Venture Capital Trusts have started their fundraising for 2019/20. There was a time when tax year end planning didn’t begin until well after the New Year festivities were over and a March Budget was nearing. This rhythm has now shifted. The last months of the tax year are still important, as they are the point at which you should have a reasonable idea of your total income in the year. But Philip Hammond’s move to an Autumn Budget from 2017 means that there is now more focus

The planned reform of probate fees in England and Wales has been scrapped. A year ago the government tabled proposals to increase the level of probate fees in England and Wales. The idea was to move from the current single fee approach (£155 via a solicitor, £215 otherwise) to a sliding scale, based on estate value. For estates valued at over £2 million, the fee would have escalated to £6,000. The proposals met with predictably heavy criticism, winning the distinction of bei

When you look at your annual tax statement, have you ever wondered about the overall cost of the tax reliefs you enjoy? HMRC has published its latest annual assessment of the cost of various tax reliefs, and there are some eye-opening numbers. If you were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, looking for a way to squeeze some extra money out of taxpayers, you might well start by examining what the Treasury ‘loses’ as a result of the many different tax reliefs granted. In October H

An article in this weekend’s FT asked the above attention gabbing question. To a certain extent it misses the point as the first questions should be, “How much income do I want in retirement?”. The answer to this is completely personal and dependent on the person’s unique circumstances. Various retirement reports give a broad overview of what someone might need, assuming that they own their own home and have repaid their mortgage. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation states that an