Introduction It was famously said that ‘all roads lead to Rome.’ In British politics, all speeches currently lead to the EU Referendum. George Osborne’s Budget speech, delivered on Wednesday March 16th, was no exception. More than ever, the Chancellor was seeking to balance politics and economics as he rose to speak. On the politics front, […]
February was another month where the problem for this commentary was what to leave out: the world is not short of ‘events’ at the moment. In the Far East, North Korea successfully fired a long range rocket, causing consternation in Tokyo and Seoul. Closer to home, David Cameron returned from Brussels with his deal on […]
After several years of speculation, according to a recent BT Home article, fears are growing that Chancellor George Osborne is finally poised to take away higher-rate tax relief for pension contributions. If this is the case, then the vital cut-off date for investors could well be Wednesday 16th March – the day of his next […]
Think back to the Chancellor’s budget proposals in July last year, and you may remember an announcement about changes to the annual pension allowance. Well, that change is set to come into effect at the start of the new tax year on 6th April 2016. It therefore seems like a good idea for a bit […]
Responding to the HM Treasury consultation on the 3% surcharge on Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) proposals for second properties, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) urges reform of the implementation plans to mitigate potentially negative impacts on the housing market as a whole. The CML view is that even without the new surcharge, the […]