Annual inflation has been zero for two months. Both the February and March readings for annual Consumer Prices Index (CPI) were a big fat zero, the lowest level since the index formally started in 1997. Were it not for rounding, the March figure would have been negative – something we could see for April. The […]

A lesson in why it pays to take advice has ended with a creative decision from a tax tribunal. It is unfortunately all too common for the UK’s labyrinthine tax legislation to create some unwelcome tax traps for the unadvised. One of the best/worst examples is the tax treatment of single premium life assurance policies, […]

Not all the contents of the March Budget reached the statue book. Democratic scrutiny is not always what it seems. Consider this year’s (first?) Budget, presented by the Chancellor on 18 March. It was followed by the issue of a 300+ page Finance Bill on 24 March, which then went through three readings, a committee […]

At long last it has become possible to transfer Child Trust Funds to Junior ISAs. One of the first acts of the coalition in May 2010 was to announce an end to the Child Trust Fund (CTF), with no government payments to newborns after 2 January 2011. In November 2011, Junior ISAs (JISAs) were launched […]

ISAs can now be inherited in limited circumstances. In last December’s Autumn Statement, one of George Osborne’s surprise announcements was that ISAs would become inheritable by surviving spouses and civil partners. As pension funds can now pass down through generations, the ISA move was a logical step. It was also one of those measures which […]