It was not just the poor weather that made it a bad summer for investors. Index Third Quarter Change FTSE 100 – 7.04% FTSE All-Share – 6.57% Dow Jones Industrial – 7.58% Standard & Poor’s 500 – 6.94% Nikkei 225 – 14.07% Euro Stoxx 50 (€) – 9.45% Hang Seng – 20.59% MSCI Emerging Markets […]

A close reading of the summer Finance Bill has highlighted a further tax consequence of the government’s moves to limit tax relief for interest on buy-to-let mortgages. The July Budget included an attack on individual investors in buy-to-let residential property. As well as abolishing the 10% wear-and-tear relief for furnished lettings from next April, the […]

HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) accelerated payments programme has now collected £1bn from users of tax avoidance schemes. Last year HMRC gained the power to demand upfront tax payment from users of tax avoidance schemes subject to the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) rules or the General Anti-Abuse Rule, or where a similar scheme […]

A long-awaited meeting of the US Federal Reserve did not result in an interest rate rise. 2 p.m. New York time on Thursday 17 September had been much anticipated by investment professionals around the world. It was the hour when the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee would release its meeting statement, revealing its latest interest […]

The Chancellor has announced the date of the Autumn Statement. In late July, the Chancellor announced that the results of the Spending Review would be announced on 25 November. At the time, he made no reference to the Autumn Statement, probably because the focus was still on his July Budget. However, in the beginning of […]