Dear Listener

How much tax will we pay in 2011/12? We know that the personal allowance for those under 65 will go up by £1000 to £7,475. Though that is less valuable than it was thought to be in June as we have since learned that inflation in September was 4.6% not the 4.1% predicted then. So it would have been raised to £6,775 anyway (£6,475 x 1.046 rounded to nearest £25). We also expect that the allowance for those aged 65 or more will rise with inflation – which was 4.6% in September. And we know roughly where the threshold for paying higher tax will be after it has been fiddled with to make sure that higher rate taxpayers do not benefit from the £700 extra rise in the personal tax allowance not forgetting to take account of changes in National Insurance threshold. But we do not know these things precisely. And they begin on 6 April.

In the Coalition’s Budget in June we were promised that “Exact figures for the basic rate limit and higher rate threshold will be confirmed in the autumn”. But when is the autumn? Technically – according to the Government – it runs from the autumn equinox (23 September 2010) to the winter solstice which is 21 December this year. So we have to be given the figures in the next few weeks and well before the Budget which is fixed for 23 March 2011.

Could it be Monday (29th) when the Chancellor has booked a whole afternoon of parliamentary time from 3.30pm to give MPs his Autumn Statement on the economy? No-one at the Treasury seems to know (I have been asking for more than 24 hours). Rather the Autumn Statement is being trailed as a very cut price Pre-Budget Report (which was born and died with the Brown era) based around revised estimates from the new and independent Office for Budget Responsibility (we know it is independent because it its web address is www.obr.independent.gov.uk).

But no-one at the OBR is answering calls today and all it has said is that its revised estimates will be published at 1pm on Monday with a press conference twenty minutes later. So what will there be left for George Osborne to tell the House of Commons at half past three? Maybe those crucial tax details? We shall see.

***IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK***

It is a year this week since Lord Phillips declared from the Supreme Court bench that overdraft charges were not subject to rules of fairness. They were simply charges for a service and subject to the normal rules of competition. One year on from this important judgement has competition done what the Office of Fair Trading could not? Are overdraft charges clearer? Are they fairer? Are they cheaper?

Energy companies are to be investigated for the profits they make selling us gas and electricity. With three of them putting up their tariffs last, this and next week and only one which has said  no rise for more than 90% of its customers until at least the start of March, how can we cut our bills? Is changing supplier really the answer?

Insurers are accused of unfairly penalising honest car owners in certain postcode areas where fraud is rife.

The Office of Fair Trading steps in to warn four companies – including subsidiaries of Amex, Alliance & Leicester, and HSBC – to behave better when they consider reclaiming consumer debts by putting a charge on the debtor’s home.

And just how much money are we committing to the bail out of the banks and economy of Ireland? Could we end up with a profit?

Find out by listening to Money Box, live on Saturday at 1204. Or catch the repeat at 9pm on Sunday. Or listen again any time on our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox. There you can also read web pieces, download transcripts, follow links, and send us stories or ideas you want us to look into and Have Your Say on overdrafts one year on.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS don’t forget the programme trail on Breakfast on BBC 1 between 0845 and 0900 on Saturday. And I am now on every Monday at 0640 and 0810 with a personal finance story and answering emails.

e-mail Paul Lewis