Many people make their first foray into investment on a DIY basis, perhaps based on advice from a friend, or after reading a report in the media. Over the years they may save in ISAs, or take out a personal pension plan, or dabble with investments without really having an overall investment strategy in mind. […]
The £5,000 tax-free dividend allowance was cut to £2,000 from April 2018. This change will impact investors with portfolios that generate more than £2,000 of dividend income where the investments are held outside ISAs or pensions. This means that making full use of tax-efficient wrappers such as ISAs is likely to become more important […]
2017/18 produced record inheritance tax (IHT) receipts according to HMRC data published in July. The latest release of the annual statistics revealed IHT produced £5.228 billion for the Exchequer in 2017/18, an increase of two thirds over just five years. As the graph shows, IHT revenue has been rising rapidly since Treasury receipts hit a […]
The Bank of England increased the base interest rate in August to 0.75% – the second increase in 12 months. The Bank’s decision to raise the rate to its highest level in nearly nine and a half years was no great surprise to the investment community. Of more interest to the experts were the […]
A paper published in August by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) casts new light on life expectancies in the UK. Life expectancy has been increasing in the UK for a long time, as the graph shows. In 1980, the average life expectancy at birth was 70.6 years for a man and 76.6 years for […]
The rates charged on student loans rose at the start of September. The revised terms for interest on, and repayment of, student loans were published in August, along with the A level results for the year. From 1 September, the main interest rates for Plan 2 loans, taken out by students and recent graduates […]
