds are not neutral: as pay and asset values rise, more income crosses into tax and more estates cross into Inheritance Tax, without any rate ever going up.
Who this catches: everyone, slowly. It is the quietest of the six and, across a decade, not the smallest.
Whether the pension change touches your estate depends on what is in it. Whether the 2028 age rise costs you two years depends on your date of birth. Sonuswealth works these out against your own figures and tells you which ones actually apply to you, and when.