Charity Donation Websites, Pension Liberation Tax Demands, Smart Meters, Transferring Child Trust Funds.

Available for over a year

Pensions Lib HM Revenue & Customs is busy this week sending out letters demanding thousands of pounds to hundreds of people who were sold pension liberation plans. These schemes - often sold by regulated financial advisers - claimed to let people get money out of their pension funds before the legal age limit of 55. They were quickly ruled unlawful but not before hundreds of people had unwisely liberated some of their money. HMRC is now demanding 55% tax on the amount they took. Smart meters MPs have warned this week that the £11 billion programme to replace every electricity and gas meter in the UK with a new 'smart' meter is running late and could be "a costly failure" unless the Government gets a grip on it. But what is a smart meter? And will it work without even smarter humans? The cost of giving Online donations to charity are big business. Not least for the sometimes commercial businesses that run the websites and payment systems - and take a cut of the billion pounds a year that is donated this way. Which are the cheapest alternatives that get the most through to the good cause you support? More choice for children If your child has money in a CTF (Child Trust Fund) is it time to switch acronyms and move it to a JISA (Junior ISA)? From 6 April you will be free to do so. But what is the mechanism? What are the costs? And what is advantage of doing so?