Making the rules work for you Choose the most tax-advantageous structure for your new business. Tax changes, such as the recent increase to the rate of employer NICs, have made the decision on how to structure a new business quite difficult. Traditionally, a business...
Handing on your wealth Top-up your state pension entitlement. Everyone has a nil rate band of £325,000 on which no IHT is charged. If you have children, or stepchildren, you can add up to £175,000 (known as the residence nil rate band) to your nil rate band by leaving...
Preparing for the future Maximise tax relief on your pension contributions by using all of your annual allowance. The annual allowance for 2025/26 is £60,000, but you can also use surplus allowance from the previous three tax years (see the following tip). To avoid an...
Making the most of bricks and mortar Let rooms in your own home to one or more lodgers. Rent-a-room relief allows up to £7,500 of rent per property to be received tax free per year. The rooms must be let as residential accommodation in the home you live in, and no...
Making the most of your money. Contribute up to £9,000 to your child’s Junior ISA. The fund builds up free of tax on investment income and capital gains until your child reaches 18, when the funds can be either withdrawn or rolled over into an adult ISA. Relatives and...
Check your PAYE tax code. HMRC may change your tax code in various circumstances, for example if you start to get income from an additional job or pension or you start or stop getting employee benefits. Your code may include estimated amounts of savings income, based...
Adult Social Care Review The first Friday of May was a whirlwind of news, creating the perfect backdrop for an announcement the government might prefer to keep under the radar: the launch of a new independent commission into adult social care in England. A Quiet...
Trump's "Yippy" Justification for Tariff Delay A new word was added to investors’ vocabulary in April. “Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.”...
The 1975 Budget and Subsequent Fiscal Policy The 1975 Chancellor's Budget holds a unique position in UK fiscal history, representing a significant policy decision that has seemingly deterred subsequent administrations from similar action. The year 1975 was marked by...
Evaluating Gold as an Investment At first glance, the proposition of investing in an asset exhibiting limited practical utility, generating no direct income, and incurring ownership costs such as insurance and storage, might appear counterintuitive. Such criticisms...
Inflation & Rising Rates Expose HMRC's Capacity Issues Over the past several years, a consistent strategy employed by successive governments to boost tax revenue has been the freezing of tax allowances and bands. This approach, coupled with rising inflation that...
Understanding State Pension Age Changes in the UK Recent research highlights a significant lack of public awareness regarding forthcoming alterations to the State Pension Age (SPA) in the UK. This issue is particularly pertinent given the historical context of SPA...
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