Better returns from National Savings

Fancy your chances at 1 in 24,500? National Savings & Investments have increased their interest rates – and boosted a chance of winning. National Savings & Investments (NS&I) beat many of its banking competitors by announcing a 0.25% increase in its variable rate products. These took effect from 1 December and are shown in the table…

Venture capital schemes and the Budget

The Autumn Budget included a raft of measures focused on venture capital schemes. The writing was always on the wall after a Treasury consultation issued in August posed the leading question, “Are there areas where the cost effectiveness of current tax reliefs could be improved, for example reducing lower risk ‘capital preservation’ investments in the…

Quiet increases in national insurance contributions

The first Budget of 2017 in March hit a serious obstacle when the Chancellor attempted to raise national insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed. This time around he was subtler in his approach. When Mr Hammond announced an increase to Class 4 NICs in the spring Budget, partly to offset the end of Class 2…

Interest rates rise – after 3,773 days…

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 was 0.25%, from 5.5% to 5.75%. This time around the…

The buy-to-let Budget headline you didn’t see

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 drops from 75% to 50%, with a corresponding increase to…