Welcome to the new tax year; never have I seen the world more chaotic than it appears at this moment, almost all of the developed world remains in a state of lock down and now our own Prime Minister has been placed in intensive care. Clearly this virus does not discriminate, it has no political affiliations and is no respecter of the…

We start our second week of lockdown in the UK much as we were 7 days ago, the news agenda is inevitably dominated by the global pandemic with regular updates in the numbers of new cases; most significantly our own Prime Minister, and of course the mounting death toll in the UK and across the world. There is clear divergence in…

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has revealed plans to pay self-employed people 80% of their monthly income up to £2,500 if their work has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The plans will bring support for self-employed people in line with what the government has promised for employed workers who are paid through PAYE, although the scheme will not be available until June….

PLEASE FIND BELOW THE LATEST INFORMATION THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED REGARDING THE CORONAVIRUS JOB RETENTION SCHEME: What is it? Under the coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, all UK employers with a PAYE scheme will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis.  This applies to…

“The latest government advice seems to be pushing us towards a compulsory lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus pushing the UK economy further into the deep freeze. Markets responded in kind with a 5% opening fall in the FTSE100 this morning effectively wiping out the tentative gains from last week. Despite all of the negative press…

As the coronavirus outbreak in Europe and the US deepens, economic activity in China is slowly returning. Head of Asian Fixed Income Bryan Collins assesses the current state of play on-the-ground and how long it could take for China to get back up to speed. PRO Bryan Collins 17/03/2020 Key points China today looks better positioned than many Western countries to…

Please find below a communique from Legal & General regarding their UK Property Fund, in which many of you have money invested as part of your portfolio. To put this in context, for an average risk investor this would represent 12% of your portfolio, which effectively means that at this stage you still have access to 88% of your portfolio, should…

As coronavirus continues to dominate the news, we are proactively exploring ways in which we can continue to work with our clients over the forthcoming weeks and months.  We are taking pre-emptive steps to minimise the risk of coronavirus in the workplace, in line with or beyond guidance from Public Health England. I wanted to reassure you that, in our firm,…

Stock market falls have continued this week with the FTSE100 having dropped 7% early doors. This follows what has been a tough month for investors with sharp falls being seen globally. COVID-19 has spooked investors as they worry about the impact of the illness on society and the economy. The extent of the impact this virus has on the economy is…

Simplifying and maximising retirement benefits The employment landscape has evolved significantly over the last few decades, and changing jobs multiple times before retirement is now very much the norm. As a result, many people have multiple pensions set up, as they have been automatically enrolled into a new pension scheme each time they have started a new job. When you have…