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Lifetime ISAs aim to help people aged between 18 and 40 save for their first home or retirement. A Lifetime ISA (LISA) lets you save up to £4,000 per year. At the end of the tax year, the Government will top up your ISA with a 25% bonus. These bonuses are available on LISA contributions
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The Government introduced personal pensions in 1988. This allowed the self-employed or employees of companies not offering a pension scheme to have a pension. They are money purchase schemes where contributions receive tax relief. Pensions underwent a radical change from 6th April 2006 with the introduction of Pensions Simplification and the March 2014 Budget announced
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Everything that goes into growing the money in an investment plan or pension involves time and money. You should expect to pay a reasonable level of charges. These charges do reduce growth. Let us use an example where the underlying investments within a plan grew by 5% before charges. If charges were 1%, they would
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Anyone, who is a taxpayer and has money to save or invest, should look at Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs). These are “wrappers” in which someone can hold a range of savings and investment products. They are free of UK income and capital gains tax by anyone aged 18 or over (16 or over for cash
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Junior ISAs (JISAs) became available from November 2011. Both cash and stocks and shares JISAs are available. Children can hold one of each at a time (two accounts in total). Who is eligible? All UK resident children under the age of 18 who do not have a Child Trust Fund (CTF) are eligible for JISAs.
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On 25 March the Coronavirus Act 2020 received Royal Assent. It is a bumper piece of legislation, running to 348 pages and covering a wide range of areas (many excluding Scotland because of its devolved powers), including: Food supply; Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) modifications, such as the funding of the employer’s liabilities; Suspension of the rules that
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On Friday the Chancellor gave a graphic illustration of what ‘whatever it takes’ means. After waiting a year and a half for a Budget, within the space of nine days we have had three. The latest, presented in Downing Street was a real money-no-object blockbuster: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme This type of scheme echoes measures
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As the world grapples with a global pandemic, we face a tough time. There are lots of opinions on Covid-19, some more informed than others. Our role is not to add to these but to advise them on how they have impacted on their financial planning. Stock markets across the world have fallen, recovered briefly,
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Zoom is a video meeting app which is like skype but works on any device. All you need is a device with a camera, a screen, a microphone and speakers. This could be a laptop, tablet, or your phone. It is safe and secure. It works very well, and also allows us to share screens.
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Further to the recent government announcements and in the interest of staff, their families, and our clients, we will have a reduced team in the office. Also, all client face to face meetings are suspended over the short term. Any staff who are not in the office will be working remotely. If you have a
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