UK inflation fell below 2% for the first time in two years. January 2019 saw the lowest level of inflation since January 2017, with the rate recorded at 1.8%. The data was slightly better than had been expected, with the CPI rate falling to below the Bank of England’s 2% target for the first time…

One of the few certainties about 2019 is that the mew tax rates and thresholds will take effect from the start of the 2019/20 tax year on 6 April. Whilst the focus tends to be on year end tax planning at this time of year, it is important to look forward to the new tax…

An issue concerning how the high income child benefit charge (HICBC) can potentially affect stay-at-home parents has emerged. The HICBC claws back child benefit payments where either parent has income over £50,000 a year, and removes the benefit entirely if either parent has income over £60,000. For couples where one person earns over £60,000 whilst…

Inheritance tax (IHT) will be slightly reduced for some from 6 April 2019, but greater reforms may arrive soon. The IHT residence nil rate band (RNRB) increases by £25,000, bringing it to £150,000 for the 2019/20 tax year. In theory that means a married couple can pass on up to £950,000 (2 x nil rate…

VCTs have been growing in popularity in recent years. Nearly £750 million was invested in VCTs in 2017/18, the highest figure since 2005/06, when the rate of income tax relief was temporarily boosted to 40% (against the current 30%). There were two main reasons for the surge in popularity in the past couple of years:…

The arrival of the new tax year on 6 April means it is time to consider your Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) investments, which will celebrate their 20th birthday in April. Over the last 20 years, the maximum annual contribution has risen from £7,000 per tax year to £20,000 for 2019/20. If you managed to set…

7 January marked the fifth anniversary of the tax on child benefits, an imposition that is still not widely understood. The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC), to give child benefit tax its correct name, was introduced in a rush by George Osborne - so much so that it began three months before the start…

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is aiming to expand pension coverage among the self-employed. Pension automatic enrolment has become a major success since it was launched nearly seven years ago, with almost 10 million people joining a workplace pension arrangement. Take-up rates have been much higher than some pundits had forecast - the…

The world’s share markets mostly saw falls in 2018. Index 2018 Change FTSE 100 -12.5% FTSE All-Share -13.0% Dow Jones Industrial -5.6% Standard & Poor’s 500 -6.2% Nikkei 225 -12.1% Euro Stoxx 50 (€) -14.3% Shanghai Composite -24.6% MSCI Emerging Markets (£) -11.5% 2018 was a very different year for investors from 2017. During that…

The time to resolve has returned. Have your New Year resolutions fallen by the wayside yet? You know, the ones about eating better, drinking less and exercising more. The problem is they all require you to make a change to your lifestyle, which is never easy, particularly in the dark days of mid-winter. Some people…

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has published the first part of its inheritance tax (IHT) simplification review. The report highlights a variety of issues with the current IHT system: IHT returns are submitted for about half of all estates, even though tax is paid by less than 5%; Most of the paperwork cannot be…

The State Pension Age (SPA) became equal for men and women for the first time, at age 65, on 6 November 2018. Having reached this landmark, the next stage of SPA increases has already started. For both men and women, the state pension will become payable for anyone born between 6 December 1953 and 5…

The government has revived plans to raise probate fees in England and Wales. A new, banded structure for probate fees in England and Wales is to be introduced, according to a written statement issued a week after the 2018 Budget by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice. The announcement comes after the absence…

UK dividends are continuing to grow faster than inflation, according to the latest quarterly data from Link Asset Service. The latest UK Dividend Monitor (UKDM) shows that in the third quarter of 2018 dividend payments were 4.1% up on the previous year, comfortably above the current rate of inflation. Looking over the 10-year period from…

The office at PPM will shut for another year on Friday 21st December. We will re open on Monday 7th January. Thank you as always for your support. Have a lovely Christmas time. Happy Christmas! From The PPM team. The contents of this article is for information purposes only and represent the opinion of Pryor…

Two recent events have shone different lights on the government’s view of unmarried couples. Marriage has been drifting out of fashion for close to 50 years. There are now over 3.3 million unmarried couples in the UK, of which nearly half have children. In spite of this major social change, governments have largely maintained sharp…

At the end of September, the US bank, Goldman Sachs, launched a new online easy-access savings account in the UK under the name of Marcus. It has offered a similar account in its home territory since 2016, gaining over 1.5 million customers according to the bank’s second quarter results.In the UK, 50,000 Marcus accounts were…

Imagine you are named as the executor and a beneficiary of your wife’s wealthy aunt. You learn that she is suffering from terminal cancer and has ‘a very impaired lifespan’. What do you do? This is what happened in the case of Nader and others v Revenue & Customs. The executor/beneficiary, a Dr Nader, decided…

The popularity of cash ISAs is continuing to wane, according to new statistics from HMRC.With inflation persistently above interest rates, it’s not hard to imagine why. The bank of England recently increased the interest rate to 0.75%, A but inflation was 2.7% B in August 2018. This means, if you are holding cash in an…

A 2.6% rise in the single tier state pension was announced in the 2018 Budget. The increase to the single tier state pension, and its predecessor the basic state pension, will apply from next April. Other state pensions, such as the State Earnings Related Pensions Scheme (SERPS), will rise by 2.4%. The higher increases for…