The basic state pension will rise by nearly 3% next April. The Autumn Statement confirmed that the basic state pension will rise by £3.35 a week to £119.30 a week from next April. The increase of 2.9% is the result of the 'triple lock', which requires the basic state pension to increase each April by…
Read moreThe doors of PPM are now closed for another year, when they re open in 2016 we will be celebrating our tenth year in business which is very exciting (well to us anyway!). Thank you as always for your support of our business and wish you the best of possible Christmas times.…
Read moreThe Autumn Statement revealed more evidence that the government is counting the cost of tax relief on pension contributions. When auto-enrolment into workplace pensions started in October 2012, the legislative intention was that the level of contributions as a percentage of qualifying earnings (those between £5,824 and £42,385 in 2015/16) should rise from the current…
Read moreThe first Thursday in November - coincidentally Guy Fawkes' Day - was a "Super Thursday" for the Bank of England. These now occur once every three months and see an avalanche of information emerging from the Bank. The Monetary Policy Committee's decision on interest rates is accompanied by both the meetings' minutes and the Bank's…
Read moreMore employers are failing to meet their obligations. The latest report on ‘compliance and enforcement’ from the Pensions Regulator shows that the recent batches of employers due to auto enrol have not been as prompt as their predecessors in meeting their responsibilities. In the third quarter of 2015, the regulator issued 469 ‘compliance notices’ requiring…
Read moreThe United States Federal reserve has moved closer to an interest rate rise next month. In September the USA’s central bank, the Federal Reserve (the ‘Fed’) surprised a fair few investment ‘experts’ by deciding not to increase short term interest rates. The Fed’s Chair, Janet Yellen, had earlier been dropping hints that September could see…
Read moreThis month’s Autumn Statement will not reveal and major pension tax reforms. Parliamentary questions are sometimes no such thing. Instead, they are mechanisms by which the government can reveal a decision on which it would prefer not to make a formal announcement. A good example (see below) occurred in late October in an exchange between…
Read moreHM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC's) accelerated payments programme has now collected £1bn from users of tax avoidance schemes. Last year HMRC gained the power to demand upfront tax payment from users of tax avoidance schemes subject to the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) rules or the General Anti-Abuse Rule, or where a similar scheme…
Read more2 p.m. New York time on Thursday 17 September had been much anticipated by investment professionals around the world. It was the hour when the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee would release its meeting statement, revealing its latest interest rate decision. Ahead of the announcement there had been much speculation that an interest rate 'lift-off'…
Read moreA Miserable Summer It was not just the poor weather that made it a bad summer for investors! Index Third Quarter Change FTSE 100 - 7.04% FTSE All-Share - 6.57% Dow Jones Industrial -7.58% Standard & Poor's 500 -6.94% Nikkei 225 -14.07% Euro Stoxx 50 (€) -9.45% Hang Seng -20.59% MSCI Emerging Markets (£) -15.42%…
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Buy To Let - A Future Tax Trap A close reading of the summer Finance Bill has highlighted a further tax consequence of the government's moves to limit tax relief for interest on buy-to-let mortgages. The July Budget included an attack on individual investors in buy-to-let residential property. As well as abolishing the 10% wear-and-tear…
Read moreThe Chancellor has announced the date of the Autumn Statement. In late July, the Chancellor announced that the results of the Spending Review would be announced on 25 November. At the time he made no reference to the Autumn Statement, probably because the focus was still on his July Budget. However, in the beginning of…
Read moreNew EU rules about succession came into force on 17 August. If you own a holiday home on the continent, new EU regulations on cross-border succession could be important to you, even though the UK has opted out of the legislation. The new regulations will allow you to choose for your overseas property to be…
Read moreThe summer holiday months was anything but relaxing for investors in UK shares. As well as being the title of an Edna O'Brien novel, "August is a wicked month" probably sums up how many investors felt about the month. It was all going rather unexcitingly around the middle of the month, when the combination of…
Read moreTaking pension protection - yes or no? You can now opt for Individual Protection 2014 to protect your pension benefits. But should you? The lifetime allowance (LTA) effectively sets the maximum tax-efficient value of all your pension benefits. In its first iteration, in April 2006, the standard LTA was set at £1.5m. It then gradually…
Read moreHMRC cracks down further on tax avoidance schemes HMRC have published a list of tax avoidance schemes for which it wants up-front tax payments. Two days before the Finance Bill became the Finance Act, the obviously eager HMRC issued a list of nearly 1,200 tax avoidance schemes. Frustratingly the list consisted only of the scheme…
Read moreWe did it. John O'Groats to Lands End on two wheels. 10 days. 1001 miles. And far to many calories eaten. The legs ache (and in particular my knee), but really pleased to complete the challenge and raise £6872 in the process for Cure Leukaemia for Kids. (Hopefully we can get it over the £7k…
Read moreIt's May 25th, the penultimate day. Only two more rides to go. We travel from 94 miles from Tauton down to Looe today. Just got to keep on going.
Read moreSome great patriotic roadside support from the Holloway family yesterday near Hereford.
Read moreWe're travelling down from Ross-On-Wye to Wellington, near Tauton today. Shame we won't get to enjoy a barrel of cider while we are here. Just a quick 96 miles. It took us 6 1/2 hours to complete, averaging over 13 miles per hour - go speed demon. Here's me doing a quick selfie at Tinton Abbey.
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