CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 29, 2012 Assura The UK’s leading primary healthcare property company has announced the appointment of Graham Roberts as its new chief executive, with immediate effect. Roberts has worked in the property sector for the last sixteen years, most recently as finance director of British Land, one of the UK’s largest real estate investment trusts. Roberts replaces Nigel [...]
Accountants hit out at Clegg’s tycoon tax March 11, 2012 INDEPENDENT accountants have shot down deputy prime minister Nick Clegg’s call for a “tycoon tax”. Addressing his party faithful at their spring conference in Gateshead, Clegg attacked “multimillionaires avoiding tax by moving their money around” and claimed that many pay less than 30 per cent or even 20 per cent tax. Yet tax experts at [...]
George Osborne delivers a decent deal for aspirant and established businesses March 25, 2012 THE men and women busy building Britain’s future economic wealth broadly welcomed last week’s Budget. Although lacking a radical strategy for growth, the coalition has gone some way in oiling the wheels of entrepreneurship. Richard Marsh explains how reforms to the Enterprise Investment Scheme has allowed the creation of the first angel co-investment fund in [...]
Float to fuel new Energy Assets era March 19, 2012 GAS meter specialist Energy Assets has launched a £15m fundraising in a rare boost to the flagging IPO market. The company, which provides high-tech software to enable industrial and commercial companies to monitor their energy usage more accurately, is in line to be given a main listing on the FTSE on Thursday. Collins Stewart and [...]
Loopholes on home sale fee slammed shut March 21, 2012 AN AGGRESSIVE crackdown against stamp duty avoidance on high-end properties will begin today, as the government slaps a punitive tax on the sales of expensive homes that wealthy people put into companies’ names. Sales of properties worth £2m or more that are “enveloped” in a bid to avoid the tax, will now be hit with [...]
WHAT DOES THE CHANCELLOR’S BUDGET MEAN FOR YOU? March 21, 2012 CATHERINE GANNON, 50,MANAGING DIRECTOR OF LAW FIRM GANNON Catherine lives with her children, aged nine and 11, in a home she owns with a mortgage. She set up her firm nine years ago and worries about red tape and taxes. When travelling to meet clients, she uses the tube. She earns over £100,000, and has [...]
The MPC shouldn’t rely on the new GDP figures – and nor should you April 25, 2012 WHO should we believe on the economy: the CBI – which released a relatively positive survey of industrial trends yesterday; or the Office for National Statistics which told us that the economy was back in recession? It is not just the CBI which is showing a more positive picture of economic growth than the official [...]
We need peace and free trade – not crazed war-mongering April 2, 2012 PEACE and prosperity, fuelled by free trade and open markets: that is what the world needs. In the main, that is what it is getting, to a degree unprecedented in modern history and fuelled by modern communications. So it is terribly disappointing that the Argentine government seems so desperate to inflame tensions between itself and [...]
We need peace and free trade – not crazed war-mongering April 2, 2012 PEACE and prosperity, fuelled by free trade and open markets: that is what the world needs. In the main, that is what it is getting, to a degree unprecedented in modern history and fuelled by modern communications. So it is terribly disappointing that the Argentine government seems so desperate to inflame tensions between itself and [...]
London will be hit hardest by levy increase March 21, 2012 IN YESTERDAY’S budget, chancellor George Osborne increased the stamp duty land tax rate to 7 per cent for residential properties over £2m as well as introducing a stamp duty land tax of 15 per cent for residential properties worth more than £2m purchased by companies and other entities. As Paul Emery, PwC tax director, points [...]