Jargon buster – 12 important pension expressions made easy
The world of finance can be jargon heavy and difficult to understand. This is especially true with pensions, thanks to the strict regulations and tax rules surrounding them.
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Why investing in an ISA at the end of the tax year could be damaging to your wealth.
While ISAs are popular, many account holders wait until the end of the tax year to place money into them. If you’re one of them, you may not realise that doing this could significantly reduce your wealth’s growth potential over the long-term.
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What you need to know if you’re a high earner missing this important tax relief
Many higher earners failed to claim a valuable tax rebate in recent years. That’s according to This is Money, which revealed that the unclaimed sum reached a staggering £1.3 billion between 2016 and 2021. It added that research by PensionBee also found that 75% of eligible higher-rate taxpayers and half of additional-rate taxpayers failed to claim all of the rebate owed to them by the government.
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Economic Commentary - 2024 economic outlook – how might the consensus be wrong?
In this month’s commentary our Chief Economist, Colin Warren, looks at some key consensus economic views for 2024, and also considers how they might turn out to be wrong.
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3 important reasons to use a financial adviser when divorcing
After the new year celebrations, it’s a sad fact that January can bring a different kind of ‘new beginning’ for all too many Britons. Speak to any legal professional, and they’ll probably tell you that January is the month that divorce applications skyrocket. So much so that the second working Monday of the month has been dubbed ‘divorce Monday’, as it is when solicitors across the UK see a peak in applications.
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5 savvy ways to make your self-assessment stress free
Completing your personal self-assessment tax return can be daunting, which may mean you put it off to the last minute. That said, when you consider that the deadline for the next self-assessment is 31 January 2024, putting if off won’t be an option for much longer.
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Another year of giving back: we announce our charity of the year for 2024
Supporting a local charity each year is something that we believe is an important part of giving back to our community. As a record-breaking year of fundraising for Birmingham Women’s Hospital Charity comes to an end, we’re delighted to announce our charity of the year for 2024: the MND Association.
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Could the cut to National Insurance make you better off?
In his 2023 Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced a major change to how National Insurance Contributions (NICs) will be paid from 2024. If you’re employed, a key change comes into effect on 6 January, and it could mean an estimated 27 million UK workers will be hundreds of pounds a year better off. Read on to discover more about the changes and what they might mean for you.
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What you need to know if you're gifting this Christmas to reduce Inheritance Tax
After much speculation that the Chancellor would scrap Inheritance Tax (IHT) in his 2023 Autumn Statement, on the day, he did nothing of the sort. This means that your estate may still be exposed to the tax, which is typically charged at 40%, and if it is, you may be wondering how to reduce your exposure to it.