With many businesses approaching the end of the accounting period’s final quarter (31st March), this is a perfect opportunity to review your employer pension contributions. For the contributions to be deductible against corporation tax, they must be paid on or before 31st March. From 1 April 2023, the headline (i.e. main) corporation tax rate...
The recent Post Office Horizon scandal, given further exposure by the related TV drama, provides a cautionary tale about the perils of overlooking the human impact of technology decisions. The Post Office’s Horizon accounting system erroneously implicated postmasters in financial irregularities and led to severe consequences, including loss of reputation and even imprisonment, for...
With the end of the tax year approaching, it is a good time to start planning your tax affairs before the 5th April arrives. An obvious tax planning point would be to maximise your ISA allowances for the 2023/24 tax year (currently £20,000 each). You might also want to consider increasing your pension savings...
On 22 November 2023, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt presented his Autumn Statement to Parliament and started making, in his words, the long-term decisions necessary to strengthen the economy and build a brighter future. Fuelled by falling inflation and stabilised public finances, focus is now being applied to reducing debt, cutting tax and rewarding hard work....
Welcome to the November edition of Tax news. We hope that you find this informative. Please contact us if you wish to discuss any matters in more detail. SALARY OR DIVIDEND BEST IN 2023/24? In recent years many accountants have advised their director/shareholder clients that the most tax efficient method of extracting profit from...
The Treasury has announced that the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) will produce a report on the state of the UK Economy in time for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to present his Autumn Statement on Wednesday 22 November. Last year the Chancellor announced a number of significant changes, reversing many of the proposals in the...
Anchoring is a cognitive bias that describes a reasoning flaw, of relying heavily on an initial piece of information (the anchor). Subsequent decision making and judgements are made with a bias towards interpreting other information around the anchor. Why does it matter? This bias can result in investors making poor investment decisions. A pessimistic...
Confirmation bias is when individuals have an unconscious tendency to look for information that supports their pre-existing beliefs. They then ignore or discount information that opposes those beliefs. Why does it matter? Confirmation bias can lead investors to deliberately search for information that validates their investment choices while neglecting information that contradicts their decisions....
Recency bias, (also known as availability bias), is when people give increased weight to more recent events, often ignoring information gathered over a longer time period. Why does it matter? Recency bias can affect investor decision making, and is often based on emotion rather than an informed decision. It can manifest in herd like...
In the first quarter of 2023, it was anticipated that planned interest rate rises in the US, UK & Europe would be sufficient to apply downward pressure on inflation. This scenario played out in the first few months of the year with headline US Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) falling from 6.4%pa in January to...