A recent Upper Tribunal case has raised questions about HMRC’s approach to collecting tax on child benefit. Child benefit tax, or the High-Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) to use its legal name, has a chequered history. The HICBC was introduced in January 2013 as a mechanism for clawing back child benefit from high-income couples, […]
National Savings & Investments has announced details of a new green savings product. One of the small surprises in March’s Budget was the announcement that National Savings & Investments (NS&I) would be launching “a new, retail savings product to give all United Kingdom savers the chance to support green projects”. No further information was given […]
A proposal to address social care funding is apparently imminent. “My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care. And so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix […]
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has given Rishi Sunak its new worry list. It gives the Chancellor little wriggle room for potential Budget generosity. Every alternate year the OBR must issue a Fiscal Risks Report (FRR). Unlike the six-monthly economic outlooks the OBR produces for Budgets and (theoretically) Spring Statements, the FRR takes a […]
Action Fraud is reminding animal lovers to take extra care when buying a pet online, as new figures show more than £2.5 million has been lost to criminals through fake pet adverts. Data from Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime, reveals that £2,638,323 was lost by prospective pet owners in […]
Investing is all about tradeoffs. Each choice made is paired with an implicit decision not to do some alternative; the ‘opportunity cost’. For example, by investing solely in a basket of UK companies one accepts the risk of losing out if the UK market struggles relative to the rest of the world, and vice-versa. An […]
