June 2025

Flexible Retirement and Optimal Taxation

By Abdoulaye Ndiaye & Zhixiu Yu Raising the retirement age is a common policy response when social security schemes face fiscal pressures. We develop and estimate a dynamic life cycle model to study optimal retirement and tax policy when individuals face health shocks and income risk and make endogenous retirement decisions. The model incorporates key features of Social Security, Medicare, income taxation, and savings incentives and distinguishes three channels through which health affects retirement: nonconvexities in labor supply due to...

May 2025

Kenya. Workers welcome state move to exempt pension and gratuity from tax

A section of Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) workers has lauded the government’s move to exempt pension and gratuity from taxes as outlined in the budget for Financial Year 2025/2026. To ensure senior citizens retire with dignity and not distress, the Head of State during the 60th Labour Day celebration announced that pensions and gratuity from the public and private sectors will be exempted from tax. Former Dock Workers Union Leader Paul Abisa described the government’s move to exempt pensions and gratuity from...

UK. Govt urged to require UK investment in ‘quid pro quo’ for pension tax reliefs

The government should "embrace bold pension reforms", Baroness Ros Altmann has said, suggesting that the government should require at least 25 per cent of new pension contributions to be invested in Britain as a "quid pro quo" for tax reliefs. Altmann pointed out that the gross tax relief for UK pensions each year amount to over £70bn of taxpayer money, as individuals are able to take a quarter of all pension funds tax free, and no National Insurance is paid...

April 2025

Kenyan retirees win big as govt exempts pension from tax

How Kenyan retirees will benefit In a statement on Tuesday, April 29, the State House revealed the Cabinet had approved the bill that will benefit retirees in the public and private sectors. By removing pension taxes, the government intends to improve the financial stability of retirees, allowing them to enjoy their post-work years without worrying about additional tax deductions on their pension income. "Retirees will benefit significantly as all gratuity payments, whether in public or private pension schemes, will now be fully...

Is France really planning a ‘tax raid’ on pensioners?

Proposed changes to the tax system for pensioners in the 2026 Budget are already raising anger - here's what is planned and how it affects foreign retirees. France has only just managed to pass its 2025 Budget, but already attention is turning to the 2026 spending plans, with prime minister François Bayrou giving a press conference outlining the financial problems that the country faces, and what must be done to tackle them. France faces a soaring budget deficit and the parliamentary crisis...

UK households warned over HMRC tax change ‘which should be grabbing headlines’

Inheritance tax changes on pensions are what should be grabbing headlines, according to a pensions expert. Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb says the Labour Party government is set for a multi-billion pound windfall. Webb is a partner at pension consultants LCP, and was UK pensions minister from 2010 to 2015. He warned: "While the inheritance tax changes for farmers have grabbed most of the media attention, it is the IHT changes relating to pensions which will affect far more people and raise...

March 2025

UK. FCA to consult on using pension savings to buy first home

The Financial Conduct Authority will consult on whether pension savings should be used to buy a first home in the summer, as part of its bid to widen homeownership.  “One of the biggest challenges prospective homeowners face is raising a deposit,” Financial Conduct Authority chief executive Nikhil Rathi said in a speech on Friday at the JP Morgan Pensions and Savings Symposium in London.  He added: “Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Singapore and South Africa all permit citizens to leverage...

UK. Reeves could tax pensions and wealth if economy worsens, says IFS

Pensioners and wealthy people could be the target of tax increases at Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget if the drastically worsening economic backdrop fails to improve, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. After the chancellor’s spring statement featured deep cuts to welfare to meet her fiscal targets, the UK’s leading experts on the public finances said Reeves could be forced to come back later this year with tax rises. Paul Johnson, the IFS director, said a “risky and changing world – as...

February 2025

UK. Pensions inheritance tax raid to punish 150,000 families with higher bills

Labour’s pensions inheritance tax raid will hit 150,000 grieving families with higher death duty bills, figures show. Rachel Reeves’s decision to apply inheritance tax to pension wealth from April 2027 will drag 31,200 families into paying the levy for the first time by 2030, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information request. Some 121,500 families that already pay inheritance tax will also see their bills rise as a result of the change. The policy means that estates with relatively modest assets...

January 2025

2025 Pension Updates And Tax Changes Impact Mexican Retirees

Pension payments now subject to taxes after surpassing new UMA thresholds starting this year. Every year at the start of January, the value of the Unidad de Medida y Actualización (UMA) increases, leading to adjustments in the exempt amounts for pension payments. Recently, it was announced once again the increment of this measure, which is pivotal for various obligations and taxes levied by both the federal government and the states. The UMA not only plays a role in determining tax...