Tax, pensions and the King’s Speech in the weekend money sections

Investment stories continued their dominance at the top of the leader board this week, and despite a small 1 per cent fall they still accounted for more than a quarter (26 per cent) of all weekend money section coverage.   On the other hand, both tax and pensions stories saw their coverage figures double, with tax rising from six to 13 per cent, and pension stories increasing from five to 10 per cent.

With regards to tax, Tanya Powley (@ftmoney) covered the potential changes to inheritance tax (IHT) legislation in the FT Weekend. She noted that tax payers should be thinking about acting now in order to reduce potential bills in the future and outlined possible ways to reduce the burden.  Jill Insley (@Basilhouse) in the Observer looked at how the government may decide to reduce the IHT  threshold or change the ruling on tax exempt gifts in order generate more revenue. Stephen Womack in the Mail on Sunday commented that the annual limit for exempt gifts is £3,000 but had it tracked inflation, it would be £6,000 by now.

Pension stories that caught our eye included Alexandra Goss and Nina Montagu-Smith’s (@ninamontagu) piece in the Sunday Times which advised readers on how they might be able to profit from the changes to the annual and lifetime allowances for contributions, while Jeff Prestridge (@jeffprestridge) in the Mail on Sunday concluded that the Government now needs to stick to its guns and push on with proposed pension reform recommendations as we can no longer afford to continue open-ended public sector pension commitments.

Looking at investments, the new Aegis Film fund – an Enterprise Investment Scheme that enables private individuals to invest in upcoming British films – was picked up in both the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times this weekend.  Although it sounds like a promising idea having made 14% in the year to March, Toby Walne (@tobywalne) in the Mail warned that investors should be cautious as few films achieve a similar level of success as the Oscar winning King’s Speech.

 The rest of the scores this week were as follows: