George Osborne has proposed a measure that would give most savers tax-free interest from April 2016.
The idea is that for basic rate taxpayers, the first £1,000 of interest in a year would be free of tax; for higher rate taxpayers, the limit would be £500, so that individuals in each group would benefit by saving the same amount of tax (£200). The Treasury says 95% of savers, or 17 million people, would not pay any tax on their interest.
This is a good idea that could save a vast amount of form filling, tax reclaims and so forth.