Q. I have heard a rumour that the married couples income tax allowance is set to be re-introduced.  Is this true? 

A. Yes, although we will have to wait for the final details and implementation date.

The Prime minister, David Cameron, recently unveiled plans to introduce a married tax allowance that is estimated to be worth as much as £200.

The scheme is expected to be introduced with effect from the 2015/16 tax year and will enable married couples and civil partners to transfer up to £1,000 of their income tax personal allowance to one another.

However, the allowance is set to be available only to couples where neither partner is a higher-rate tax payer and one of the partners must earn less than the personal allowance.  The party earning below the personal allowance will be able to transfer £1,000 of their personal allowance to their partner, thus saving that partner 20 per cent income tax on that amount (i.e. a saving of £200).

Further details are awaited and we may get these when the Chancellor, George Osborne, delivers his Autumn Statement on 4 December.

Q. A friend told me that the income tax personal allowance is about to increase to £12,500.  This came as something of a surprise, as I usually manage to keep up to date with such changes.  Is my friend correct? 

A. No.  The income tax personal allowance, currently £9,440, is set to increase to £10,000 with effect from 6 April 2014.  This delivers the coalition government’s promise to raise the income tax personal allowance to £10,000, by the end of the current parliament, one year ahead of schedule.  Also, it means that the personal allowance has risen by more than £3,500 since the coalition government took office.

I suspect that your friend has confused news regarding manifesto policies ahead of the next election for impending changes to taxation legislation.  At their recent party conference, the Lib Dems voted in favour of a flagship election policy to raise the income tax personal allowance to £12,500.  Subsequently, there has been much press speculation that the Tories will commit to raising the income tax threshold to £12,500 during the life of the next parliament and UKIP have committed to raising the income tax threshold so that anyone earning the minimum wage only will not pay income tax.

Raising the income tax personal allowance to £12,500 would mean that anyone earning the minimum wage would be lifted out of income tax (the full time equivalent salary being in the region of £12,300).

Q. I am an owner/manager of a medium-sized business and I am responsible for ensuring my company’s compliance with the auto enrolment pensions regime.  A colleague suggested recently that auto enrolment has been extended to include income protection.  Is this correct?

A. No, although certain elements of the financial services profession have been encouraging the Department of Work and Pensions to extend auto enrolment to income protection for some time.

It has been suggested by the Government that only 7 per cent of employers offer income protection to their employees, which pays a proportion of a person’s salary in the event that they are unable to work due to a disability or if they suffer a prolonged period of ill-health.

Several large insurers have been vocal therefore in calling for the Government to extend auto enrolment to income protection or introduce a similar project to that which is intended to increase the number of people contributing to a workplace pension.

It has been argued that extending auto enrolment to income protection (which often can be provided more cost-effectively in a work-based setting) would save a significant amount of the welfare budget and enable public resources to be re-deployed.

It has been reported recently that the DWP has invited the insurance industry to make its case to Government for an auto enrolment income protection regime, but I suggest that it will be several years before any such scheme is introduced (if at all).

If you have a question you would like Trevor to answer, please email it to: yourmoney@rwpfg.co.uk or post it to Your Money, Rutherford Wilkinson Ltd, Northumbria House, 21-23 Brenkley Way, Blezard Business Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE13 6DS.

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