News

Given how much of the Chancellor’s Budget had already been signposted, businesses shouldn’t really have been expecting anything other than financial pain – and that is indeed what Rachel Reeves delivered.

Rachel Reeves delivered her first Budget as Chancellor of the Exchequer on 30 October 2024. The Budget aims to deal with the £22 billion ‘black hole’ in public finances whilst restoring stability and rebuilding public services.

Although we don’t yet know the full details, it is clear that taxes on gains on savings and investments is one area that the Chancellor will be looking at to raise extra revenues.  This is having the effect of shining a spotlight on the benefits of wrapping investments in an ISA, where both capital growth and dividend/interest income are free of tax entirely – you don’t even have to declare any ISA on your tax return.

Charities need to diversify their fundraising streams to cope with a rapidly changing funding environment, with many traditional sources of income drying up – that was the advice given by one of the UK’s foremost charity fundraising specialists at a special webinar for the region’s charity trustees and managers.

Chris Egmore of Lovewell Blake Financial Planning says that onshore investment bonds can be a tax-efficient and simple way of investing for the medium- to long-term

Capital gains tax seems certain to be more onerous after the forthcoming Budget, says Mary Schofield.

The Labour Party's proposed Employment Rights Bill is set to considerably change the UK's employment landscape with ambitious aims to strengthen workers' rights, reshape employment status definitions and create a fairer working environment.

The Chancellor should use her Autumn Budget to make off-payroll working rules 'fairer and more effective', according to the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE).