Stamp of approval: Has the Chinese economic slowdown licked the value of philatelic investments? February 18, 2016 When share prices are volatile, fine wine, art and other tangible assets offer the bittersweet assurance that your investment will only turn to dust if exposed to excessive sunlight or extremes in temperature. Interest in philatelic investment, or stamp collecting, peaked after the financial crisis as investors turned to alternative asset classes to diversify their [...]
Oil prices: UK oil baron Algy Cluff warns chancellor George Osborne that the North Sea industry is on the brink of destruction February 17, 2016 One of Britain’s best known oil tycoons has warned that low prices could destroy the UK oil industry if the government fails to slash taxes and encourage exploration in the sector. Speaking exclusively to City A.M., Algy Cluff, who pioneered exploration in the North Sea in the 1970s, has added his voice to a growing [...]
Leap year proposals: Ladies planning to pop the question this 29 February could be counting their luck with extra tax savings February 15, 2016 Call us old romantics but we here at City A.M. love a good wedding story – the beautiful frocks, the first dance as a married couple, all those wonderful tax breaks the newlyweds can take advantage of… The tax experts at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) are clearly in agreement, as [...]
Liberalising the UK’s migration policy could yield significant benefits for migrants and lead to a “brain gain” in developing countries February 10, 2016 Britain’s immigration debate rarely discusses how migrants themselves are affected by coming to work here. We argue passionately over whether immigration has cost the average worker twenty pounds, or benefited her by forty pounds. But these sums are trivial compared to the benefits of migration to the migrants themselves, and to their home countries. A [...]
HSBC: After nearly a year of mulling its domicile, would it matter if the bank moved its headquarters from London? February 10, 2016 Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at IG, says Yes. Fundamentally, HSBC’s residency in London makes sense. The bank may have ambitions in emerging markets, and may have ringfenced its UK operations, but to depart for Asia would seem like an odd move. It would separate the bank from its peers, who have realised that the geographical [...]
UK Budget 2016: IFS warns that stock market volatility could lead to more than £2bn in losses for UK Treasury February 8, 2016 Plummeting equity prices could cost the Treasury billions of pounds, making it more difficult for chancellor George Osborne to meet his target of achieving a fiscal surplus by the end of the decade, a leading think tank has warned. In its annual Green Budget publication out today, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that equity prices [...]
Jeremy Corbyn could already be harming your investments February 3, 2016 Corbynmania may have reached a crescendo with the election of the Labour leader last year, but the ructions caused by this political phenomenon have not gone away. With Jeremy Corbyn taking an increasingly firm grip of the Party, reshuffling the shadow cabinet and looking to change Labour procedures to enable party members to have more [...]
Literally everything you need to know before you start filling in your online self-assessment tax return January 28, 2016 Congratulations, you survived Christmas and New Year: time to put your feet up while waiting for the Rio Olympics? Nope. The deadline for submitting your self-assessment tax return (SATR) online is 31 January. And there are penalties if you don’t make it, or if HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) takes the view you haven’t taken [...]
The Guardian falls into taxing spot on Google January 25, 2016 Of all the hand-wringing and outrage over Google’s £130m tax payment, some of the most vociferous has come from everyone’s favourite loss-making publication the Guardian. An opinion piece from firebrand Labour MP Margaret Hodge appeared on the paper’s website calling the gesture from Google “pitiful”, while resident cartoonist Martin Rowson published a doodle depicting George [...]
Bargain property prices and a laid-back lifestyle are luring Brits to St Lucia January 25, 2016 Famous for its lush beauty, St Lucia is luring investors looking for fabulous beaches and a laid-back lifestyle. Property prices here took a tumble after the 2008 crash and, according to the Global Property Guide, are almost unchanged in the past three to five years. It also states that St Lucia property is 40 to [...]