The average deposit paid by first-time homebuyers jumped by £10,000 in 2020. When the pandemic took hold in the first half of last year, it looked as if the housing market was headed for a fall, if not something more dramatic. There were problems about viewing properties, arranging surveys, organising removals – you name it, [...]
No, the headline is not wrong... Interest rates matter. At the personal finance end of the spectrum, they determine what you earn from bank deposits (virtually nothing at present) and what interest you pay on your mortgage (about 4.4% if you are paying the average standard variable rate (SVR), but much less for most other [...]
Taking some time to start planning for 2021/22 now can be worthwhile. While there is often a focus on planning for the end of the tax year, much less attention is paid to the start of the tax year. The lack of an obvious deadline is probably one reason – deadlines tend to concentrate the [...]
As the pandemic enters its second year, what have we learned? The World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020, coincidentally the day that Chancellor Rishi Sunak presented his first Budget. At the time, the Chancellor announced a £12bn stimulus to counter the impact of the pandemic. By November, the Office of [...]
New data show how far UK dividends fell last year, but projections for 2021 suggest the declines are nearly over. In January 2021, Link Asset Services published its latest UK Dividend Monitor covering the final quarter of 2020 and the year as a whole. The headline figure was that total dividends fell by 44% over [...]
An independent body of tax experts has set out the framework for a one-off wealth tax. Will the Chancellor be tempted? “[W]e have a responsibility, once the economy recovers, to return to a sustainable fiscal position.” So said the Chancellor Rishi Sunak in his November statement, during which he also highlighted that the government was [...]
From February new rules apply if you choose pension drawdown but do so without taking advice. The Covid-19 pandemic has deferred many events of all sizes, from the Tokyo Olympics to millions of foreign holidays. One of the less prominent delays has been a change to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules on pension drawdown. [...]
The main state pensions will rise by 2.5% in April. The absence of an autumn Budget in 2020 meant that there was no formal announcement of the level of state pensions from April 2021. The numbers eventually emerged on 8 December in a press release from the Department for Work and Pensions: The new state [...]
2020/21 is drawing to a close, with a Budget now slated for early March. Ahead of that, HMRC is easing some of its traditional deadlines in the light of the ongoing pandemic. If you’re struggling to prepare your self-assessment tax return due to the effects of the pandemic, you may get some relief. It has [...]
The world’s share markets had a rollercoaster ride in 2020. Investors had to hold on tight as 2020 turned into a white-knuckle experience. It began quietly enough and then in the second half of February global stock markets took on the concern at the spread of Covid-19. As infection rates increased and the economic outlook [...]
