Money Watch – Personal Finance Blog

I hope you’ve had a great New Tax Year’s Day!

What makes today so special? Well, you now have a brand new ISA allowance to play with – and this year the government has generously increased the maximum amount you can pay into your ISA to a whopping £7,200, yes, that’s a massive £200 more than you could have invested yesterday.

Sadly, today we have to say goodbye to Mr Maxi and Mrs Mini ISA. Just to remind you of the new rules, you can invest up to £7,200 in an ISA, of which up to £3,600 can be in a cash ISA, and the rest (or of course, the whole £7,200) can be invested in stocks & shares.

Anything else good about today? Well, the basic rate of income tax has reduced from 22% to 20%, which even by itself, must be cause for celebration.

Oh, I was forgetting that the 10% starting rate of tax has disappeared today, which according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, means that 5.3 million families will now be worse off than they were yesterday.

So, some reasons to be cheerful, and some to be not so cheerful in this New Tax Year.

photo credit: Edward Deluxe