According to the Sunday Business Post yesterday, the Commission on Taxation may propose introducing a common rate for pension tax relief of around 30 per cent, thus reducing the tax benefit currently enjoyed by higher earners while increasing the relief for those in the 20 per cent income tax bracket. Writing on PE earlier this year, Dr. Jim Stewart - a member of the TCD Pension Policy Research Group, which collaborated with TASC on its pension reform proposals - pointed out that any reform of pension tax reliefs must be accompanied by reform of the pension system as a whole.
Meanwhile, if anyone was in any regarding about the inability of private pensions schemes to provide a secure retirement income into the future, PriceWaterhouse Coopers has just released the results of a survey indicating that - of those employers currently operating Defined Benefit schemes - 20 per cent are winding up, or considering winding up, their DB schemes, while 49 per cent are considering introducing a salary freeze or cap, and 39 per cent are considering removing pension increases.
With regard to Defined Contribution schemes, 9 per cent of employers surveyed indicated that they had reduced their contributions, while 32 per cent of employees have either reduced or ceased their contributions.
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