Archive for July 2019
Tuition fees may be coming down
A government-commissioned report has proposed significant changes to the funding of university tuition fees in England. Students resident in England (different rules apply in other parts of the UK) pay a maximum university tuition fee of £9,250 per year, financed by a student loan. Further loans to cover maintenance plus interest at RPI+3% mean that…
Read MoreCould we see the back of inheritance tax?
A paper presented to the Labour Party has suggested the abolition of inheritance tax (IHT). Labour Party proposals to kill off inheritance tax (IHT) and replace it with a gifts tax were reported across several newspapers last month. The coverage was somewhat creative, as the idea was plucked from a paper prepared for the Labour…
Read MoreWhen it comes to funds, the best advice is personal
The recent problems with the suspension of dealings in a heavily promoted UK equity income fund have exposed the blurred line between advice and guidance. According to the Investment Association (IA), there are around 3,500 funds on sale in the UK. The IA sorts these into over 30 individual investment sectors, although about 10% are…
Read MoreImplications from the over-75 TV licences row
The BBC’s decision to scrap universal free TV licences for the over-75s is part of the larger debate about our growing ageing population. Free TV licences for the over-75s were introduced by Gordon Brown in his 2000 Budget. It was a classic rabbit-out-the-hat Budget measure, designed to please at a relatively modest initial cost. Wind…
Read More2019 stock markets defy analysts’ predictions
The world’s stock markets had a buoyant first six months. The final few months of 2018 were a dark time for the world’s stock markets, with concerns about US trade policies and the backwash from the Brexit uncertainty leaving many markets posting an overall loss for the year. The prospects for 2019 did not look…
Read MoreHow well do you understand inheritance tax?
A survey by HMRC published in May concluded that the public have a relatively poor knowledge of inheritance tax (IHT) rules and lack of confidence in what they do know. HMRC recently commissioned a surveyof 947 people who had made gifts in the last two years. To assess knowledge of the IHT system among these…
Read More