The new top brass at HM’s Revenue has a taxing task August 15, 2012 THE top rank of HMRC is changing. Edward Troup has taken up his new post as tax assurance commissioner, responsible for advising Treasury ministers on shaping UK tax policy. He has considerable tax experience, both in the public and private sectors. But the job has never been more challenging. The UK faces pressure to improve [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS February 16, 2011 CREDIT CARD USERS NEED DIRECT DEBIT Research from Confused.com shows that Brits are wasting £150m a year on unnessary credit card charges. The majority of UK credit card users, 57.5 per cent, are missing minimum payments because they have not set up a direct debit, leaving them liable for a “late payment” charge from their [...]
Why free money has very real costs February 8, 2012 LOW interest rates are great, high interest rates are bad – that, at least, seems to be the general message from politicians and the media, who almost invariably welcome easy money and decry rate hikes. The problem is that the public doesn’t agree – not a bit, in fact. The latest YouGov research on the [...]
We need to teach financial literacy in all UK schools November 1, 2011 IT IS significant the e-petition calling for compulsory financial education in schools has this week become one of the first petitions to reach the threshold of 100,000 signatures and that the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Financial Education for Young People is the largest in parliament, with 224 cross-party MPs. We are a financially [...]
Private sector representative to step down June 6, 2012 CHARLES Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and a key negotiator in the restructuring of Greece’s debt this year, is to step down from the banking lobby group, a person familiar with the matter said. Dallara has told the IIF’s board and plans to announce his plans at an IIF conference [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS February 9, 2011 42 PER CENT PREFER DOG TO PARTNER It is a sad day for British romance when 42 per cent of British people prefer their dog or cat to their partner. A survey conducted by M&S Pet Insurance shows that when it comes down to the “me or the dog” question, 42 per cent would always [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS February 9, 2011 42 PER CENT PREFER DOG TO PARTNER It is a sad day for British romance when 42 per cent of British people prefer their dog or cat to their partner. A survey conducted by M&S Pet Insurance shows that when it comes down to the “me or the dog” question, 42 per cent would always [...]
Falling tax receipts show that we’ve forgotten Laffer’s lesson June 27, 2012 SOMETHING very worrying is happening to the UK’s public finances. Income tax and capital gains tax receipts fell by 7.3 per cent in May compared with a year ago, according to official figures. Over the first two months of the fiscal year, they are down by 0.5 per cent. This is merely the confirmation of [...]
Falling tax receipts show that we’ve forgotten Laffer’s lesson June 26, 2012 SOMETHING very worrying is happening to the UK’s public finances. Income tax and capital gains tax receipts fell by 7.3 per cent in May compared with a year ago, according to official figures. Over the first two months of the fiscal year, they are down by 0.5 per cent. This is merely the confirmation of [...]
Marubeni is set to buy US grain trader Gavilon May 28, 2012 MARUBENI, the Japanese trading house, is nearing a deal to buy US grain trader Gavilon for more than $5bn (£3.2bn) and could announce the transaction as early as today, according to people familiar with the deal. Japan’s fifth-largest trading company has been in advanced talks to buy Gavilon since early May. The company has confirmed [...]