Spring Budget 2023 fails contractors, freelancers, agency workers (and the country as a whole) March 21, 2023 Jeremy Hunt’s first budget met expectations. ‘Dammed by faint praise’ fits the bill when best trying to articulate the frustration felt at yet another in a long list of missed opportunities. For those working in compliance and contingent employment, across the contracting sector, the failure is stark and can be charged on two counts. First [...]
Inheritance tax take beats all records as property price hikes boost HMRC’s coffers by whopping £6.4bn March 21, 2023 The amount of inheritance tax (IHT) paid in February totalled £531m, bringing the total for the 2022/23 tax year to a record £6.4bn. With just one month to go the amount already surpassed the £6.1bn received by the Treasury throughout the entire 2021-22 financial year. The record-breaking inheritance tax take follows last week’s revision by [...]
Pension pain: Savers who bought lifetime allowance ‘protection’ warned they may still find their tax-free lump sum capped March 17, 2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s decision to scrap the pension lifetime allowance (LTA) in Wednesday’s Spring Budget, was heralded as an incentive for wealthier employees over 50 to stay in the workforce. But some pensions experts say for those who took out a form of LTA protection may still have to watch they do not go over [...]
Six ways business leaders think Chancellor can fix female entrepreneurship gap March 14, 2023 A group of senior business leaders have called on the Chancellor to use tomorrow’s budget to boost female entrepreneurship – with the UK economy said to be losing out on £250bn a year thanks to a lack of women starting and scaling businesses. Though women in the UK established over 150,000 new companies in 2022, [...]
Pension explainer: The lifetime allowance and why it’s not just for wealthy savers March 14, 2023 Speculation is growing that the Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is looking at increasing the pension lifetime allowance (LTA). The move is being interpreted as attempting to reverse the trend of early retirements and get more over 50s to consider re-joining the workforce. Mr Hunt is keen to bolster Britain’s workforce as he looks to deliver [...]
Spring budget: Back to work, childcare and post Brexit customs – what do we know so far? March 13, 2023 This Wednesday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will stand on the steps of No11 Downing Street – holding the famous Budget 2023 red box. Of his five predecessors, just Rishi Sunak was even in post long enough to reach this point. Political turmoil aside, his spring statement will also follow months of financial chaos, after economic shocks [...]
Start-up tax pain could scupper Rishi Sunak’s science superpower dreams, investors warn March 10, 2023 Further tax pain inflicted on the UK’s start-ups could scupper Rishi Sunak’s tech and science superpower plans, venture capital firms have warned. The warning comes as Jeremy Hunt prepares to announce his first full budget next week. Start-ups have piled pressure on Hunt to reverse changes to research and development tax credits announced in the [...]
Citizens Advice calls for better use of personal data to create social tariff March 8, 2023 The government should use Brits' personal data about income tax rates and energy usage to create a new social tariff, argues Citizens Advice.
We should be concerned about privacy – but we still need to introduce digital IDs March 8, 2023 Some people are very sceptical about the concept of digital identity. But digital IDs are more of an infrastructure than anything else - one that would make accessing public services a lot easier, writes Rosie Beacon
State pension: Government extends National Insurance top-up contribution deadline March 7, 2023 The government has confirmed the deadline for filling gaps in state pension National Insurance (NI) contribution records will be extended from 5 April 2023 to 31 July this year The April deadline applied to back payments from 2006, but concerns had been raised people were struggling to get through to jammed HMRC phonelines. The update [...]