Category: New
Tax Year End Reminders: Use’em or lose’em! Just a few weeks left to check your annual allowances and exemptions. The Tax Year ends in a few weeks’ time on the 5th April. Before that we have the last ever Spring Budget Speech on the 8th March. UK taxpayers have a number of annual tax allowances… 
“It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future” – a quote which is usually attributed to either baseball player Yogi Berra or author Mark Twain – which in reality was most likely never actually said by either man – but nonetheless pithily sums up the problem with trying to work out what is going…
It really does but, by way of preamble, we would emphasise that we do not give advice on US tax, but what we can do in this Focus is give you a heads-up and say – if you think you may be subject in any way to the US tax provisions then take, or re-take,…
Not a vintage offering this, the last ever, Autumn Statement! Underwhelming for many, but there were some items on the vine that were worthy of harvesting regarding tax, savings, and pensions. Here are some that might affect you: – An increase in the tax-free personal allowance to £11,500 and the…
The pensions lifetime allowance (LTA), the amount savers can place in their pension pot and still claim tax relief, is now down to £1m – down from £1.8m when it was set just five years ago in 2011-12. Any savings in excess of the LTA will potentially attract tax at 55%! So is it the…
Following the Bank of England’s decision to cut interest rates to a record low of 0.25% at the beginning of August and the initial reaction to that from within the financial sector, the resultant effects continue to be felt over a month later. Cash savings accounts have been hit the hardest, with some banks making…
A recent article by Onrec-The Online Recruitment Resource points to income statistics for pensioners that indicate that more and more people aged over 65 are continuing to work after they officially retire. Choosing to remain in employment can be down to a need for extra income, but staying employed has also been shown to provide…
The question – I have money in property and, post-Brexit, should we mortals be worried? Many predicted before the EU referendum that a vote to leave would have a negative effect on the property market. Now that Brexit is set to become a reality, that has transferred into worry amongst many with a stake in…
It’s easy to assume that all the major changes in life – finding a job, marriage, a family – take place in the early years. In fact there are just as many major changes in later life and the need to keep on top of your financial planning is, if anything, even greater. In your…
George Horace Lorimer once said: “It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good too, to make sure you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” Creating a balance in life is important and core to this is knowing how to achieve your financial goals. With every financial…