George Osborne should forget launching another raid on the pension contributions of higher earners. Any such attack would in my opinion be yet another anti business move.

The Chancellor is believed to have met with government ministers yesterday (Monday 19^th November) to discuss lowering the maximum annual tax-exempt pension contribution, the annual allowance, to £40,000.

Such a raid wouldn’t only affect those in the super-rich bracket, it would affect owners of enterprises, which are vital for the UK’s economic growth.

High rates of personal tax are ‘anti-business’ as they reduce a firm’s capacity to grow, thereby dampening job creation. We need to encourage our business leaders and we need to encourage them to invest.

There’s no doubt in my mind that a raid on pensions tax relief for the better off would be damaging for the British economy.  It flies in the face of sensible, modern tax policy.

It is imperative that the Chancellor seeks other ways of boosting the Exchequer’s coffers that don’t hit businesses and don’t discriminate against people saving for their future.

According to a report in the Financial Times, a threshold of £40,000 is expected to raise around £600 million, whilst a further cut in the threshold to £30,000 would raise £1.8 billion.

Fresh business thinking news has also commented.