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.” So said President Trump seven days after his Rose Garden Liberation Day presentation of unexpectedly high tariffs on US imports.
The Lifetime ISA (LISA) is arguably a good example of brand overstretch. When ISAs were first launched in 1999, there were only two varieties, and they replaced two existing tax-favoured savings plans – PEPs (personal equity plans) and TESSAs (tax exempt special savings accounts).
In recent years, the tax rules for company cars have provided a major incentive to choose a battery electric vehicle (BEV), with zero CO2 emissions, or a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) with CO2 emissions of 1-50g/km.
The government is showing no signs of changing its plans to levy inheritance tax (IHT) on pensions.
The Office for National Statistics has taken a fresh look at our mortality.
There were no tax increases in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement (upgraded from an initial Spring Forecast), but that might just be pain deferred.
HMRC may not have as many friends as it claims to have ‘customers’, but is it value for money?
It’s been five years since the pandemic turned the world upside down. The experience provided lessons in many aspects of life, not least its potential fragility. During the lockdowns, many people became suddenly aware that they had no will or, if they did, it was woefully out of date.
The government has confirmed that there will be no revisions to automatic enrolment in workplace pensions for 2025/26. For a government facing an investment shortfall following a £40 billion tax increase, the figure of around £3,000 billion represented by pension assets would appear a very tempting source of capital.
While the end of the tax year on the 5th of April is a major focus of tax planning, it doesn’t end there. The following day may require much less immediate attention, but there is an argument for considering it to be just as important.