Rabbits out of the hat

We all wonder what eye-catching give aways, reforms or consulations the Chancellor will put on show today.

Stamp Duty
One being mooted is a reform to Stamp Duty, whereby you'd pay a bit more on each extra portion of the purchase price of a home, replacing the current method of paying a higher rate on the whole purchase price each time the price goes over a threshold.
This change is already being brought in Scotland.

Pensioner Bonds
Special high interest bond for pensions, starting in January. Yes, we already know about them, but Osborne's likely to say more about the rates being offered.

Inheritance Tax
The Conservatives wanted to raise the threshold to £1m from £325,000. One for the Budget, maybe.

Personal Allowance increases.
Going to £10,500 in April, but perhaps we could be given detail about the stepped increases to the further goal of £12,500.

Pension Tax Relief
Lots of speculation recently about taking full tax relief from 40% taxpayers, taking them down to the standard 20% or something in between. And lots of warnings that a Tory Chancellor wouldn't do this. The lure is the billions of pounds that could be released to cover the Tories' promise of £7bn in tax cuts if they won the election.
A possible half way house would be to restrict the tax relief for 45% taxpayers.

Fuel Duty
Keep going with the freeze.

Peer to Peer lending
More about including this and Crowdfunding in tax-free Individual Savings Accounts. And more on promoting new Financial Technology. The Chancellor's very keen on cyber-banking and how the UK can be a leader.

That's a start, anyway.

Pension delayed

As many as ten million people in their late 30s and mid 40s will have to wait an extra year to before they start receiving the State Pension, after changes announced in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement today.

This group would have expected to qualify for their pensions at the age of 67, but they will now have to wait until they reach 68, as the date for raising the pension age is brought forward by about ten years.

Pension analyst Tom McPhail, of Hargreaves Lansdown, has estimated that 10 million will be affected on the basis that around 1 million people are likely to be retiring each year.

The pension age is being increased in stages as life expectancy rises, with a pension age of 66 starting in October 2020 and 67 being phased in between 2026 and 2028.

The move to 68 had been pencilled in for people retiring from 2044, but George Osborne said the date would be brought forward to the mid-2030s.

It will rise to 69 in the "late 2040s", he added.

Mini-budget: Will he, won't he?

George Osborne delivers his Autumn (or is it Winter?) Statement tomorrow.

So will he or won't he..

Clobber wealthier pension savers by limiting what they can take from their fund as a tax free lump sum?

Fiddle with stamp duty thresholds to soften the impact on people buying lower value homes?

Let people do more with tax free ISAs, to encourage savers?

Give a cast iron promise to freeze fuel duty until 2015?

Curb buy-to-letters by axing the tax break they get on mortgage interest?

Charge foreign property owners Capital Gains Tax when they sell up in the UK?

We'll find out at 11.15 in the morning.

Will fixed rate energy customers get reduced bills?

Update here.

There's a big debate over who should foot the bill for insulation and energy-saving measures under ECO (the Energy Company Obligation).

Up until now the suppliers have had to pay, passing the cost to customers -- adding around £90 to the energy bill.

But after the recent outcry over energy prices, those same suppliers now expect the Chancellor to shift the cost to taxpayers, with the news expected in 5th December's Autumn Statement (shouldn't it be the Winter Statement?).

EDF put up its prices by less than the others, saying it was assuming the Chancellor would lighten the burden. Other companies have said they'll scale back the price hikes they have already announced.

But millions of customers are on fixed price deals. The prices they pay are not supposed to change, raising the risk that they might not benefit from the heralded cut in bills.

Well, I hear from npower today that they will pass on any price reductions to fixed rate customers, even though -- according to the small print -- they don't have to.

Will the other suppliers do the same? They won't want to look like Christmas Scrooges, will they?

Osborne's options

Autumn statement

Personal Finance Possibilities

PENSIONS
Restrict tax relief for higher and top rate taxpayers
Restrict or tax the tax free lump sum
Accelerate move to pension age of 67

TAX CREDITS
Freeze tax credits
Child tax credit reductions are already in train for April next year

TAX
More on raising personal allowance to £10,000 eventually

BENEFITS
Tinker with 5.2% uprating pencilled in for April
Announce a review of uprating system (uses Sept CPI rate)

ISAs
Allow Child Trust Funds to be transferred into new Junior ISAs