UK

HMRC is starting the tax year with their annual reminder to submit your tax return. HMRC’s reminder might seem early, but its statistics show that 750,000 people (6.5%) missed the deadline for 2016/17, potentially facing an immediate £100 penalty, even if they had no outstanding...

Couples could now save an extra £20,000 of inheritance tax (IHT), as the residence nil rate band (RNRB) increased in April 2018. The RNRB was increased at start of the new tax year and it is due to increase by £25,000 in each of the next...

There are advantages to planning your ISA investments around the start of the tax year. With ISAs all the taxation benefits occur after investment is made, yet the focus is often on year-end contributions. Various articles on ISAs filled the weekend press in March, and...

Important changes for venture capital schemes and enterprise investment have recently come into effect.  New ‘risk-to-capital’ conditions apply to investments in venture capital trusts (VCTs), enterprise investment schemes (EISs) and seed enterprise investment schemes (SEISs). The changes took effect on 15 March 2018, when the...

It is worth looking at what your pension pot could buy for your retirement. The importance of pension contributions has been bolstered by the rollout of auto-enrolment pension schemes. However, it is not as clear what your savings will give you when you come to retire. For...

  A recently released report shows dividend payments in the UK grew more than 10% in 2017. The report included good news for investors, as UK listed companies paid out £94.4 billion of dividends in 2017. This was up 10.5% on the previous year and a new...

The start of the new tax year on 6 April marks several changes to tax and related matters that could make you richer… or poorer. The absence of a Spring Budget does not mean that the usual raft of changes at the start of the...

The rules for inheriting ISAs will change from 6 April. It was announced by George Osborne in 2014 that ISAs would become inheritable by surviving spouses and civil partners. At the time, nobody – not even the Treasury – was clear what the then chancellor meant. The...

HMRC has published its annual assessment of the cost of tax reliefs. Every January HMRC publishes a table of ‘Estimated costs of principal tax reliefs’. Any Chancellor facing a budget deficit is bound to run his eyes down the list to see where the money is...

This is the time of year to review your pension contributions. February and March are rightly popular times for reviewing and making pension contributions. By this stage you should have a good idea of what your income for the tax year will be and how much...