Why you shouldn’t put off saving for your retirement December 9, 2012 AT A time when people are failing to save enough for their retirement, George Osborne’s move – announced in last week’s Autumn Statement – to reduce the tax relief on pensions is unwelcome. The chancellor cut the annual tax relief for wealthy earners from £50,000 to £40,000, and reduced the lifetime allowance from £1.5m to [...]
Isa changes may not affect your investment decisions December 9, 2012 IN LAST week’s Autumn Statement, George Osborne announced that the total amount an individual can invest in a tax-free Individual Savings Account (Isa) will increase to £11,520 per year from April 2013. This change won’t have much of an impact on the public’s interest in Isas, however. The small rise (£240) is in line with [...]
Twosome transforming how we transfer money December 9, 2012 KRISTO Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus are the two Estonian founders of TransferWise, the peer-to-peer platform for transferring money. Parallels between TransferWise and Skype abound, not least because Hinrikus was Skype’s first employee. But the likenesses don’t stop there: they want to “make the world smaller, just as Skype has done”; they want to make transfers [...]
My recent attempt to pass on some rock solid business advice December 9, 2012 I DON’T want to study rocks!” My teenage son Tom looked at me like I was an ugly alien. We were discussing what he should read at university, and he was keen on economics and maths to pursue a career in finance or business.“But I think the big finance boom is over, Tom. And mining [...]
A measure for the forward-thinking December 9, 2012 ONE of the most striking pro-business announcements in last week’s Autumn Statement was the increase in the tax relief afforded to company investment in plant and machinery equipment. A miserly allowance of £25,000 jumped ten-fold to a healthier £250,000. Aimed at smallish businesses, it’s meant to unlock cash for investment. But it comes with some [...]
Lessons from Finland: How we can reform maths teaching in schools December 9, 2012 THE UK’s educational standards remain low. Our pupils have fallen behind those in Germany and have been overtaken by peers in Poland. The last round of OECD tests for 15 year olds showed that the UK’s position in literacy, science and maths has fallen again. The coalition has attempted to reverse this decline and has [...]
Christmas is the ideal time to revive the City’s tradition of charitable giving December 9, 2012 FEAR that the UK could slip into a triple-dip recession heightened last week, as the services sector posted an unexpected slowdown. Yet remarkably, over half of us are still giving to good causes, despite the challenging economic outlook. This encouragingly high proportion of the population, includes many in the Square Mile. Contrary to myth, City [...]
A French scheme that could boost British innovation December 9, 2012 TODAY the UK government will lay before Parliament its future strategy for UK life sciences. It will rightly highlight the success of the Biocatalyst Fund, an initiative which is already helping bioscience small businesses to accelerate the development of future therapies. But existing government support is not enough. That is why we are calling for [...]
As Britain’s economic indicators worsen, are we heading towards a triple dip recession? December 9, 2012 YES Chris Williamson The likelihood of a triple-dip recession has risen. It may still be avoided, but much depends on developments overseas. Official data confirms the disappointing indicators, meaning a contraction in the fourth quarter looks inevitable. Retail, exports and manufacturing all fell sharply in October. To constitute a recession, GDP would also have to [...]
Rapid responses December 9, 2012 Austerity forever [Re: Careful chancellor: there is good austerity and bad austerity, Friday] George Osborne does appear to be slowly realising that his measures aren’t working, but my worry is that it’s now too late. All the international evidence shows that fiscal retrenchment only works if cuts happens quickly, take place across the board, and [...]
