financial news Tag

The government has published a review on automatic enrolment in workplace pensions which makes important proposals for employers. Automatic enrolment of employees in workplace pensions has been a greater success than many predicted when it was introduced in October 2012. To date over nine million employees...

November marked the first rise in the Bank of England Base Rate in over ten years. At the start of November, the Bank of England raised its base rate for the first time since 5 July 2007. Just over a decade ago, the previous increase...

The Autumn Budget contained more bad news for many buy-to-let investors which went largely unnoticed.  April 2018 will see the next step down in mortgage interest relief for investors in buy-to-let (BTL) residential properties. The amount of interest that can be offset against rental income...

Statistics show that dividends from UK shares are still rising rapidly.   Source: Capita Asset Services. Overall 2017 figure is Capita estimate The latest quarterly ‘UK Dividend Monitor’ from Capita Asset Services paints a rosy picture for income-seeking investors in UK shares. As Capita noted, “Companies are...

New figures from HMRC show a large jump in VCT investments in 2016/17. In September HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) issued updated statistics on the funds raised by venture capital trusts (VCTs). These showed that investment during last tax year reached £570m, an increase of over...

The Bank of England has signalled that interest rates may rise soon. Early in September, the money markets were expecting the first Bank of England interest rate rise to occur in late 2018, at the earliest. A little more than a week later, the markets’ view...

Inflation was in the news last month in various guises. August was a month when inflation hit the headlines several times trailing a cloud of acronyms: The Bank of England Quarterly Inflation Report (QIR) revealed that the Bank now expects inflation (as measured by the...

Self-employment is the dream of many, especially as the goal of retirement seems to creep further out of reach. Being your own boss sounds great. But there are drawbacks. Around two million of the country’s self-employed workers are unable to save any money each month,...

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) wants to remind you of its interest in your offshore investments. Globalisation is not just about trade and investment flows. One of the significant changes to tax in recent years has been a move towards globalisation of tax. A prime example...