Betting on the Budget March 21, 2011 IT’S Budget week, the Wimbledon of financial news, so will the Chancellor’s announcements be champagne and strawberries for CFD traders, or “new balls, please”? Unless the Chancellor of the Exchequer takes leave of his senses, the tax free status of spread betting is not going to be under threat. At the same time, the capital [...]
Britons hit by £360 a year fall in income March 21, 2011 HOUSEHOLD incomes have dropped by an average of £360 a year since 2008 — after accounting for inflation — the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) revealed yesterday. This is the largest decline in living standards since 1980 to 1983, the IFS said. Usually household incomes rise above the level of inflation, by around five [...]
It pays to know HMRC’s stance on trading gains March 20, 2011 ONE of the biggest draws of spread betting over traditional share dealing is the former’s tax status. Although the Treasury is currently searching under each and every rock and stone in the search for revenue, it is highly unlikely that spread betting will lose this position. Spread betting is tax free for the consumer in [...]
Losses worsen at RAB Capital hedge funds March 16, 2011 STRUGGLING hedge fund manager RAB Capital’s losses deepened yesterday, after it reported a pre-tax loss of £20.2m and a 15 per cent fall in revenues last year. Assets under management tumbled 21 per cent to $1.06bn (£662m) last year as a mixture of underperforming funds and fleeing investors hit the company, which issued a profit [...]
Fear and loathing stalk the global financial markets March 15, 2011 EVERYTHING always seems to go wrong at the same time. Global investors are always extraordinarily naïve about geopolitics and natural disasters; they have suddenly awoken from their stupor and realised that the world is a much more dangerous place that they thought. The earthquake in Japan, a devastating catastrophe for that country, was the tipping [...]
Reform tax system, IoD demands March 15, 2011 Entrepreneurial investments should be exempt from capital gains tax, and the government must commit to abolish the 50p rate of income tax, the Institute of Directors said yesterday. The IoD called for several changes to the tax system to improve the UK’s competitiveness.
Japan’s insured loss may surpass $60bn March 14, 2011 JAPAN’S tsunami damage may cost insurers more than $60bn (£37bn), and lead to premiums rising for the first time in years, analysts said yesterday. Reinsurers such as Swiss Re and Munich Re are likely to consider this a “one-in-200-year” event, which would mean they face losses of up to €2bn (£1.7bn) each. The losses are [...]
The 50p top rate of tax to hit UK growth and cut tax receipts, claims think tank March 9, 2011 THE 50p top rate of income tax will hammer British growth and actually reduce government tax receipts, a Westminster think tank will say today. “Evidence from overseas shows that high top tax rates fail to produce public revenues and injure economies,” the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) argues. Labour mobility among high earners, relocation by businesses, [...]
The glass is half full for ISA investors in stocks and shares March 9, 2011 WITH the end of tax year deadline swiftly approaching, investors should make sure that they take advantage of the generous £10,200 allowance for individual savings accounts (ISA). This can either be used in its entirety for stocks and shares or up to £5,100 can be put into a cash ISA with the remainder in stocks [...]
Why Britain must reject a Tobin tax March 8, 2011 IT is amazing how many intelligent people believe in free lunches. The latest instance of this bizarre intellectual affliction can be found in yesterday’s vote by MEPs in Brussels to slap a Tobin tax on financial transactions in the EU. The vote fortunately has no legal power, but European parliamentarians believe their scheme would raise [...]