How can I save on Income Tax?

There are a number of ways to reduce your possible income tax liability.

A simple example would be to make a personal contribution towards a pension arrangement.

Contributions benefit from tax relief therefore reducing the amount of UK income tax you might

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Changes to Basic State Pension

Confirmation from the Dept of Works and Pensions has outlined changes to the basic state pension.

The coalition has been concerned with the complexities of means testing and the burden this puts on the state to adminster means tested benefits.

Apparently radical

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Public Sector Pensions Report

Labour MP John Hutton has recommended an increase in the contribution made by employees to public sector pension schemes.

He recently branded Public sector final salary schemes as “inherently unfair” as a large proportion of private sector workers are no longer

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Government change pension contributions

An announcement by the Treasury this morning has confirmed that the annual pensions allowance is to be reduced to £50,000.

The total lifetime allowance for pensions (the total value of your pension before tax is applied) is to be reduced from £1.8

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Pension Reform and Employers

The 2008 Pensions Act will introduce Auto Enrolment, a major pension reform starting in October 2012.

Employers (starting with the largest) will be required to offer a workplace pension scheme that satisfies the new legislation. Requirements will be phased in over four

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The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has recently published research about introducing a simpler more generous state pension.

The report maintains that a level state pension of £140 per week would be simpler to administer, remove millions of people from claiming benefits and would not

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US job figures better than expected

Stock Markets worldwide have leapt higher this afternoon after better than expected news concerning US job figures.

The FTSE 100 jumped 1.3% higher to 5442.6 after the US announced a smaller rise in unemployment in August, well below the consensus view that

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Paying Tax on Shares

The Global stock markets have really improved from their low point of March 2009. In fact the FTSE 100 increased by over 12% in the second quarter of 2010.

If you got the timing right and invested in shares or collective investments , you could have made a substantial gain over

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The Future of Emerging Markets

With the UK facing budget cuts and the possibility of quantitative easing (QE2- printing money) combined with inflation it would be easy to be nervous about the financial future. Investors in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China have a great deal

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Standard Life drops Bonuses

Standard Life has announced the thousands of policyholders will see their annual bonuses cut or frozen. It has claimed that the reason for this is to maintain the guarantees on their with profit policies.

The bonus announcement confirmed that most polices increased in

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Swiss and UK come to Tax Agreement

A landmark agreement between the British and Swiss governments will force UK taxpayers to pay tax on undeclared money held in Swiss accounts. The tax levy of 50% was announced after the agreement was announced. The targeting of undeclared money held in private

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Is it Time to review your Investments?

Would you like to increase your capital, improve your income or both? Your response will determine the kind of investments you choose and, furthermore, you have to be aware about the idea of ‘total return’. This is actually the way of measuring of

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Mortgage approvals lowest for 12 months.

The number amount of borrowing approved in August fell to the lowest level in more than a year.

The Bank of England confirmed in its most recent lending publication that approvals fell from 47,000 to 45,000 for the month of August 2010.

The number of

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FSCS confirm new limits

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has confirmed that the limit of protection for savers will increase from the current level of £50,000. The revised limit, due to be introduced in January will be 100,000 Euros.

The change has been announced to bring the

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Child Benefits for 40% Taxpayers to Go

The Chancellor, George Osborne has confirmed to the BBC that Higher Rate tax payers will not benefit from child benefits from 2013.

He confirmed that parent earning over £44,000 who pay 40% tax will no longer be entitled to receive the benefit.

It is

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UK Interest Rates remain unchanged

For the 21st Month in a row the Bank of England has maintained interest rates at 0.5%

The Monetary Policy Committee confirmed that although the level of inflation was above the agreed target, the economy was still to fragile to consider rate increases.

The MPC

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FSA to reveal RBS Failings

Financial Services Authority (FSA) has offered to publish a limited report on the failings of RBS. This agreement follows calls for the regulator to provide public information about its findings and the Government Bailout. The FSA confirmed it had finished its

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Bank bailout costs taxpayers £5 bn a year

A National Audit Office (NAO) overview of Britain’s bailed out banks show they cost the taxpayer £5 billion annually in interest.

The Treasury pays out £5 billion annually to cover the interest on the loans used to prop up banks, and although this is

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Clegg and the Banks Head to Head

Deputy leader from the coalition Nick Clegg has warned the UK’s banks how the government will not ‘stand idly by’ and let big bonuses be paid out.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Clegg gave his opinion on the banks failed tries to co-ordinate bonus cuts and

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VAT and Tax increases start to Bite

Well another tax rise came into force yesterday. Everyone seems to have different views about the Vat increase from 17.5% to 20%. George Osborne announced it was necessary the fairest way of increasing revenue to reduce the budget deficit. Labour has a different

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