What is an ISA?

‘ISA’ stands for Individual Savings Account, a tax-efficient wrapper offered under Government legislation as a way of encouraging you to save. An ISA sits over your choice of a number of different investments to shelter them from further tax on any income or gains

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Here's a brief resume of today's budget

INCOME TAX

• From April 2013, the 50p top rate of tax will be cut to 45p.
• Personal income tax allowance raised to £9,205 from April 2013, making 24 million people £220 a year better off.
• New general anti-tax avoidance rule to be

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The HMRC have confirmed that tax payers will start to receive a personal statement each year, showing a breakdown of how their tax is spent.

Plans to provide personalised statements have been confirmed by the Treasury and George Osborne in his latest budget.

The aim of the statement will be to

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The Chancellor George Osborne, announced yesterday on the BBC Andrew Marr show that he intends to crack down on the abuse of so-called Stamp duty Land Tax Schemes. The Chancellor was referring to the upcoming Budget this week.

These schemes are sometimes used by individuals looking to reduce the

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As we are coming to the end of the tax year, many investors might ask themselves whether it is better to use your annual  ISA allowance or Pension allowance. The simple answer is both if you have the capital available to do this.

However if you only have a limited amount of money, which route is

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A number of open market option providers, along with campaigners are planning to launch an annuity comparison service.

The service is to be launched to raise the benefits of shopping around for the best annuity rates.

Many products such as Personal pensions and stakeholder plans give the

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The latest edition of our Smart Money Magazine is now available to download

Topics covered in this months edition

• Navigating the Pensions Landscape
• End of Year Tax Planning
• Beat the ISA Deadline
• Making a Will
• Speading Investment Risk

To get a copy of the latest edition please click here

A report by the Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) in October 2011 showed a dramatic increase in the number of investors using ethical or socially responsible investments.

Eiris is a not for profit organisation that provides research on ethical investments, banks and financing.

The

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A cross party committee of MP’s have hit out at the number of badly regulated Pay Day and Debt loan companies in the UK.

An increasing number of people are now using these types of companies. The numbers of people now using short term, pay day loan providers have increased from 300,000 in 2006

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The High Court, will today here an appeal from Unions over pensions. The appeal relates to the use of the Consumer Prices Index when calculating pension indexation as opposed to the previous method of using the Retail Prices Index (RPI).

The unions have argued that the change will affect the

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Credit Rating Agency Moody’s have announced downgrades for a number of Euro zone nations. It has also issued a negative outlook for the UK. This could spell problems for the UK’s AAA credit rating.

It’s only Monday and it has been a busy week already. Greece yesterday approved further

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The ability for the Chinese authorities to stimulate their economy were halted today, after higher than expected inflation figures. China has seen record increases in its economy over the last ten years, with some astounding increases in growth. But with growth comes the problem of inflation as the

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The winners and losers

Last year according to citywire only 12% of US Equity funds beat the S and P 500 stock market index last year.

Many UK investors tend to hold a relatively small amount in US Equity funds.  In the past many investors might have been disappointed by the returns achieved,

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First week back and like many people I’ve been catching up with paperwork and numerous spam emails that had dropped into my email box between Christmas and New Year.

I read and article yesterday and whilst watching the news late last night, I wondered why there is so most emphasis put on the

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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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