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Latest News
Child Benefit – avoiding the High-Income Child Benefit Charge
The 2022/23 tax year is coming to an end and you may be left wondering if you have made the most of your tax-free exemptions and allowances. If you or your partner receive Child Benefit but earn over £50,000 a year, you are liable to pay the High-Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC). The HICBC is…
Pensions, death and taxes: the retirement anomaly
There is an interesting lesson to be learned from a think tank’s pension criticism. Think tanks come in many different guises, some more independent than others. Those without political links – overt or covert – can often provide a valuable, spin-free insight into government policy. One of the best known in this category is the…
The inflation puzzle of 2022
Annual inflation in 2022 was 10.5%, but not all components rose by double digits. Source: ONS. Annual inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), was 10.5% in 2022 against 5.4% in 2021. The official CPI calculator, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), says that the last time inflation was as high was in…
Value for money: State pension vs. NICs
Recent research has compared the value of personal national insurance contributions (NICs) with the value of state pension received. The results may surprise you. NICs are not well understood, a fact exploited by Chancellors past and present. Many people mistakenly believe that NICs accumulate in a government fund to pay future benefits, in a similar…
Into the ice age: the diminishing personal allowance
The frozen personal allowance may be overtaken by the new state pension in only a few years, proving the income tax screw is well and truly tightening. Source: DWP, HMRC OBR. The new state pension, payable to eligible individuals who reached their State Pension age after 5 April 2016, will rise by 10.1% to £203.85…
2023 inflation forecast: The only way is down?
Inflation surged in 2022, but can it reverse in 2023? Source: ONS, Eurostat, BLS. Inflation forecasters were way off target for 2022. For example: • In December 2021, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee said “CPI inflation was expected to remain around 5% through the majority of the winter period, and peak at around…
Caught by the additional tax rate taper trap
A growing number of taxpayers are being caught by the personal allowance taper, which will be exacerbated by the reduced additional rate tax threshold of £125,140. With many also questioning why the new threshold is not a round number, a short history of tax setting provides the answer. New income tax rate Seven chancellors ago…
Investment wrap-up 2022
In 2022, most of the world’s major share indices had their worst year since 2008, but the UK’s FTSE 100 was a star performer. Yes, the table is correct. In the year of three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors, a catastrophic ‘mini-Budget’ and double-digit inflation, the UK stock market was one of the world’s best major market…
Your New Year Financial Planning Checklist
2022 was an eventful year, giving you good reason to think about your financial planning for 2023. This year we saw three prime ministers, four chancellors, no formal Budget (even if the Autumn Statement looked remarkably like one), high inflation, rising interest rates, and volatile investment markets. At the year-end, it makes sense to review…
Looking for alternative Christmas presents?
Why not consider a different kind of gift for your children or grandchildren this Christmas – perhaps one with a financial twist? According to a prediction made by Hamleys in October, among some of the top bestselling toys this Christmas will be: XShot Skins Last Stand Dart Blaster Play-Doh Ice Cream Cart Peppa Pig Roller…