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The 11th March Budget from the new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, included £7 billion of expenditure targeting the impact of Covid-19 on employees, the self-employed and businesses. On 17th March a further raft of measures was announced, amounting to an additional £20 billion of support expenditure plus £330 billion of loan guarantees. By 20th March another round of support was announced of such size that no price tag was attached.

The newly appointed Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced a spirited Budget with a repeated emphasis on ‘getting things done’, echoing the recent election campaign.

His initial focus was on the short-term measures needed to deal with the challenges the UK faces as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. These amounted to a £12bn fiscal stimulus, with more available if required. There was help for both businesses and individuals.

The clock is ticking on using up your pension annual allowance

The allowance effectively sets the maximum pension contributions from all sources (including your employer) on which you may be able to claim income tax relief. In recent times it has been the subject of much controversy because of the way the allowance is tapered from the ‘standard’ £40,000 to as little as £10,000 for high earners.

If you picked up a copy of The Times today (Saturday 8th February), then within its pages, you might have seen the Vouchedfor 2020 Guide to the UK’s Top Rated Advisers, which once again featured our very own Simon Moran and Alex Breadmore. 

The Financial Conduct Authority has announced a temporary ban on the promotion of most ‘mini-bonds’.

Have you ever been tempted by those advertisements offering 8%+ yields on property-backed bonds?

If you have, then you’ve probably been looking at a promotion for ‘mini-bonds’. These investments are not always what they seem and have already resulted in losses for investors, notably in the case of the failure of London Capital Finance (LCF) at the start of 2019.  

The Autumn Budget may have been deferred, but the tax year clock is still ticking. 

The deferral of the Autumn Budget, originally due on 6 November 2019, created several problems. It meant that the political parties went into the election with just a government sanctioned economic forecast produced back in March, alongside Mr Hammond’s Spring Statement. Plenty had changed in the intervening eight months.

Recently released economic data suggest a relatively large increase in the main state pensions for the next tax year, but it’s still inadequate for a happy retirement.

The new levels of state pension for the coming financial year (2020/21) are usually revealed in or alongside the Autumn Budget statement. But as 2019 has been a strange year – in particular with no Budget – there has been no official announcement yet on what state pensions will be from April 2020.

In early November, HMRC undertook a distinctly non-festive bulk mailing.

“We receive information about investment funds and this information shows that you may have invested in Offshore Investment Funds.”

Those slightly discomforting words are contained in a letter which HMRC sent out in early November. It was sent to a subset of taxpayers whose tax affairs are dealt with by HMRC’s Wealthy & Mid-Sized Business unit. What the letter shows is:

Inflation has fallen to its lowest level in almost three years, but you should still take it into account.

Source: ONS

The clock is ticking for the 11 million or so people who have to file a self-assessment tax return. Most now do so online. But last year around 700,000 people missed the deadline of 31 January and incurred a £100 penalty. Any tax due also has to be paid by this date.

To file online, you need to register with the gov.uk website. HMRC will then send you a secure PIN. This takes up to a week to arrive, so don’t leave it to the last minute.

To file the return, you need information on earnings for the year ending 5 April 2019.