Fund firms in crosshairs of clampdown December 3, 2014 FUND management partnerships will be blocked from reducing the tax they pay on management fee income from next April, as part of a broader crackdown on income tax avoidance. Private equity firms and other alternative asset managers often pay capital gains tax on their management fee income rather than income tax, which is higher and [...]
Cheap mortgages are here to stay as OBR predicts interest rates will remain low December 3, 2014 Interest rates will stay lower for longer, the fiscal watchdog predicted yesterday, because the Bank of England is now not expected to tighten monetary policy until well into 2015. When it last made its forecasts in March, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted the average mortgage interest rate would dip below three per cent [...]
Libor fines to be spent on air ambulances and forces charities December 3, 2014 Hundreds of millions of pounds in Libor fines will go to air ambulances, Gurkha and veterans’ hearing charities, the chancellor said yesterday. Banks paid the fines after their traders were accused of trying to manipulate key interbank interest rate Libor. The pledge comes after Osborne announced the fines for foreign exchange benchmark manipulation would be spent [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: The big stamp duty shake-up December 3, 2014 Stamp duty will be cut for millions of house buyers but hiked on the most expensive properties as part of a radical shake-up of the system announced by George Osborne. The chancellor claimed some 98 per cent of buyers will see a cut in their stamp duty bill as a result of the move, seen [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: Isa reforms bring welcome tax relief for savers December 3, 2014 Britain’s thrifty received a welcome boost yesterday after new a number of reforms were applied to the country’s Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) and pensions policies. In the Autumn statement, George Osborne announced that from 2015 the ISA allowance will rise to £15,240, and the changes to the starting rate of savings tax will mean that [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: Extra charges for non-doms to keep tax privileges December 3, 2014 Wealthy UK residents who are not domiciled in the country will be forced to pay higher charges if they want to keep their tax privileges, the government announced yesterday. Non-doms can choose to be taxed on a “remittance basis”, which means that they are only takes on overseas income and gains that they bring to [...]
Coalition raises pay thresholds December 3, 2014 THE UK’s tax-free personal allowance will be raised to £10,600 next year and the higher rate threshold will rise from £41,865 this year to £42,385 next year, it emerged yesterday. Announcing the changes, chancellor George Osborne said the personal allowance increase was the first step towards his goal raising it to £12,500 so that “people [...]
Triumph for Trumpets as orchestras to benefit from theatre ruling December 3, 2014 YESTERDAY’S statement was music to the ears of the UK’s orchestras. The Theatre Tax Relief, which came into effect on 1 September, in a bid to boost the live performing arts economy, was extended to orchestras as part of the Autumn Statement.
Retailers cheer at review into business rates December 3, 2014 RETAILERS welcomed plans for a full review of the UK’s 400 year-old business rates system, seen by the industry as one of the biggest threats to the future of businesses on the high street. Businesses have long called for a reform of rates, which are charged on commercial properties including shops and calculated according to [...]
Productivity puzzle troubles UK forecasters December 3, 2014 THE GOVERNMENT’S fiscal watchdog yesterday expressed a great degree of uncertainty in its economic forecasts. “The key judgement underpinning our [growth] forecast is about the return of sustained productivity growth,” the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said in its Economic and Fiscal outlook. Productivity is the amount of output produced by a worker in a single hour. [...]