Not all snap elections turn out the same way… A right of centre Prime Minister calls an election before the end of the government’s term to take advantage of rising poll numbers and seeming disarray amongst the opposition parties. What could possibly go wrong? In the UK, the answer was close to everything. Japan, as […]
The amount of inheritance tax (IHT) paid by bereaved families has broken the £5bn barrier for the first time. This is largely due to rising property values and the long freeze in the IHT threshold, and means that many more families are affected. IHT is charged at 40% on the portion of the deceased’s estate […]
The fraud involves being cold-called by someone purporting to be a bailiff working on behalf of a court, attempting to recover funds for a non-existent debt. Fraudsters are requesting payment by bank transfer and if refused they threaten to visit the people’s homes or place work in order to recover the debt that is owed. […]
From 2016, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is getting an unprecedented amount of information about people’s overseas accounts, structures, trusts, and investments from more than 100 jurisdictions worldwide, thanks to agreements to increase global tax transparency. This gives HMRC unprecedented levels of information to check that, as in most cases, the right tax has been […]
New statistics from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) show that cash withdrawals from individual savings accounts (ISAs) are probably more than matching fresh contributions. In the world of ISAs, cash ISAs have long attracted more contributions than their stocks and shares counterpart. However, the pattern has started to change, as the graph below shows. In […]
The Bank of England has signalled that interest rates may rise soon. Early in September, the money markets were expecting the first Bank of England interest rate rise to occur in late 2018, at the earliest. A little more than a week later, the markets’ view was that there was a near […]
