News

The Chinese stock market broke the $10 trillion barrier in October. Source: Investing.com The total value of China’s stock markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen surpassed $10 trillion in October. For comparison, the UK market was worth about $4 trillion at … Continue reading →

A recent report on UK dividend payments suggests the worst of the cuts may be over. Source: Link Asset Services First, the bad news: In the third quarter of 2020, total (regular and special) dividend payments from UK companies were … Continue reading →

With the second lockdown now in place, the Chancellor has been forced to return to Parliament and announce extended job support measures. Two further grants under the SEISS were announced in September and have now been updated. The government’s new … Continue reading →

The third quarter of 2020 saw share markets calmer than in the previous two. Index 2020 Q3 Change FTSE 100 -4.9% FTSE All-Share -3.8% Dow Jones Industrial +8.0% Standard & Poor’s 500 +8.5% Nikkei 225 +4.0% Euro Stoxx 50 (€) … Continue reading →

National Savings rate to drop sharply from 24 November. At times, National Savings & Investments (NS&I) looks like a relic. Its role in raising money for the government has seemed an increasing anachronism for three main reasons: The amount NS&I … Continue reading →

The government has acted to ensure state pension increases can happen next April. Source: House of Commons Briefing Paper CBP-08712. The Basic State Pension (BSP) and the New State Pension (NSP) – for anyone who reached State Pension Age after … Continue reading →

The latest pandemic support measures are much less generous than before. As the country braced for dealing with further localized outbreaks of Covid-19, the Chancellor made an early autumn appearance before the House of Commons to announce his ‘Winter Economy … Continue reading →

After heavy hinting from the Treasury for some weeks, the expected Autumn Budget has been pushed into spring 2021. Since the March Budget and through to August, the expectation was that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, would introduce his second Budget … Continue reading →

Dividends paid by overseas companies fell less sharply than their UK counterparts in the second quarter of the year. Source: Janus Henderson The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on corporate dividends has been dramatic in the UK. Total dividend payments … Continue reading →

The Supreme Court has handed down a long-awaited decision on a complex case. Mrs Staveley died in December 2006, but it was only in August 2020 that the Supreme Court settled the question of the extent of any inheritance tax … Continue reading →

HMRC has published some interesting research into capital gains tax (CGT). Here are three CGT questions for you to ponder: How many individuals made enough capital gains in 2018/19 to face a CGT bill? The answer is just 256,000, according … Continue reading →

As autumn arrives, the next Budget is not far away. 2020 will see something that normally only occurs when an election is imminent: two Budgets in one calendar year. The last Budget, on 11 March, now belongs to a different … Continue reading →

Dividends paid by UK companies dropped dramatically in the second quarter of the year. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on dividend payments has been highlighted by recent research from Link Asset Services, one of the leading UK company registrars. … Continue reading →