The controversy surrounding the loan charge deadline is a reminder of the dangers of aggressive tax planning. If you were offered a way of being paid a ‘salary’ that involved no income tax and no national insurance contributions (NICs), what would you think? In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many contractors and consultants were offered the option of joining schemes which purported to make tax and NICs disappear. At the time, some decided the chance was too good to miss. The

A recent report shows that life expectancy is still improving, but not as quickly as was once expected. “British life expectancy falls by SIX MONTHS for men and women” That was one recent headline in response to the latest report of the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI) of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. While it was not inaccurate, like many such headlines it was open to misinterpretation. The CMI research suggested that mortality improvements had slowed down

The importance of China’s stock market is set to quadruple in 2019. China has been at the forefront of the headlines recently, whether about the protracted trade dispute with the US, the alleged dangers of using Huawei’s 5G equipment or the first landing of a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. The ‘Middle Kingdom’, as China is sometimes called, is now the world’s second largest economy. If you adjust for the Chinese currency’s purchasing power – not something the Chinese

The 6th April marked the 20th birthday of the Individual Savings Account (ISA). When the ISA was introduced in 1999, many thought it to be little more than a rebranding of the two schemes it replaced: the Personal Equity Plan (PEP) and Tax Exempt Savings Account (TESSA). The following 20 years have proved ISAs to be much more. The latest figures from HMRC (to 5 April 2018) show that over £610,000 million is invested in ISAs. Nearly 45% of that sum is held in cash ISAs, despit

The Chancellor’s Spring Statement was almost obscured by other events in mid-March. Ever since he announced a move to an Autumn Budget in 2016, Mr Hammond has made it clear that he wanted to avoid the Spring Statement counterpart becoming a mini-Budget. His vision was that in March he would be presenting a brief response to the latest forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). As the Treasury website stressed, “there will now only be one major fiscal event eac