A recent report could herald changes to capital gains tax. Last July the Chancellor asked the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to undertake a review of capital gains tax (CGT) “in relation to individuals and smaller companies”. The request was something of a surprise for two reasons. Firstly, there had been no suggestion that Mr [...]
November was an exciting month for the world’s stock markets. November was an exhilarating month on the world’s stock markets, as the graph above illustrates. It cannot be said that many experts – bar room or otherwise – expected it look like this. Cast your mind back to Halloween and, apart from trick or treat, [...]
New HMRC data show the popularity of this traditional perk could be waning. There was a time when the company car was the fringe benefit that every employee wanted. You had ‘made it’ once you had the keys to a car with no worries about servicing, insuring or, sometimes, even fuel costs. It could also [...]
The Chinese stock market broke the $10 trillion barrier in October. The total value of China’s stock markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen surpassed $10 trillion in October. For comparison, the UK market was worth about $4 trillion at the end of September 2020. However, this was not the first time that Chinese markets had reached [...]
New research shows the majority of the self-employed are not saving for retirement. Here’s a quick quiz: Are you self-employed? If so, have you contributed to a private pension in the last year? The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) examined the answers to these two questions and found the probability of answering yes to both [...]
A recent report on UK dividend payments suggests the worst of the cuts may be over. First, the bad news: In the third quarter of 2020, total (regular and special) dividend payments from UK companies were 49.1% lower than in the corresponding quarter in 2019. Two thirds of UK companies either cut or cancelled their [...]
With the second lockdown now in place, the Chancellor has been forced to return to Parliament and announce extended job support measures. Two further grants under the SEISS were announced in September and have now been updated. The government’s new package of support measures laid out in the Chancellor’s Winter Economy Plan have been either [...]
National Savings rate to drop sharply from 24 November. At times, National Savings & Investments (NS&I) looks like a relic. Its role in raising money for the government has seemed an increasing anachronism for three main reasons: The amount NS&I raises each year is but a small part of the government’s total borrowing. For 2020/21, [...]
The Basic State Pension (BSP) and the New State Pension (NSP) – for anyone who reached State Pension Age after 5 April 2016 – are both subject to the ‘Triple Lock’ measure. This means that every April these two pensions increase by the greater of: 5%; Consumer price index (CPI) inflation to September of the [...]
After heavy hinting from the Treasury for some weeks, the expected Autumn Budget has been pushed into spring 2021. Since the March Budget and through to August, the expectation was that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, would introduce his second Budget this autumn. Such timing would have restored the cycle of a Spring Statement followed by [...]
