Month: March 2020

Effective End of Year Tax Planning

The end of the 2019/20 tax year is fast approaching, and there are a number of valuable allowances and reliefs that will be lost if they are not used before the deadline. These opportunities include, but are not limited to, four important areas of tax planning. We’ve summarised these allowances below and suggest that if appropriate to your particular situation, these areas should be reviewed before 5 April 2020...

/ 31st March 2020

Markets Bounce Back Responding to US Stimulus Package

The FTSE 100 soared yesterday as it recorded its biggest one-day rise since 2008, and the second biggest one-day rise ever, climbing 9.1% as US lawmakers agreed a stimulus package worth $2 trn. It wasn’t just the UK market that responded positively as The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.4% - its biggest one-day gain since 1933, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index soared 7%, its largest daily rise in four years...

/ 27th March 2020

A Week of Rollercoasters and Government Intervention

Just over a week ago, Boris and Trump seemed to be taking a relaxed approach to tackling the threat of the coronavirus. Since then we have been told all pubs, restaurants, gyms and schools must close and up to 20,000 troops have been placed on standby as part of a ‘Covid support force’. The government has increased its fiscal support against the virus to over £350bn and has now said it will pay up to 80% of staff wages for 3 months for those employees unable to work due to the coronavirus pandemic...

/ 24th March 2020

Market Update: Markets Rise as Global Sell-Off Eases

Not to be out of the limelight for too long, Donald Trump rattled markets further as he delivered what may well be one of the most expensive speeches in history.  The US President announced he was ordering an immediate shut-down of all travel from Europe to the United States from midnight on Friday to try to stop the spread of coronavirus in the US in an extraordinary address to the nation on Wednesday night...

/ 13th March 2020

2020 Spring Budget

Newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, delivered his first Budget on 11 March, against a backdrop of uncertainty following the COVID–19 outbreak and subsequent financial losses. It was the first of two Budgets to be delivered in 2020, with the second to follow in the autumn...

/ 12th March 2020

Market Update: Oil Crash Fuels Sell Off

While many of us spent the weekend dealing with shortages in everyday essentials in our supermarkets in the wake of COVID-19 fears, the financial community woke up this morning to another, different – albeit slightly more familiar type of fear; an oil price war...

/ 9th March 2020

Life is Full of Uncertainties.

Everyone should consider protection, even those who don’t have a family or a mortgage! Unless they have substantial savings or inherited wealth, most people rely on their salary to pay for everything. Over the years, you may have taken out a number of different insurance policies to give you and your family financial security. Perhaps this may have been when you started a family, took out a mortgage or became self-employed...

/ 1st March 2020