Author: Neil Dando

Why your pension can no longer sit outside your estate plan. Inheritance Tax, or IHT, is charged on the value of your estate above certain thresholds when you die, normally at 40%. Until now, most private pensions have sat outside that calculation altogether: money left unused in a defined contribution pension could generally pass to…

A practical guide for sole traders and landlords approaching £30,000 in income. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a legal requirement to keep digital business records and send HMRC a short online update every three months, rather than relying on one Self Assessment return a year. It has applied since 6 April 2026 to…

Six in 10 UK millionaires have considered leaving Britain because of high taxes, according to research that comes amid reports hedge fund billionaire Chris Rokos is relocating his tax residency to Greece. A survey of more than 300 millionaire clients of investment platform Wealth Club, with average wealth of £4.5 million, found 61% had considered…

HMRC cancelled a record 48,189 tax penalties in 2025/26, the highest number in six years. The figures, according to recent analysis, show 65% of penalties challenged by taxpayers were cancelled, relating primarily to automatic fines for late filing and late payment, including the £100 charge for missing the self assessment deadline. This marks a 4%…

The UK economy grew faster than expected in July, with the expansion partly linked to businesses using artificial intelligence (AI). Gross domestic product rose by 0.4% in July, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), ahead of analysts’ forecasts of no growth. Growth was driven largely by the services sector, particularly computer programming, and…

UK inflation rose to 3.1% in the year to August, up from 2.9% in July, driven largely by rising petrol, diesel and airfare costs, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Petrol prices reached their highest level in almost four years, with the average cost per litre climbing 9.1p to 161.3p between July and…

What to check before selling, gifting or transferring assets. Capital Gains Tax can arise in more situations than simply selling an investment for a profit. Giving an asset to a family member, transferring ownership, exchanging one investment for another or selling something for less than its full value can all count as disposals for Capital…

Tips to help your business get paid on time. Late payment can turn a profitable sale into a cashflow problem. A business may have completed the work, paid its employees and suppliers, and accounted for tax before the customer settles the invoice. The scale of the problem remains significant. Research commissioned by the Department for…

Revised VAT capital goods scheme rules came into force on 29 July 2026, raising the expenditure threshold for property-related assets and removing computer equipment from the scheme. Under the changes, the threshold for land, buildings and civil engineering works has increased from £250,000 to £600,000, excluding VAT. The capital goods scheme will therefore apply only…

Chancellor John Healey will deliver his first Budget on Wednesday 28 October 2026, just over three months after taking charge of the Treasury. Healey confirmed the date in a video posted on Instagram, saying the Government was moving quickly to “restore hope and bring Britain’s communities back”. He succeeded Rachel Reeves as Chancellor on 20…

More than 500,000 self-employed people and landlords had signed up for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax ahead of the first quarterly reporting deadline, according to HMRC. However, that still left an estimated 364,000 taxpayers, more than 4 in 10 of those expected to be within scope, unregistered before the 7 August deadline. HMRC…

Student loan interest rates will rise across all repayment plans from September 2026, although the Government will retain a 6% cap for borrowers on Plan 2 and Plan 3. The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed the rates that will apply from 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027. The cap prevents the maximum rates…

How divorce can affect property, pensions, investments and future tax bills. Divorce or the end of a civil partnership often involves difficult personal and financial decisions. Tax may not be the first point on the list, but it can change the real value of a settlement. A proposed division of assets may look fair on…

Key planning points for businesses ahead of the 2029 mandate. E-invoicing is moving from a software choice to a compliance and finance planning issue. The government has confirmed that e-invoicing will become mandatory for all VAT invoices from April 2029. HMRC and the Department for Business and Trade are due to publish an implementation roadmap…

The UK crypto industry has reached a “significant milestone” after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed new rules for firms operating in the sector. From October 2027, crypto firms will need to meet tougher standards on financial resilience, market integrity and consumer protection. The regime will apply to trading platforms, intermediaries, custodians, stablecoin issuers and…

More than 5 million homeowners are expected to see their monthly mortgage repayments rise by the end of 2028, according to new Bank of England forecasts. That is 1m more than the Bank predicted in December, with the change linked to the economic impact of the Iran war and higher energy prices. The Bank’s latest…

According to the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) latest annual report and accounts, fraudulent benefit overpayments reached £9.9bn in 2025/26. The overall overpayment rate fell slightly from 3.3% to 3.2% of benefit spending measured for fraud and error. However, the total value increased from £9.4bn to £9.9bn because overall benefit expenditure rose during the…

HMRC collected £938.8 billion in tax and National Insurance receipts during 2025/26, an increase of 9.3% on the previous year. Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and National Insurance remained the largest sources of revenue, together accounting for 59% of total receipts. The figures underline the continued importance of employment and personal taxation to Government finances.…

The benefits worth knowing and the limits to plan for. Salary sacrifice can be a useful way to reduce tax and National Insurance, increase pension savings and access certain employee benefits at a lower net cost. Used well, it can reduce the tax and National Insurance paid on some benefits, preserve allowances that would otherwise…

Running more than one limited company is common for many owner-managers. You might have a trading company alongside a property company, a separate company for a different service line, a holding company above the group, or an old company kept for a brand name. Each company may have made sense when it was set up.…