The Spring Budget on 3 March was not the end of the taxing story. The run up to the March Budget was accompanied by much press speculation about changes to capital gains tax (CGT), inheritance tax (IHT) and pension tax relief. The first two had been the subject of reports from the Office of Tax…

Read More
ESG is an important factor in investment decisions

Three letters, ESG, have become a major driving force in investment decisions.  ESG – environmental, social and governance – considerations are playing an ever-increasing role in investment decisions. What used to be classed as ethical investment, socially responsible investment (SRI) and green investment have now to some extent merged under the ESG banner. The table…

Read More

The planned increase in corporation tax has changed some of the mathematics on incorporation. The Budget announced a significant change to corporation tax from 2023:  Small companies, with profits of up to £50,000, would continue to pay the tax at the current rate of 19%, subject to adjustments for associated companies and financial periods of…

Read More

A recent report showed that global dividend payments held up much better than those in the UK in 2020.  For investors in UK shares and funds investing in UK companies, 2020 was a grim year when it came to dividends. The pandemic cast a long shadow over the pay outs to investors:  Early on, the…

Read More

The freeze on the inheritance tax (IHT) nil rate band will mean more tax from more estates.   In March 2006 the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced that the IHT nil rate band for 2009/10 would be £325,000. Announcing the change over three years before it would happen was seen by some as a political tactic,…

Read More
Plans are in hand to raise the normal minimum pension age or NMPA

A new consultation paper has set out more details of an increase in the normal minimum retirement age or NMPA.   In February the Treasury and HMRC published a consultation paper on implementing an increase in the normal minimum pension age (NMPA) from 55 to 57. The NMPA sets the earliest age at which retirement benefits (lump…

Read More
Government bond interest rates quadruple in January and February.

The UK base rate may be stuck at 0.1%, but there is interest rate movement elsewhere.  The Bank of England has kept its base rate below 1% for over 12 years now. The rate first dropped to 0.5% on 5 March 2009, during the financial crisis. It did briefly rise to the dizzying heights of…

Read More
Inflation measured by the CPI may be set to return

We could see a jump in inflation soon. The pandemic has posed problems for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) when it comes to calculating the rate of inflation. For example: How do you measure the price of an item or service when a lockdown means it is not for sale? Two good examples are the…

Read More
The The Budget announced a five-year freeze to the standard lifetime allowance or SLA

The Budget announced a five-year freeze to the standard lifetime allowance for pensions. The standard lifetime allowance (SLA) is an important pensions number. It effectively sets the maximum tax efficient value of all your retirement benefits, in the absence of any legislative protections (of which there are many). To the extent that the SLA is…

Read More
The 2021 Budget represented a tightening of the screw from a tax perspective

A quiet turning of the tax screw. Just before the Budget arrived on March 3, it seemed as if the Chancellor would have nothing to say that was not already public knowledge. However, while some of the many leaks were confirmed, none of the pre-Budget pundits correctly predicted the Chancellor’s strategy. Instead of cutting borrowing,…

Read More