One of the great challenges that all investors face is that there is no easy or quick way to investment success. Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare is a useful metaphor. You have to use the time on your side – which could be over multiple decades – to capture the returns of […]
HMRC has updated its estimates for the cost of pension tax relief. Rachel Reeves will have taken note ahead of her first Budget on 30 October. It was pure coincidence, but two days after the Chancellor had revealed a £22 billion black hole in government finances for the current financial year, HMRC released its annual […]
Will increased capital gains tax (CGT) mean less tax gets paid? The Labour Party’s 2024 manifesto said, ‘We will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.’ The absence of any comment on CGT meant that Rachel Reeves received persistent questions during the election campaign about a possible […]
August saw the first cut in UK interest rates since March 2020. On 1 August, the Bank of England cut its bank rate by 0.25% to 5.00%, the first cut made since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, which made the decision, voted 5–4 in favour […]
Many chancellors ago, in November 2016, Philip Hammond announced an end to spring Budgets and their replacement with autumn Budgets. At the time it seemed a sensible idea to allow changes in tax to be legislated before the start of the new tax year. In practice, it did not go to plan: Hammond […]
August started with sharp gyrations on global stock markets. It was a good time to be on holiday. It was once suggested that a wise approach to investment in the stock market is to make your choice and then go away to a remote desert island with no communication links for at least three – […]
