February saw a dramatic return of volatility to global stock markets. On Friday 2 February, after most of the world’s share markets had finished for the week, the Dow Jones Index dropped by 666 points in a day. Never mind all the beastly connotations of that number, in fact it was a drop of […]
Whilst you might not think of yourself as an employer, under the government’s auto-enrolment pension legislation, the Pensions Regulator may think differently. If you employ a nanny, a cleaner, or a personal care assistant, then you could be classified as an employer and need to set up a workplace pension. If you pay staff directly, […]
The start of the new tax year on 6 April marks several changes to tax and related matters that could make you richer… or poorer. The absence of a Spring Budget does not mean that the usual raft of changes at the start of the new tax year have disappeared. Most of the important changes […]
You may be due a refund if you have registered a power of attorney in recent years. It is not often the government offers a refund because of overcharging, but last month it emerged that the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) had been levying excessive fees for four years. The fees related to the […]
The rules for inheriting ISAs will change from 6 April. It was announced by George Osborne in 2014 that ISAs would become inheritable by surviving spouses and civil partners. At the time, nobody – not even the Treasury – was clear what the then chancellor meant. The plans for ISA ’inheritance’, when they eventually emerged, […]
Identity theft is when your personal details are stolen and identity fraud is when those details are used to commit fraud. Identity theft Identity theft happens when fraudsters access enough information about someone’s identity (such as their name, date of birth, current or previous addresses) to commit identity fraud. Identity theft can take place whether […]
