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 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 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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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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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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FTSE 100 up on mornings trading

Investor in the United Kingdom were given a boost by the better than expected United States jobs data. Good news lifted the FTSE 100 this morning on opening by 0.2% to 6057 which gave an extra boost to companies offering very good news this morning.

Corporate

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Between now and the end of the tax year.

Well hopefully if you have to complete a self assessment tax return you will have completed and submitted it online. If not you might be in for a shock, fine and interest on the outstanding tax due.

However we have to remember that the 2010 -2011 tax year

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Barclays fold on legal Challenge

The banking industry has discontinued its legal challenge over payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling, a move which will probably cost banks billions of pounds in compensation payments.
After a prolonged, time consuming fight involving the British Bankers’

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Rise in UK CPI

Yesterdays rise in inflation came as a shock. The rise exceeded the expectation of 4.1%

The consumers prices index(CPI) is the measure of inflation used by the Bank of England.

Although CPI was expected to rise after the drop in March the increase was more than expected. The UK

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FSA Consultation paper on accreditation

The Financial Services Authority has proposed in its recent consultation paper concerning the bodies that will be able to accredit financial advisers from 2013. In total the FSA received six applications and following consultation it was proposed that the

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Interest Rates will be low for some time

The recent report from the Bank of England showed that the members voted 7-2 in favour of keeping interest rates on hold for the time being. This is now the 27th consecutive month that rates have remained  at 0.5%.

The concerns over the economy and the

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Current Inflation rate for August 2010

CPI, the consumer price inflation has stayed above the Bank of England’s Target of 2 percent. The figure for the month of August was released this morning.

Rising Clothing costs, Air Fares and rising Food prices were factors that maintained the rate of

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