The clock is ticking to keep your savings from the taxman March 30, 2011 IF YOU are in the 20 per cent of Londoners who, according to research from Fidelity, put off getting their individual savings account (Isa) to the last week of the financial year, now is the time to shelter your savings from taxation. You will have to act quickly to pick up the best deals. Of [...]
Investing in fledglings is now more appealing March 30, 2011 THE Budget increased the tax breaks available for the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and sorted out some of the legislation involved in venture capital trusts (VCT). This is making both look appealing to investors, especially those desperate to escape the burden of the 50p tax rate. Here’s your guide to what they are and how [...]
Nowadays you need to monitor your online presentation just as closely March 30, 2011 THE online you is important – 70 per cent of human resources (HR) professionals have rejected potential candidates because of their online information, according to a Microsoft survey. Or put more positively, 86 per cent said that good online information could work in a candidate’s favour. This makes having a clean reputation on the internet [...]
ODD JOBS March 30, 2011 I’M FROM Jersey and my first job was with a menswear business that my brother-in-law and I formed in the late 1980s. Shortly before I sold the business, I met some traders who opened my mind to London and the markets. I joined the London Commodity Exchange in 1996 to trade coffee in the days [...]
FTSE rises after upbeat Wolseley results outweigh bank dips and debt worries March 29, 2011 THE FTSE 100 rose moderately in light trade yesterday with support from miners and upbeat results from Wolseley outpacing falls in banks on European debt worries. The FTSE 100 climbed 27.68 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 5,932.17. The index regained more than 3 per cent the previous week following losses sparked by the earthquake [...]
US trading volume low amid uncertainty March 29, 2011 STRENGTH in energy lifted US stocks yesterday as investors concentrated on adding to winning positions as the quarter winds down, but uncertainty kept trading volume light. About 6.2bn shares traded in composite volume on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, the second-weakest of 2011 and below last year’s estimated daily average of [...]
Why jet-setting employees are a legal headache March 29, 2011 SUPPOSE an employee – let’s call her Snow White – works in Paris but lives in London. How much “home” or “train” work does White need to do to be covered by English laws? In the recent case of British Airways v Mak, the Court of Appeal decided that English tribunals have jurisdiction to hear [...]
Tweeting in court could damage your business March 29, 2011 IMAGINE that your business is in court. And now imagine that some people in that courtroom are sending out a constant barrage of tweets about the proceedings – every accusation, every negative claim and every judicial comment appears instantly on the internet, in a context-destroying 140-character form. And now imagine the effect it could have [...]
Watch out for Osborne’s foreign currency plans March 29, 2011 A FEW ears pricked up on budget day when George Osborne announced a surprising and potentially expensive plan to rebuild Britain’s foreign currency reserves. There are two methods of executing this plan. The first is to print sterling to buy foreign currency. This could be regarded as quantitative easing (QE) by another method. Indeed, it [...]
IRELAND MAY BE ENDING THE RISK TRADE March 29, 2011 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT JUST take that castor oil and swallow it. It’s good for you.” That prescription no longer seems to be working in the periphery economies of Europe. From Portugal to Ireland, the public is starting to rebel against the fiscal austerity measures imposed by the EU and the IMF and the [...]
