One of the many well-trailed announcements in the Spring Budget was the launch of a UK ISA. However, both its arrival and interest may be uncertain. Alongside the Budget, the Treasury published a consultation paper on a possible fifth ISA variant, the UK ISA. To quote the paper, the rationale behind the UK ISA is […]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been sorting through its inflation shopping basket. Every year in March, the ONS announces the results of a review of the approximately 750 items which it uses to compute inflation indices, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The annual review is a reminder that the […]
One of the few surprises in the Spring Budget was the change affecting how child benefit is taxed for higher earners. The high income child benefit charge (HICBC or ‘hicbic’) was introduced in January 2013 to reduce child benefit payments for higher earners. It was considered an arbitrary piece of legislation by some as the […]
New data on marriage and civil partnerships shows a significant threshold has been crossed. ‘Population estimates by marital status and living arrangements, England and Wales: 2022’, sounds like a rather esoteric piece of academic output from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, its release in late January attracted a brief flurry of media attention […]
For employees, the national insurance cut announced in the Autumn Statement took effect on 6 January. The Treasury issued a press release in the time between Christmas and the New Year revealing the Spring Budget date, a week earlier than in 2023. The unusual timing of the announcement may seem strange, but there were two […]
The media storm surrounding HMRC taxing eBay and other online sellers from the start of 2024 was, in fact, itself counterfeit goods. A crop of stories across social and traditional media swirled across the start of the new year about HMRC cracking down on ‘side hustle’ tax from 1 January, leaving sellers […]
