In an attempt to deal with the looming pension crisis and the failure of people to make provision for their retirement, the UK Governments has introduced legislation that will require all employers to auto-enrol their staff in a qualifying workplace pension scheme. The rationale behind the legislation is that it seems that currently many employees [...]
The National Employment Savings Trust (“Nest”) is the UK Government’s pension scheme introduced following the Pensions Commission’s 2005 report and is intended to encourage people to save for retirement. In fact it isn’t a new scheme, just a rebranding of the Personal Accounts Scheme which has been in operation for some time. The real difference [...]
Keen readers of this blog will have noticed several articles over the last 18 months regarding changes to the tax treatment of holiday lettings. The first of these was UK Budget Bombshell for Second Home Owners (April 2009). This article highlighted a proposal hidden away in the small print of Alistair Darling’s 2009 Budget. This [...]
Government Ministers are drawing up plans to replace the existing means-tested and contribution-based system with a new flat-rate pension to replace the current basic state pension, the second state pension and pension credits. The proposals are that from 2015 every person will be entitled to a pension of £140 a week. This is a significant [...]
We live in momentous times. Everything is changing – and a lot faster than you think. The old rules no longer apply. The institutions and traditions you take for granted are faltering. In fact, beneath the surface of what appears on the daily TV news is a much more disturbing story – one which you [...]
Following the unseemly debacle surrounding Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury (and some of us remember similar issues many years ago in the Guinness/Distillers takeover) the Takeover Panel have launched a review into certain aspects of the regulations concerning takeovers and have invited comments. Here are mine. Any changes to the Takeover Code must ensure that the [...]
The Financial Reporting Council (“FRC”) published The UK Stewardship Code yesterday. The declared purpose of the Code is “to enhance the quality of engagement between institutional investors and companies to help improve long-term returns to shareholders and the efficient exercise of governance responsibilities”. The FRC sees the UK Stewardship Code as complementary to the UK [...]
Since I first raised this issue in April of last year (see UK Budget Bombshell for Second Home Owners) I have had occasion to return to the subject several times. To recap, as part of the 2009 Budget, measures were slipped into the small print of the budget by the then Government to withdraw the [...]
The Enterprise Investment Scheme offers generous income tax and capital gains tax reliefs to investors in certain companies. These reliefs are available to “qualifying individuals” who subscribe for “eligible shares” in “qualifying companies” undertaking “a qualifying business activity”. Simple, isn’t it? The purpose behind the scheme is to encourage investment in start up companies and [...]
Yesterday, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published a revised version of the UK Corporate Governance Code (formerly the Combined Code). This new edition of “the Code” takes effect for financial years beginning on or after the 29th June 2010. The Code applies to all companies with a Premium Listing on the London Stock Exchange including [...]
I was talking to an Independent Financial Advisor a couple of days ago and in conversation asked him how he was getting on winding up the estate of a mutual client who died about 18 months ago. “Fine”, he said, “but it looks like we have paid too much Inheritance Tax on the house” – [...]
Cybercrime is endemic and whilst most people now know not to respond to emails asking for personal information or passwords few are aware of the dangers of “keyloggers”. What is a keylogger? A keylogger is a small piece of software which captures all of the keystrokes you make on your keyboard. Originally these programs were designed [...]
The Combined Code on Corporate Governance * is published by the Financial Reporting Council and applies to all UK incorporated companies (and some foreign companies) listed on the UK Stock Exchange. The most recent (2008) version of the Code combines the Cadbury and Greenbury reports on corporate governance, the Turnbull Report on Internal Control (revised [...]
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is to introduce “premium” and “standard” listings from April next year. At first glance, the changes being introduced to listings on the LSE might appear little more than cosmetic, with the existing categories of “primary” and “secondary” listings set to be replaced with “premium” and “standard” listings. But closer examination [...]
The British Business Angels Association (“BBAA”) is a trade association representing UK business angel networks, associates and affiliates. Business Angels invest in business startup companies. These are the same sorts of business that venture capitalists invest in but Angels invest their own money, unlike venture capitalists, who manage the pooled money of others in a [...]
The term Venture Capital refers to an investment made in a new or nearly new company either to get it off the ground (known as seed funding) or to provide capital for growth – surprisingly known as growth funding). Venture capital investments are usually made in cash in exchange for shares in the invested company [...]
In recent weeks the term Sovereign Debt has been bandied about by the media leaving many people puzzled as what it actually is. What it isn’t is money owed by a King or Queen of a country – Republics do have Sovereign Debt; you don’t need a Monarch! Joking aside, in simple terms Sovereign Debt [...]
I’ve suddenly had a lot of people contact me to ask the above question regarding the tax free ISA (Individual Savings Account) products that are available to UK taxpayers. This is probably due to changes that came in last month. If you don’t know what an ISA is then have a look at this earlier article. [...]
Most people have heard of Gross Domestic Product (sometimes called Gross Domestic Income) or GDP but few have heard of Gross National Product (GNP). To understand GNP you first have to understand GDP and fuller details can be found elsewhere on this site. A simple definition of the diference between GNP and GDP is this: [...]
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or Gross Domestic Income (GDI) is a measure of a country’s overall economic output in monetary terms. GDP is normally calculated each quarter and is considered a major indication of the economic health of a country. GDP can be measured in three ways: Production (GDP(P)): This measures the Gross Domestic [...]
