Blog

The Autumn Statement in December 2015, brought some more bad news for property investors with changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax. Higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) will be charged on purchases of additional residential properties (above £40,000), such as buy to let properties and second homes, from 1 April 2016. Additional rate… Read more

A brief history of the debate to date……. The government wants to make the state pension age 65 for men and women by 2018, and keep raising it after that. It means that some women who were preparing to retire in the next few years will have to wait longer. The campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality… Read more

Thinking of using a broken kitchen appliance, a hungry pet or an argument that lasts five years as a reason for not getting your tax return in on time? Be warned – all of these excuses have been rejected by HMRC for missing the 31 January Self Assessment deadline for 2013-14.   The Top 10… Read more

How is the current stock market turmoil affecting your investment or pension portfolio? Have you considered how your investment or pension portfolio is faring at the start of the new year? The start of 2016 has seen volatility (turmoil) in global stock markets. This can be attributed to the slowing down of the Chinese economy…. Read more

Could you get a better deal on your life cover policy? Buying a new home usually involves a mortgage which is then protected by a suitable life cover policy. Have you considered if you could get a better deal? Why it pays to shop around This is a very sensible thing to do as you… Read more

Does a New Year make you consider exit planning your business? It’s a fact of life (and death) that eventually all of us will have to exit our business one day.  Either in an organised way…or not. So, whilst day to day we may be continually running on that hamster wheel with our heads down,… Read more

Have you considered what you will do with your pension in retirement? If I told you that the last thing you should do when you retire is start spending your pension fund you’d probably think I’d gone completely mad! And with the introduction of ‘Pension Freedom’, why shouldn’t you take advantage of your hard earned… Read more

In the summer budget the government announced that landlords will get tax relief only at the basic rate for interest paid on loans to acquire buy-to-let property. The new rules are to be phased in over three years, starting in April 2017.  They apply to 25% of the interest paid in 2017/18, 50% in 2018/19… Read more

Taxation of dividend income from 6 April 2016 From April 2016 the Dividend Tax Credit will be replaced by a new tax-free Dividend Allowance. The Dividend Allowance means that you won’t have to pay tax on the first £5,000 of your dividend income, no matter what non-dividend income you have. You’ll pay tax on any… Read more

Capital Allowances on Plant & machinery The Summer Finance Bill 2015 increases the permanent Annual Investment Allowance limit to £200,000 from 1 January 2016. It was scheduled to decrease to £25,000. Where a business has a chargeable period that spans 1 January 2016, the maximum allowance for that business’s transitional chargeable period comprises 2 parts: (a) the… Read more